MeeK (musician)

MeeK
MeeK in concert, Paris 2009
Background information
Birth name	Stephane-Franck Pascal
Born	(1971-02-16)16 February 1971
Origin	Montmorency, France
Genres	Adult contemporary, rock, pop, French pop
Occupation(s)	Artist, singer, songwriter, artist, producer, arranger, musician
Instruments	Piano, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, percussions.
Years active	1996–present
Labels	BMG, Universal, Believe Digital, Bedroom, Raindrop, Rumble
Website	meekintheweb.net

MeeK (birth name Stephane-Franck Pascal; born 16 February 1971 in Montmorency, near Paris, France), is a Franco-English artist, singer, recording artist, musician, Alternative pop songwriter and producer. His stage name (always spelled with a capital "M" and a capital "K") is a homage to 1960s British pop producer Joe Meek. A multi-instrumentalist, MeeK plays all the instruments on his recordings through a multitracked/multi-layered method of recording and provides all vocals including multi-layered backing harmonies.

Since his first album in 2002 and an ever strong presence on the Internet right from its very early days as a mass media, MeeK is part of the European pop/rock Indie music scene. Over the years and through word-of-mouth some have come to consider him a "cult-artist" because of his ever dedicated worldwide fanbase, his rather non-typical and enigmatic persona and the fact that he is one of the very first few artists in Europe who have pioneered in utilizing the Internet as a marketing tool and a medium to publicize and/or expose their music to the general public in the late-1990s, long before the advent of social networks like MySpace, Facebook or YouTube.

After having briefly been a member of London-based Indie acoustic-pop bands Tin Can Heart and Elsewhere in the mid-1990s, MeeK was signed as a solo songwriter by Stephane Berlow of BMG Music Publishing France in 1996.

With the encouragement and support of French actors Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnès Jaoui and Jamel Debbouze, MeeK released his first album titled "Psychotique" (Psychotic) in 2002 on the record label Bedroom to a warm critical reception in France. The CD created what was not yet called an Internet buzz (the Web still being in its infancy as a mainstream media in the early-2000s), and was well noticed in the French Indie music scene of the time. French pop artist Calogero decided to sponsor MeeK after hearing him on the radio and mistaking him for a female performer because of his rather high-pitched vocal range.Calogero then invited MeeK to perform his single "Psychotique" on "The Live Café", one of the first music programs on the French Web, produced in partnership by Universal Music and NRJ radio station. MeeK's "Psychotique" album was also released in a deluxe digipack version in Japan by Tokyo Indie record label MINF Records with an introductory essay by leader of Japanese pop group Pizzicato Five Yasuharu Konishi, drawing a camparison between the Franco-English songwriter and Paul McCartney amongst others. Since then, all MeeK albums have been released in Japan by the same record label.