Michael Sempert

Michael Sempert (born 1981; also known as Mike Sempert) is an American songwriter and composer for film and television. His film credits include the Nickelodeon TV movie Bixler High Private Eye and indie films A Room Full of Nothing, Sex Weather, Jaywalking, Homestate and Roads to Olympia. His songs have been used in the television shows Bloodline, Grey's Anatomy, Quantico and Gossip Girl. Sempert is a graduate of Tufts University and New England Conservatory of Music where he majored in Peace & Justice Studies and Jazz Composition, respectively.
== Life and career ==
=== Early life ===
Sempert was born in Boston, MA and studied jazz and classical piano through childhood. His early influences include Talking Heads and Stevie Wonder as well as the music of Thomas Mapfumo, Tom Petty, Squeeze and Weather Report.
=== Birds & batteries ===
After graduating from the double-degree program at Tufts and New England Conservatory in 2004, Sempert formed the band Birds & Batteries as the sole member and recorded an album of demos called Nature vs. Nature, which was eventually re-released as the album Selections from Nature vs. Nature In 2005, Sempert moved to San Francisco and assembled a live band which included long-time members Brian Michelson (drums), Jill Heinke (bass) and Christopher Walsh (guitar). Birds & Batteries toured the United States extensively between 2007-2012 with festival performances at South By Southwest, Noise Pop, 35 Denton,, Mission Creek Festival, and Doe Bay Festival. As songwriter, lead-singer and multi-instrumentalist, Sempert wrote and produced four albums and two EPs under the Birds & Batteries moniker, which received critical praise from NPR, The Fader and Pitchfork who described their 2009 EP Up To No Good as "like a high-concept mashup... fusion of two of the slickest eras of pop production."
The band's sound was a blend of electronic and organic elements; Sempert's voice was described by Daytrotter as "Tom Petty meets Randy Newman" and "sweet, yet kind of bitter, and totally memorable." The music of Birds and Batteries has been described as "difficult to categorize" and the San Francisco Bay Guardian likened the band's sound to a "constantly evolving hybrid aesthetic... [that] contains robust, electronic toned folk-rock... experimenting with pastiche... that finds ways to craft strangely charming and captivating music."
=== Solo career ===
In 2013, Sempert moved to Los Angeles and began scoring films and commercials. He released his first solo album Mid Dream on the label Velvet Blue Music in 2014, which was described by the Bay Bridged music blog as "an absolute stunner" and included the single "Finest Line," a song that was featured in the television show Defiance. In 2015, Sempert released an album of instrumental electronic music under the moniker Volcanic Legacy titled Uncanny Valley. That same year he co-founded the commercial music house West Channel with fellow composer Peter Bayne. Sempert released his second solo album Tend the Flame in 2016 which included the single "Distance," a song that was used in television shows Grey's Anatomy, Quantico, Heartbeat and others. In the years following, Sempert scored the feature films Jaywalking, Sex Weather, Roads to Olympia, Bixler High Private Eye and the short films Stock, Dynamite, and A Seasonal Thing. In the summer of 2019, Sempert released his third solo album Reunion of Sparks. 
== Discography ==
==== Birds & Batteries Studio Albums====
* Selections from Nature vs. Nature (2005) - LP
* I'll Never Sleep Again (2007) - LP
* Up to No Good (2009) - EP
* Panorama (2010) - LP
* Unfold (2011) - EP
* Stray Light (20120) - LP
==== Solo studio albums ====
* Mid Dream (2014) - LP
* Mid Dream Complete Sessions (2014) - LP
* Tend the Flame (2016) - LP
* Reunion of Sparks (2019) - LP
==== Volcanic legacy studio albums ====
* Stray Light Remixes (2013) - EP
* Uncanny Valley (2015) - LP 
== Filmography ==
==== Composer ====
* A Seasonal Thing (2019) - Short
* Roads to Olympia (2019) 
* A Room Full of Nothing (2019)
* Bixler High Private Eye (2018) - TV Movie
*Dynamite (2018) - Short
*Stock (2018) - Short
* Sex Weather (2018) 
* Jaywalking (2018)
* Homestate (2016)
* Hey (2015) - Short
==== Songwriter ====
* Grey's Anatomy - S14 E12 (2018) "Distance"
* The Fosters - S05 E13 (2018) "What I Want"
* Kingdom - S03 E01 (2017) "The Weather"
* Bloodline - S03 E08 (2017) "For A Long Long Time"
* Quantico - S02 E15 (2017) "Distance" 
* Heartbeat - S01 E06 (2016) "Distance" 
* Stitchers - S02 E04 (2016) "Distance" 
* The Missing Girl - (2015) "Finest Line" 
* Revenge - S04 E18 (2018) "Mid Dream" 
* Defiance - S02 E07 (2014) "Finest Line" 
* Gossip Girl - S04 E09 (2010) "Lightning (UTNG Version)" 
== Commissioned Works ==
==== Chamber music ====
* (2016)The Villain for Clarinet Choir (for B♭clarinet and bass clarinets)
* (2013) Uncanny Valley (for three flutes and samples) 
* (2012) One Tree Catching Light (for three flutes and samples)
==In the media==
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== References ==
==External links==
* Michael Sempert on imdb
* Michael Sempert on linkedin
* Birds & Batteries twitter page
* Michael Sempert on facebook
* Michael Sempert on soundcloud
* Michael Sempert youtube channel
* Michael Sempert on spotify
* Michael Sempert on Moviebuff.com
* Hits and introductions of Michael Sempert - KKBOX
* Michael Sempert on Vimeo
* Michael Sempert | Discography | Discogs
* Michael Sempert Music - Gamasutra
* Mid Dream - Michael Sempert | Credits | AllMusic
Category:1981 births
Category:American songwriters
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:American composers
Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts
Category:New England Conservatory alumni
Category:Jazz
Category:Jazz musicians
Category:Classical pianists