After seeing Animal on The Muppet Show at the tender age of eight, a decision was made right there and then, music was to be Assaf Seewi's life and drums became his first passion. Thanks to his older brother (a professional juggling entertainer in his own right), a fascination for juggling was born early on and somehow kept creeping into his drumming. The unique blend of crazy showmanship and a repertoire of innovative grooves led to a fulfilling career as a sideman working for a variety of artists.
Assaf Seewi’s urge to be more creative was always there and eventually materialised in a switch from sideman to frontman, now playing guitar, singing and taking more ambitious drum and percussion solos. Songwriting became a more serious part in his life and after building his own studio he moved on to become a producer and composer in his own right.
Assaf Seewi's first recordings became the winner of “demo doctor, top tape” in Sound on Sound (UK’s biggest music recording magazine) in the October 2001 issue. His first band (“The Amazing Assaf”) was featured alongside RUN DMC at the 2001 Nokia Totally Board festival, Manchester. Assaf was honoured to provide songs and instrumentals for the British skateboard documentary: “Rollin’ Through The Decades” by Winstan Whitter. He became the winner in the category World Music at the “2003 Unisong songwriting competition” with the track “Hip Hop Hoo Rai”, runner up in the category R&B/Hip Hop at the “2002 UK songwriting contest” with the track “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t” and semi-finalist in the Mobo UnsunG competition 2003.
After releasing three successful cds under the name of “The Amazing Assaf”, Assaf Seewi is back in the studio now, producing a whole new CD featuring the new direction in his songwriting.
Assaf Seewi's composing/television credits include Minster FM Commercials, BBC2's “What The Ancients Did For Us” and “Timewatch: Missing In Action”, Channel 5's “Is She Really Going Out With Him”. “Body Mission” (piece for body percussion) was performed live at Royal Festival Hall, London. Other compostions, percussion pieces and grooves have been used in various TV and movie productions all around the globe from Hong Kong, Australia, USA, Far East, Germany, to Austria and Singapore.
After working on percussion with the likes of Sir Tom Jones and appearing live on some of Britain’s top shows including, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (BBC1), Top of the Pops (BBC1), and The Paul O’ Grady Show (ITV1), Assaf Seewi has got together with House of Tudor productions to bring you 'Gimme That Beat'.
About Gimme That Beat
Released January 22nd 2007 through House of Tudor 'Gimme That Beat' features Assaf Seewi at work bringing you all the trademark grooves and tricks that he is internationally known for and some of his exclusively produced tracks.
The 'Gimme That Beat' dvd is packed with more than an hour of spectacular performances and features a variety of innovative techniques. Every style covered is treated with Assaf’s very own approach. From classic Hip-hop grooves, Gogo, Funk, Jazz and World Music to contemporary grooves such as Jungle, Electronica, Breakbeat and House, all topped with his crazy showmanship.
The dvd contains perplexing coordination, complete 4 way independence, integration of various percussion instruments into his drum set up and plenty of fun interludes.
An advanced section which will go deep into the realm of polyrhythms and metric modulation. Live footage from his own band as well as some glow-in-the-dark percussion from various club gigs to round up the video. In addition to all of this you will also get to see him exclusively perform a song from his upcoming album Luckiest Man In The World due to be released in 2008. 'Gimme That Beat' is a visual feast for everyone, not just drummers!