Ex Reyes is the psych-soul sound of in demand session musician, songwriter, & producer Mikey Freedom Hart.
It is a project based around musical community and the spark of collaboration–the inevitable result of many hours spent with talented friends in unlikely places.
Ex Reyes’ smooth falsetto and stacks of harmony float over tracks that evoke the subtle sophistication of the Beach Boys, the weirdness of psychedelic-era Temptations or Delia Derbyshire, the free freneticism of dancehall, and the superb oddity of synth-soaked dollar records, distilling all of that into songs about real shit–sometimes bittersweet, some good news, some bad news.
DO SOMETHING EP, Ex Reyes self-released his debut EP online in Fall 2016 to a warm reception from friends and even some people Mikey didn’t already know. It is songs from Hart’s stockpile of music he makes in hotel rooms, sheds, and proper studios all over the world–from Africa to New Orleans, Japan to Scandinavia–while touring the world as a top-tier session musician, sideman, and collaborator to a wide variety of artists such as Bleachers / Jack Antonoff, Santigold, The Cranberries, A$AP Rocky, Mike D, Albert Hammond Jr., Adam Green, Portugal. The Man, Sinkane, Dam Funk, and more.
The EP spent a month or so in the top 30 of college radio, garnering rotation on KCRW, BBC 6 and BBC 1, among others. The song Keeping U in Line has been played over a million times on Spotify and it along with a number of other songs from the EP made the Billboard viral charts. He went on a full U.S. tour opening for How to Dress Well and also music-directing and playing in the How to Dress Well band. This made him a bit tired.
He’s been voted as the Deli Magazine’s Best Of in some category but he doesn’t know who is doing the voting, or what it means. He suspects his brother, David.
Ex Reyes released 3 self-made, self-produced videos that play with the ideas of inner and urban space. These videos are real good. He’s proud of them, he told me so.
In January 2017, he released an original song + video called Blame Me with Amazon.
Ex Reyes is the place where Hart can put together a world of sound the way it appears to him, building from the classic Wrecking Crew style of 60s records, applying an entirely modern production style, and talk about the world as it washes up on his shores.
His lyrics seek to find the one small point on the map that can open up an entire world; it’s crying while you’re laughing, being on an overnight flight and forgetting the name of the destination, the bittersweet numbness of watching the sun come up after a night out and still resisting sleep.
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