Matt - Lead Vocals & Guitar
Thom - Bass and Backing Vocals
Ollie - Guitar & Backing Vocals
Steve - Drums
Influences
Bowie and his album covers, The Music of Brian Wilson, Of Montreal, Big fat power pop, Heartbreak Soup, fear + alcohol, Blue, Pinkerton and Green, Marc's 'Electric Warrior', Jon's 'Now I Got Worry', Beck's 'Mixed Bizness', 'Starshaped', Zuper Fuzzy Wanimals, TORONTO, The Dandys' 'Come Down', a 1982 mk1 golf gti. The Cars, A Dolorean at 88mph. The (Guildford) Stranglers (thankyou Ben's records), 10cc melted under Godley's Creme, the highly evolved Vines, Queen 74-78, The Kinks' 'Top Of The Pops', Frank Gallagher of Shameless, Rik + Ade, Peep show series 1. Coxon+Albarn, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci+Euros Childs, Michael J Fox, Chris Morris' Jam, Southend Seafront by way of Santa Monica.
Click below to check out Switches new video Drama Queen!
(Side note- you may have to pop into Imeem to view full version... www.switches.imeem.com or www.interscope.com/switches)
Click below to check out the EPK for We Are Switches!
Check out Switches performing Drama Queen on Jimmy Kimmel Live
US bio : Blimey! the Brits do it again!
It's the third British invasion, and we're third time lucky, as Switches sound more Beach Boys than Beatles or Blur. They may come from across the water, but the band's self confessed spiritual home is our own west coast so theres sunny harmonies amongst that London grime!
America Turns on to Switches
“Combining foot-stomping drums and bass with tight vocals and sharp guitar riffs, Switches are as cocksure as their pop piers” - Spin.
“The British indie rising stars have created another Brit Pop hit and are making confident future strides with their Switches Swagger.” - Filter
Switches are a British band with as much swagger as they have top notch pop tunes to offer. With the forthcoming release of their debut album Lay Down The Law (Interscope), out on March 18th 2008 and a US national tour, kicking off in January with The Bravery then making their way to sunny Texas for SXSW, Switches are sure to inject new life into the indie-pop scene for 2008.
Every once in a while, a great British pop band emerges from the gray and gloom that is the United Kingdom. Indeed, Brits may complain about the weather quite a lot but it's the likely culprit responsible for the creation of an array of iconic artists, bands and songs since the birth of pop.
Southenders, Switches are no exeption to the rule and are sure to have the same effect as their heroes and rock-forefathers Bowie, ELO and 10cc had before them in the USA.
From Rags to Switches...
Matt
Front man, Matt grew up in Southend (a low-rent seaside town, something like
the old Asbury Park neighborhood) and formed the band while at college,
needing musical allies to take the songs public: seventies-leaning songwriter with a love for T.Rex and 10cc even though he wasn't born while they reigned, obsessive to the point of chaos, finds his harmony in a harmony, and his voice when it's in tune. He's a fully-fledged Child Of Britpop.
Ollie
Ollie Thomas, guitar: musical wunderkind aspiring to psychedelic-tinged
virtuosity ala Hendrix, but also partial to some tough new wave in the
Stranglers and Television. Affable and eloquent, he's the calm to Matt's
storm.
Thom
Thom Kirkpatrick, bass: belt and braces, biscuits and tea, Beatles and Ben
Folds, particularly English, even for someone from Britain, unsurprising for
a man whose great-great-great-great-great grandfather invented the bicycle
(true!).
Steve
Steve Godfrey, drums: drums and more drums: personifies his instrument. He lives to drum, drums to live, learned Appetite For Destruction on pencils
and saucepans so by the time he got his first kit he could play the record
faultlessly, hasn't stopped since.
"Switches spectacularly combine all that is good about British indie (new
wave bounce, three part harmonies, guitars that 'chug') with all that is
good about US indie (The Pixies, pretty much). We really don't need to remind
you how all-powerful such a record could be." - NME
"...indie rock to dance to like disco spastics... "Drama Queen," which features an honest-to-God memorable chorus in a time where it often feels like catchiness has gone out of style. One can almost see the screaming teenage fans, the legions of American popsters that will find their indie rock niche with this accessible-yet-inventive powerpop quartet." - Head Exploder
Switches 'Lay Down The Law' released on Interscope Records March 18, 2008
PRESS QUOTES
"In light of all the mild-mannered Coldplay knockoffs of the last few years, it's easy to forget that British rockers used to be cocky young things, happy to bang out shout-along choruses filled with drug references. Switches remember; their debut LP sounds as if it were written with soccer stadiums in mind, complete with chirpy harmonies and hooks..." – BLENDER
"Switches justify their cockiness with talent, excelling in the feisty hooks and high-pitched oo-oo-oos that hark back to the glam era at its best. If you've hoped for a missing link between T. Rex and the Killers (and hoped the balance would tilt toward the former), swaggering salvation is at hand." – Entertainment Weekly, A-
"Tunes like “Drama Queen” and “Lay Down the Law” have enough hooks and sleaze-rock muscle to deserve to find their way to mainstream American rock radio." - Boston Herald
"Combining foot-stomping drums and bass with tight vocals and sharp guitar riffs, Switches are as cocksure as their pop piers."- Spin
"Focusing on material from their upcoming debut album, there’s one thing Switches proved for sure on Saturday night: their music is entirely and utterly danceable—even the frat boys were movin’. Switches make highly-refined rock music—rock music that makes good use of a thumping disco rhythm section. Their music mobilizes people, and in the end listeners are left with no other choice but to bite their lips, get up and dance!" – Filter
"Switches…dedicated their suddenly ubiquitous…"Drama Queen" to the many loony ladies of La-La Land that allegedly inspired it. And the ladies (and gentlemen) in attendance reacted in a suitably loony manner" – NME
"[Switches] brightest spot came with “Lay Down the Law,” the namesake single to their soon to be released album, which seemed to amplify the energy of the crowd, measured in tween scream decibels." - BlackBook
does anyone have downloaded copies of all the rare tracks that the switches posted on myspace over the past few months?? i feel like i've missed some of them and would love to listen to some of the songs that were taken off of myspace again. anyone? would appreciate at message thanks guys!
goodness, im the BIGGEST slacker in the WORLD! i know this was probably forever ago, but your show with the Bravery and Your Vegas in Seattle in January was AMAZING!! Sorry i missed you guys with a last month. How about Seattle again? :)Maybe UW?
Hey, guys! I saw you in Detroit with SWR and thought you guys were awesome! Unfortunately I recently got into a car accident and your cd was in the cd player and I couldn't get it out! I'm definitely going to buy it again, though, and I hope you guys come back to Detroit sometime.
thanx for the add! =] i saw you guys in L.A. and it was the first time i heard you guys and i practically fell in love lol anyway you guys are badass and im gonna see you next time youre in L.A.
hey. me and my friends saw you on the simon dtour. you were incredible. i would so buy tix to another show. and thom.. your really cute. =P i love you guyss
