We Are Tokyo

    Inspired by the imagery of the late night cityscapes of Tokyo and the way the city just seems to be pushing it's boundaries, electro-pop duo We Are Tokyo incorporated the city into their name. "(The name) was memorable, flowed well when spoken and looked good written so it was a keeper." Says the Alex Fox, band vocalist, who also plays numerous instruments for the band, including synthesizer, bass, and guitar.
    Tom Wheeler, who plays drums and sings back-up vocals, praises the duo's local music scene in Bristol. "Bristol has always had a great music scene and we are glad to be associate with the city as it is the home of many big name artists. We always love playing in Bristol and get a good vibe every time! So we like to keep involved in the Bristol scene and culture."

(Photo: Simon P Cross)

    In the beginning, We Are Tokyo was just Alex in his bedroom creating music. He was able to get one of his songs played on BBC Radio Bristol Introducing where Tom heard the song. "I instantly felt a connection to the sound and what Alex was trying to achieve, so i got in touch with him via Myspace and went for an audition which was very successful and a few weeks later was in the studio being part of the making of our first EP 'Bright Lights'." Recalls  Tom.
    Since the band's 2009 EP, Bright Lights, the band has released several singles. The band's brand of electronicore fuses organic elements such as guitar and live drums with synths and samples to create their synth-focused electro-pop sound. The band takes influence from many electronic artists as well as artists like The Killers, Bloc Party, Depeche Mode, and David Bowie.

(Photo: Simon P Cross)

    It's easy to see that the band has garnered attention with their unique electronic rock fusion, as the band has been feature on several different media outlets. They have been featured as one of Radio 1's Best bands in Bristol, music blog site It's All Indie's Best New Act of 2010, and were semi-finalists in a contest held by Two Jacks In A Hole, an American poker podcast which got the band some exposure overseas.
    The band's latest single 'Magnetic', a synth and vocal driven song about the struggle of long distance relationships, was released along with a music video (here). So what's next for the band? "We plan to release more singles onto some independent labels and work our way to making a signed album, we have a lot of material in the pipeline which we are excited to get out to the public!" Says the band. Be sure to follow the band's updates on Twitter and Facebook!

The Dirty Hearts Club

    In January 2011, The Dirty Hearts Club, an indie rock band from Manchester, UK formed from the remains of their previous project, The Dirty Hands. 3 of the remaining members joined up and initially planned to keep the name before they found out it was taken by an already signed band in London. "we stumbled across the idea to call ourselves 'The Dirty Hearts' and the 'Club' part felt as though it gave us our own individual identity, like we were beginning an exclusive club that people could be part of." Says the band.
    "Manchester has been an important city in England’s musical heritage spawning internationally recognized and respected bands and musical figures that has defined musical culture and genre, such as bands like Joy Division, The Fall, The Buzzcocks, The Stone Roses, Happy Monday’s, Oasis, and Elbow. The city’s musical heritage has spawned a vibrant and eclectic ongoing scene. We (the band) all live just outside of the city so as well as getting involved in the music scene there we also play and have put on gigs in smaller suburban towns."

    The Dirty Hands split in November 2010 and in December, Danny Solazzo (vocals) met with Chas Dewhurst (lead guitar/vocals) whom he met behind the bar in a local pub. Chas and Danny decided to collaborate on some music and from there, they contacted Patt Jenkinson (bass/vocals) and Ste Mills (drums), both formally from The Dirty Hands along with Danny, about forming a band. Danny turned to his old childhood friend, Matt White to play rhythym guitar for the band.
    "What brings us together is that we are all passionate about music and the world around us, our influences vary but the bottom line is that we all have a need to play music and be creative and a need to say how we feel about what we see going on around us. We live in times of unrest whether its political/financial and we feel like we must speak out about the injustices we see day to day, although some of our songs are just about being young, having a good time and enjoying the positives in life."

    The band is influenced by all sorts of things, from politics to art, and the band's musical influences range from Metallica to The Manic Street Preachers. Using these many influences, the band has shaped their sound into a "fusion of melodic indie rock" and "raw energy of punk and 60’s garage" with "dark undertones of post-punk and a huge serving of balls out rock and roll."
    "Our live performances have been described as frantic, energetic and sometimes angry or confrontational. We play with our hearts on our sleeves and lose ourselves in the live show and music. We are passionate musicians and this comes through on stage, we try to play mindful of the past DIY punk scenes were young people frustrated with their lives or what they saw going on around them got up on stage and expressed that pent up frustration through their music. Our shows are often loud, beer gets spilled and things get broken but we love what we do and we love doing it which does come across to the audience."

    So what's next for this fresh new band? "We have various up coming gigs across the North West UK, Hitting some great venues with a bunch of new songs we’ve worked on over the summer, were currently trying to play as much as we can across the uk in order to spread the word and and build our fan base and gain some management to take us to the next level. We’ll be hoping to get back in the studio in the New Year and get some new tracks worked on and perhaps go for a single release towards next summer. 2012 will be a big year for us."

Undercurrent

    Although the band came together in November of 2009, it wasn't until early 2010 when the band started recording their songs that they finally decided on a band name. The band jotted down a few name ideas, but after the process of elimination, they were left with the name, Undercurrent. "We stuck with this name based on two of its meanings being 'an underlying feeling' and that of a 'under water current' i.e. In the sense of being dragged through life." Says the band.
    Undercurrent hails from Sheffeild, UK, home of producing artists such as Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Def Leppard, Arctic Monkey's, Bring Me The Horizon and more recently, While She Sleeps. "The current scene tends to mainly contain 2 types of styles at the moment being 'Indie' and 'Metal' - We think we have the potential to fall into the latter of the two as although we are not metal in terms of the hardcore/ screamo bands such as Bring Me the Horizon we can be slightly heavier/ louder than your typical standard 'Rock' band."

    Over the last couple of years Sheffield has hosted the 'Tramlines' free music festival.  "This festival takes over the city centre for a whole weekend with just about every pub/bar/club hosting free live music events for the entire weekend and in the case of some venues the week prior the festival is also quite busy.  This Festival hosts many signed/internationally recognised artists as well as local unsigned artists such as ourselves and we were happy to take part in playing the festival in 2010."
    After playing the festival, the band played several local spots and was lucky enough to be chosen to support international metal/punk-rock band, Soul Warrior. They were also asked to support American band, Vega, before one of the members of Vega was injured and the band had to cancel. The band recently decided to take a short break from performing while they "reshuffle" the band, but hope to return to the stage before too long.

    The band comes from a variety of musical backgrounds and are influenced by a wide assortment of bands, incuding Audioslave, Deftones, Incubus, Brand New, Bring Me The Horizon, Gallows, Architects, and While She Sleeps. The songwriting is typically done by the band bassist, Lee Carnall, but the rest of the band sometimes tries their hands at writing. "Lee addresses general themes of life, but also writes from fiction.  A lot of the songs have a double meaning with a song like Rehab appearing to be about addiction to drugs on a first listen but in reality is about a breakup/having feeling so strong that it feels like a drug/addiction." Says the band.
    In April 2011, The band made it to the regional finals of the National Live and Unsigned competition. "We were thrilled when we made it through to the Regional finals of the competition as it gave us recognition that others with knowledge of the music industry liked what we were doing.  This also assisted in getting our name mentioned in a few local newspapers as well as a clip of our initial audition being placed on the competitions Youtube page. However, this also took a lot of time out of our schedule due to the competition having set tasks which meant you either had to write new material for each stage or amend existing material to fit the criteria of the tasks set for that stage."

    The band is looking into getting their music up on iTunes. Once the band gets it all sorted out, they will be releasing a new single titled,"The Count" which will be tied in with the release of the music video set to be filmed in the last weekend of October.
    With the recent addition of a new member, the band is working on new material as well as reworking their older material to work as a 6-piece. "We have started promoting our new sound to the local venues with hopes of getting back into the gigging scene and showing off our new sound. We already have received great feedback from Katie Parsons, Editor of New Music at Kerrang via twitter. Our next major step, following the completion of the music video for The Count, is to lay down an EP which we can get up for release as well as use to promote ourselves to a wider audience. We also have several gigs booked for early next year outside of Sheffield and we're looking to take our music to a lot of new people!"
    Be sure to check out this UK rock band on Facebook!

The Vanity Project

    In the great underground music scene of Rossendale Valley, you'll find folk-pop band, The Vanity Project playing shows dressed in dresses and cravats. "The Vanity Project is a bit tongue in cheek really, but it was decided from the start that we wouldn’t hold back with any of our music." Says the band. Apart from dressing up, the band also makes sure that the drummer, Ste, is visible, unlike the usual 'drummer in the back' set-up.
    According to the band, this British 3-piece came together after a late night jamming session in a kitchen. The members have been involved in other works in different genres including drum & bass, hip-hop, soul, rock, and indie before forming the band.

    One of the band's biggest influences is the world around them. "A huge influence is the current times we are living in. Although born out of dark times and unashamedly writing many songs that reflect this The Vanity Project are hopeful of change which can be heard in many tracks such as 'I Fear Nothing' and 'What Really Matters'"
    The band's grab bag of sound ranges from powerful to haunting and then to good hearted pop. The band's success on Soundcloud is definitely motivating the band to do better and to keep on trucking. The band hands out free cd's at their shows as their way of saying thank you to the people who came out and gave them a listen.

    Over the summer, the band played at The Night & Day Café in Manchester to a fairly healthy crowd and even played a few music festivals. "Each show got us a repeat booking so hopefully we are doing something right." Says the band.    
    The band also hopes to start playing the local scene night run by local musicians Tim Page & Maria Ward. "Their aim is to promote the vast amount of talent in the Rossendale Valley and surrounding areas.  With the First ‘Scene’ night held recently with a great turn out and some amazing music.  The Vanity Project will be getting involved with a Scene night in the near future." The band hopes to continue recording, performing and having a good time.
    Be sure to check out The Vanity Project on their Facebook for band updates!