MICHAEL May's debut with Boo Seeka was your classic sink or swim moment.
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The pressure valve was right up. The Melbourne venue was heaving last November. There were more fans than the Newcastle drummer had experienced before.
However May, not only stayed buoyant, he clicked instantly with frontman and fellow Novocastrian Ben Gumbleton, to make Boo Seeka version two so seamless that most people didn't notice the change.
"I can still remember before the show and it was a thousand people deep and it looked like he was going to have a nervous break down," Gumbleton laughed. "But he's grabbed it by the horns and just run with it.
"Honestly when you see him play live you'd think he was doing it for years."
May's arrival in Boo Seeka followed the departure of Sydney's Sam Croft, who launched the electro-soul duo in 2015 with Gumbleton when they dropped the track Kingdom Leader.
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On the same day Croft decided to join Gumbleton in Boo Seeka he knocked back a pilot cadetship, much to the chagrin of his parents. Fast forward three years, and after a raft of successful singles and an acclaimed debut album in Never Too Soon, the offer of a pilot cadetship was again made to Croft.
This time he accepted with the blessing of Gumbleton.
"Sam and I left on amazing terms," he said. "There was no bad vibes or bad things between us personally or the band."
Since the introduction of May, Boo Seeka have released two singles in Rush and Millennium Drive and work has commenced on album No.2, scheduled for release later this year.
While Rush continued Boo Seeka's trademark mix of indie-folk melodies and electro-pop instrumentation, Millennium Drive explored trance beats for the first time. The track was inspired by England's drum and bass scenes in Manchester and Liverpool.
To many people Boo Seeka are an overnight success story. However, Gumbleton slogged away from nine years with Newcastle indie-roots band Benjalu with modest success before striking gold with Boo Seeka's Kingdom Leader.
That experience of finally achieving his musical dreams has also influenced Gumbleton's songs on his forthcoming album.
"At the moment the whole reflection of this new album is just being high on life," he said. "Being how thankful I am and how great life can be when you look at it in a positive way.
"I don't have any reason to not look at my life in a positive way when I get to wake up and do this all the time. Life's pretty good for me and hopefully this album will be a reflection and written in a way people can relate to it in the same way."
Boo Seeka end the Millennium Drive tour at the Cambridge Hotel on July 12.
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