Maurice Jedibiah Roycroft, formerly known as “The Man Seezer” and who eventually acquired the stage name, Maurice Seezer, is a musician and composer, specialist in soundtracks, born in the Dublin suburb of Coolock on September 12, 1960 within a family of musicians.
He studied at the Royal Academy of Music at Trinity College Dublin, was a member of the University Singers between 1982 and 1984, becoming the director of the Arklow Choral Festival in 1985. He was keyboardist for the band Flex and The Fairweather.
His first contact with the world related to U2 was in 1987, when he began working with Gavin Friday, Bono’s childhood friend and current artistic director of the band, in “The Blue Jaysus” a cabaret club that tried to give a new vision to the Dublin night and that for a few months he succeeded. After this adventure they began to work together in the world of music after signing with the record label Island Records, Seezer collaborated on Friday’s first three solo albums, “Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves“, “Adam n Eve” Y “Shag Tobacco“.
During the years where he collaborated with a solo artist like Friday, he began his musical career within the cinema collaborating with directors such as Jim Sheridan, Baz Luhrmann and Michel Rymmer. In The Name of the Father, The Boxer, In America, Romeo + Juliet Y Moulin Rouge among other titles. He also made his first steps in front of the cameras in Breakfast on Plutodirected by Neil Jordan and where he was part of The Mohawks, the band that accompanied Gavin Friday who was part of the main cast of the film.
In 1993 and through the cinema is where the first direct collaboration with a member of U2 arrives, it was with Bono on the soundtrack of In the Name of the Father, co-writing the song “You Made Me The Thief Of Your Heart“which Sinéad O’Connor would eventually play. He also wrote with Bono and Gavin Friday, “In The Name Of The Father” Y “Billy Boola“played by themselves.
In 2001 the Dublin trio got together again, this time to record a version of “Children’s of the Revolution“, original song by T Rex and that was part of the soundtrack of the movie “Moulin Rouge”.
The Bono & “Friday-Seezer Ensemble” brand gets together again in 2002, repeating in the world of cinema and creating the song “Time Enough for Tears” interpreted by Andrea Corr and that was part of the soundtrack of the film “In America” directed by the Irish director Jim Sheridan.
A new collaboration arrives in 2003 when they reissue the work “Peter & The Wolf“, Bono supported by his daughters Jordan and Eve would be in charge of the illustrations of the book and Friday-Seezer of the music of the cd that accompanies the work. This work was a charitable collaboration since all the funds raised from the sale of the book and the illustrations sold at different auctions, went to the coffers of the Irish Hospice Foundation.
Until now all Seezer’s contact with U2 had been through Bono, something that changed on October 4, 2009, although it was in the form of a live performance, it happened at Carnegie Hall in NY during the show “An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends” which served to celebrate Friday’s 50th birthday as well as raise funds for (RED). A spectacular concert with an impressive lineup, all the members of the Virgin Prunes, U2, Shane MacGowan, Courtney Love, Lady Gaga, Maria McKee, Andrea Corr, Scarlett Johanson, Lou Reed and Maurice Seezer Years later, when Seezer was asked about that experience, he highlighted the moment when Reed began to interpret “sweet jane“, Seezer put himself at the piano, Reed realizing he approached him to continue playing, something that has stuck with him as his best moment on stage.
Maurice Seezer is currently the director of the Fastnet Short Film Festival.