Sean Burke has been played on NTS in shows including Post Punk Britain, featured first on 11 May 2023. Songs played include Dance With Danger.

There are, at least, two artists known as Sean Burke.

1) A London, UK guitarist, formally a member of Tubeway Army, now with Open Sore.

2) A hip-hop/R&B artist from Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the son of the late John Burke, South African musical giant, promoter and leader of The Invaders, a well-known band that was popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Their mother Cathleen raised Sean and his siblings, but he always felt his father’s influence in his life.

Sean discovered his musical vocation in his teens when he played the local DJ circuit. He soon found the need to explore his own musical ability and started composing his own songs and later performed cover versions in clubs to gain exposure and experience.

In 1994 this self-taught musician formed his own band Afro-d-Ziac, which grew into a 7-piece cover band that toured South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The band enjoyed a huge fan base, especially in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Sean and Afro-d-Ziac performed the latest hits and this helped him hone his vocal techniques, singing raggae, raga, dance, r&b, techno, jazz and even female vocal hits.

After 2 years on the road he started to pursue his own ambition to get his original compositions recorded. His experience with A&R executives spurred him on to seek independent means to achieve his aims. In the meantime, he learnt all he could about the music industry and earned a living through commissions for jingles for South African television programmes including YOTV, Woza Weekend, Win ‘n Spin, Bzzz and Disney’s Roadhog.

Sean subsequently started a recording and publishing company, Amorfous Music and continued to create and record jingles for South African radio DJs like Sammy T, Bad Boy T, Pindi G and DJ Fresh. He also acquired his qualification as a sound engineer and became skilled at mixing (audio designing) television programmes on a full-time basis, learning all the technical aspects of television. This has been of great advantage when he started shooting and editing his own music videos.

Sean’s style is unique and non-conformist; his songs deal with relevant, contemporary issues. He has an ingenious way with words and this is reflected in all his lyrics. He works hard and lives for his music. He has followed his passion and talent in an unrelenting manner and can be proud of his skill as businessman, music composer, artist, producer, sound engineer, graphic designer, video director and editor.