Therese Keeley (Vocals)
Chris Gardner (Guitar + Backup Vocals)
Jordan Mortimer (Guitar + Keyboard)
Alex Kenny (Bass)
Greta Purich (Drums)
Influences
A Perfect Circle, Alice in Chains, Amy Winehouse, At The Drive In, Audioslave, Birds of Tokyo, Black Sabbath, Bloc Party, Cog, Cream, The Cure, Dream Theatre, Dredg, Guns 'N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Janes Addiction, Jeff Buckley, Karnivool, Led Zeppelin, Live, Mars Volta, Mastedon, Metallica, Muse, Nirvana, Oasis, Oceansize, Pearl Jam, Pink Floyd, Placebo, Porcupine Tree, Powderfinger, Protest the Hero, Radiohead, Rush, Sarah Blasko, Sarah Vaughn, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Tool, The Who, U2
Universal Bean formed officially in Perth, Australia in 2009. The idea of forming a band had long been discussed by Chris Gardner and Jordan Mortimer. The two guitarists eventually started practicing together with a fellow uni student on bass guitar. However, there were other big plans for the boys, and the unnamed bassist soon bowed out from the group.
After a discussion over a jug at the humble UWA tavern, Therese Keeley and Greta Purich joined the band, loosely known as Ring of Sky at the time. Greta Purich volunteered her services as a drummer, only to admit that she did not own a proper kit, just bongos and a cow bell.
Greta promptly brought a kit and the four musicians spent many months together perfecting a large repertoire of cover songs. It was only when they began to write their own original material that things began to take off. Alex Kenny joined the band as the bass guitarist, and (after much arguing over naming rights) the entity known as Universal Bean was finally formed.
Since the Beans do not have one sole composer, each song sounds unique. One minute, you are listening to a catchy head-bopping rock song, with pauses, drum fills and harmonics. The next minute, you could be listening to a Tool-inspired song, with grungy, gritty tone.
Universal Bean wishes to create music that allows their listeners to explore bridges into other genres and different types of music. The band itself features five band members of very different backgrounds, and all of them have different tastes in music. This is clearly reflected in the songs that they produce.
on another note, I just read my last comment and I must have been having a really dyslexic day! not many of those sentences make sense. But yes very excited about swan basement. music is sounding good!
I know I super excited! I just hope we have a bass player for the occasion! If no of any keen rhythm bass players looking for a band to join let me know, coz we must smell or something coz no one seems interested.
Thats too bad about next week, probably a bit of a good thing though coz we're writing new songs so we can actually play more 40min + sets, and some aren't quite ready. We are definately still keen to play with you guys on Sept 11, should be good seeing as its on a friday night. Let us know about set times/line-up/playing times/entry fee ect as soon as you know. We'll return the favour as soon as we get some gigs (which will be soon hopefully)! Oh and goodluck with NCBC!
G'day Therese! Thanks heaps for checking out my photo's... I've had a bit of a listen to your stuff and it sounds cool! I like that it's totally different to anythign else I've heard you do, bring it on! Good luck with the gigs you've got coming up also! Hugs Minks
Hi guys, Nice stuff in the heat. Good to hear you finally, bec and I missed your first Mojo's gig, ilness and whatnot. Looking forward to the 24th, should be a ripper.
not this band, but a new project i (shard - keyboard) just started. its a four-piece more electro sounding rock with a girl in lead singer. we're called sunfeet on the uwa page but we just changed the name to "the printer party"
totally different sound, but we've had a lot of fun jamming this past week.... hopefully we'll be ready! it'll be borderline
