Biography
The first incarnation of RAISING SAND rose from South West London in late 2005, quickly garnering rave reviews in the press and on radio. XFM were impressed enough to grant them airplay in their Unsigned Playlist, for their debut EP recorded off the back of their hard hitting, high octane, incendiary live performances. Living up to their name “RAISING SAND” (a blues expression used by the likes of John Lee Hooker for kicking up a storm/fight) the band have never compromised or left their roots.
Although all seemed to be unstoppable from the outside, as with all new bands there were certain elements that weren’t working and after a coup d’etat at the end of 2006 a new regime was needed. The creative backbone of the band, brothers Greg and Graham Barthram, went about the business of scouring the earth in search of the missing pieces of their battle plan.
Their wanderings took them far and wide, all around London and beyond, but they had zero luck finding what they thought the band needed. Then one night as all the bars and pubs were kicking out in Camden Town they heard a voice that drew them in like a siren.
By the night’s end they had managed to lure the girl with the Grand Canyon lungs away from her band. The chemistry was instant and new vocalist TJ brought renewed vigour, power and presence to their explosive and salacious mix of rhythm and rock. The problem of a missing bassist was promptly solved by a man of many hats who happened to be living in the next room at the new singers residence in Chelsea. After one long session (liquid and musical) Dave ‘Carl’ Pattenden joined and the regiment was complete.
Progress was fast and within two months a new EP was already written and recorded with a sound and vision that confirmed that something very special was happening with yet more label interest at the outset. However the band were keeping their powder dry and camped down to focus on writing and recording an entirely self produced record resulting in ALL OUT WAR, their eponymous debut album.
With advance tracks and mixes issued through the bands myspace page, the site has been bombarded with over 63,000 listens and continues to gather pace with some 23,500 friends rising at a rate of 500 a week from all points of the compass. This being achieved with little promotion at all while they concentrated on the album recording.
Teaming up with esteemed international rock photographer, John McMurtrie, the band then produced a video for lead track ‘DIRTY WEEKEND’ to launch their first offensive into an unsuspecting world.
Crafted from a number of ‘classic’ influences they have forged their own assault of bombastic guitar grooves, machine gun rhythms and thundering vocals that will literally blow anything out of the water.
Put ALL OUT WAR on, join the movement, get down to a show, let the music do the talking and raise a beer to salute the majesty of ROCK that is RAISING SAND.
Www.myspace.com/raisingsand
Www.raisingsandmusic.com
Email – info@bullseyerecords.co.uk
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
