Reagan Jones (vox, songwriting), Andrew Sega (keyboards, guitars, production), and a rotating cast of live help, including Ned Kirby (keys, bass), and Brian Pearson (guitars)
Influences
melancholy, belgian ale, ratty spring reverbed guitars, spring in the hill country, granular synthesis, that part in the movie where the girl walks out the door, a moscow street corner, serious 80's music, the endless traffic on state and ontario, cowboy hats, talking about honest things in roundabout ways
Sounds Like
Camouflage, Styrofoam, Junior Boys, Depeche Mode, The Killers, Mesh, Underworld, Backlash, Wolfsheim, Glen Phillips, New Order
Reagan Jones - Vocals, songwriting Andrew Sega - Programming, guitars, keyboards
Taking elements of rock, glitch, retro-flavored-synth music, and coloring it with a decidedly melodic worldview, Iris is a band that's hard to classify. And with their new remix release “Hydra”, they extend their musical boundaries even further.
Originally a bar band of sorts, singer Reagan Jones and original keyboardist Matt Morris banded together in the last 90’s to create uniquely melodic, synth-heavy pop tracks. Their first record, “Disconnect” spawned the worldwide club hit "Annie, Would I Lie To You?", and was one of the best-selling records in label A Different Drum’s history. Three more singles followed, but tensions between Reagan and Matt were coming to a head, and the band began to break apart.
Luckily, a few years later, Reagan hooked up with new member Andrew Sega, and started a whole new chapter in the band’s history. Adding some guitars to the mix, and taking the production in a more experimentally electronic direction, Iris released “Awakening” in 2003. It was memorably organic, powerful, and really showcased Reagan’s strong songwriting. This would also be the first Iris release on Andrew’s new label, Diffusion Records. The success of this record led to a European release deal, a full tour of Germany and Switzerland, and festival dates in Sweden and the UK.
During this time, the third record was taking shape. For this record, the band wanted to take a more aggressive approach, add a bit of darkness, and keep pushing the edges of their sound. The mixture of these elements culminated in 2005’s “Wrath”. Rock-oriented songs collided with electronic beats and evocative, atmospheric soundscapes. The first single, “Appetite” went to 1 on mainstream radio in Poland, and the band set off again for more European shows, festivals in Moscow and London, and toured with electro-pop luminaries such as De/Vision and Mesh.
Fast-forward to the present, and we see the band releasing their first CD/DVD combo release, “Hydra”. Featuring 3 brand new tracks, as well as remixes from bands like Mesh, Alpinestars, Datguy, Benz & MD, “Hydra” lets other talented producers take the Iris sound and add their own stamp on it. Bundled together with a 40 minute “behind the scenes” tour diary DVD, “Hydra” writes yet another chapter in the constantly evolving Iris story.
Good show at Blackfield! Very cool how you improvised when the technology didn´t work. Didn´t know you before, but I bought an album from you on merch stall the same day. ;-) Greetings from Germany
certainly you are still sleeping, so i´ll try to make it very short: ~~thaaanx for a special unforgetable show with you in r. ~~ ... and now i´ll go to sleep as well!;)
Heeey! I see you guys are comming to the netherlands again but im so disapointed I cant come, Nathalja and Tim cant come either, cant you give another performance in the netherlands? We all really want to see it but tim has to go to a wedding and nathalja gives a performance and I am on vacation 5 july :( xxxx
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