Eureka Waters

Eureka Waters is the artist name of Michael Wouters, who crawled behind the electronic organ at the age of 5 and did not stop playing that giant piece of furniture until the age of 14 when he auditioned for his first rock band on a Fender Rhodes, instantly recording a single in a professional studio. He lost his heart to this ‘new’ instrument and every analogue and digital synthesizer he could get his hands on ever since. He soon started recording with the classic Atari music computer, thus making his first baby steps as a producer.
His music examples range from Jean-Michel Jarre to George Duke, from Joe Sample to Bill Evans. While his high school classmates chose a career in Economics, Michael chose to study music at the Conservatory of Utrecht. Since there was no main course in synthesizer, he went to study acoustic piano with Bert van den Brink (Deedee Bridgewater), Jasper van het Hof (Pili Pili) and Michiel Borstlap (Thelonius Monk Award winner). He graduated as a jazz pianist with minors in composition, arranging, synth programming and studio engineering.
From there on Michael played keys in various local jazz and pop bands, meanwhile composing, writing lyrics and producing his first vinyl releases for Club 802 Records, the acid-jazz label of DJ Graham B (UK), followed by various R&B productions for renowned Amsterdam based R&B studio ‘Cruise Control’.
A few years later he built his own studio in the heart of Amsterdam named ‘Soul Planet’ where he worked for the next 15 years with a variety of international artists such as Billy Preston, Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Jennifer Holiday, Lisa (Nina Simone’s daughter) Simone, Bruce Allen, Leah (daughter of George ‘Rock Your Baby’ and Gwen ‘Funky Sensation’) McCrae, Baby Kain (Last Poets), Mo Pleasure (EW&F, Michael Jackson), DJ Premier, Vic Black, Honey Larochelle & Dutch soul artist Brown Hill. As such Michael worked on a regular basis in studios in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. He moved to Los Angeles for several years where he worked in the music- as well as in the film industry as music producer, musician, writer and even as an actor.
He recorded his first singer-songwriter EP in the legendary Abbey Road studios in London and recorded a second jazz EP with legendary double bass players Miles Mosley and Jasper Somsen (Challenge Records). He released his third EP with his trio EUREKA WATERS with Tim Pope on drums (Ray Charles) and Aaron Mashburn (Funk Factory) on bass ‘StoneRidge Live Session. Furthermore, you can find his single releases ‘Lighthouse’ and ‘The Princess Of Eureka Springs’ on Spotify as well as his instrumental Sunday Morning Piano jams.
His most recent Spotify release is the Eureka Waters studio-album ‘Wondering’. The album contains a duet with Honey Larochelle and various guest musicians, from Mo Pleasure on bass to Glenn Black on guitar. His music is very personal and close to the heart: songs of ‘lost and found love’ as well as every-day and political matters. His piano based style ranges from intimate jazz ballads, to folk, to pop, to funk.
Some of his proudest moments in his career are: receiving a letter from Rosa Parks to thank him for the song ‘Dear Rosa’ that has been recorded by the group Labelle for their reunion album ‘Back to Now’. Another proud accomplishment is a review in Oprah Winfrey’s O-Magazine for the production of Lisa Simone’s ‘Black Is The Color’ (co-produced with legendary jazz producer Bob Belden) and recording the song ‘Child Of The Moon’ for her first solo album. He composed and wrote a song for Gospel star Jennifer Holiday (produced by Eve Nelson) and last but not least: Michael has very fond memories of co-writing the song ‘Daddy’s Caddy’ with ‘fifth Beatle’ Billy Preston for Brown Hill’s debut album.
Michael is also extremely proud to be the English to Dutch translator of world renowned hypnotherapist and author Dolores Canon’s books ‘Five Lives Remembered’, ‘Horns Of The Goddess’ and ‘Custodians’ for Ozark Mountain Publishing. He currently lives in Eureka Springs, Arkansas in the United States.