Sean Rowe with Niina Soliel

At a young age, Sean Rowe found his roots  — in both nature and in the music he plays.

Rowe was born in Troy, New York, but taught himself to play drums and bass during summers in Florida visiting his father. This time would become the first of many self-taught experiences in Rowe’s formative years, including songwriting, singing, and wild food foraging.

After a long fascination with nature as a kid and finding inspiration from naturalist Tom Brown Jr., Rowe fueled his passion first through several week-long courses at Tom Brown’s Tracker school. He later went on to spend a year as an immersive student at Hawk Circle before his 24-day survival solo trek through the Catskills in 2007, where he lived in a primitive shelter and harvested wild plants and small game.

After a brief stint in college pursuing a career as a forest ranger, Rowe knew without a doubt that he wanted to make music his full-time career and wild food foraging his full-time obsession. He’d written his first “real” song at just age 18, already inspired by music legends like Bob Dylan.

After spending five years cutting his teeth in upstate New York bars, Rowe released his first record, Magic. The album’s ten tracks were written during his time in survival school and recorded in his hometown of Troy. Without a label or manager, Rowe and his good friend Troy released the record themselves. Soon after, Rowe got his first taste of touring in Europe and  booking agent soon followed along with the independent label of his dreams: ANTI- Records, an American label behind many of music’s greats, including Tom Waits, Neko Case, and Merle Haggard. 

His music has appeared in several hit television shows including Parenthood, Queen Sugar, and The Blacklist. He reached critical acclaim when his song “To Leave Something Behind” was prominently featured in the Ben Affleck-starring film, The Accountant. The popularity of the track — which has amassed more than 6 million streams on Spotify alone — has opened several doors for Rowe and helped to grow an enthusiastic and constantly expanding fanbase. 

Rowe has released four full-length albums and EP with ANTI- records, the most recent of which was New Lore (2016). Two years later, generous Kickstarter backers contributed enough for Rowe to head to Eau Claire, Wisconsin to record the follow-up, The Darkness Dressed in Colored Lights, which was released in 2021 on the Portland label Fluff & Gravy Records.

For more information and access to exclusive content, visit www.seanrowe.net and www.patreon.com/seanrowe.