STRIKE THE COLOURS: BIOGRAPHY

Strike The Colours are four musician friends from Glasgow, united by their collective experiences and love of the music they are making together. By no means strangers to the local music scene and beyond, it could be argued that the four members of Strike The Colours have been, and continue to be, integral to the music coming out of Glasgow over the last couple of years.

Indeed it's four members, Jenny Reeve (Arab Strap, Malcolm Middleton, Idlewild, Snow Patrol, The Reindeer Section, The Fruit Tree Foundation), Jonny Scott (Emma Pollock, The Phantom Band, The Unwinding Hours, Take A Worm For A Walk Week), David McAulay (Terra Diablo, composer and engineer/producer of records for Mogwai, Remember, Remember, Bill Wells, Jenna and Bethany Reid) and Graeme Smillie (Emma Pollock, Unwinding Hours, Idlewild, Sons And Daughters) all have impressive pedigrees in their own right, working with some of Scotland's most talked-about bands and musicians, yet they still find time to come together to play music which has been championed by respected publications such as Clash Magazine, Converse Music, The Scotsman, The List and National radio D.Js such as Steve Lamacq, Mark Riley, Gideon Coe and Vic Galloway.

NEW BEGINNINGS:

In late 2005, Jenny Reeve began writing songs in response to the dissatisfaction she felt with then-band Eva who's music at the time did not have room for the more folk-inspired leanings of Reeve's compositions. Long-time friend and musician David McAulay offered to demo some of these songs since he and Reeve 's bands shared a studio-space and he soon became an integral part of the sound, creating the sound-scapes and intricate guitar hooks behind Reeve's vocal melodies. It was then decided in late 2006 to officially form as a band, and so Strike The Colours were born with the addition of bassist Gareth Russell and drummer Denis Sheridan.

FIRST RELEASE:

2007 saw the release of these recordings on the E.P The Face That Sunk A Thousand Ships. Though a small release intended only to get the band's name known, word quickly spread and national papers and magazines were soon singing it's praises as were local radio stations such as BBC Radio Scotland and the region Radio 1 show, hosted at the time by Vic Galloway. The band embarked on live dates in support of the record, first a run of head-line shows around Scotland, then on tour with friend and collaborator Malcolm Middleton until later that year saw them on tour, supporting Australian brother/sister duo, Angus And Julia Stone.

NEW FACE, NEW ALBUM:

In early 2008, Denis Sheridan left the band to move to Australia and so, wanting to back up the success of this first album quickly, and needing the expertise and musicality of a full-time drummer, Strike The Colours recruited Jonny Scott. Widely regarded as the finest drummer in the city, Scott brought new life to the Strike The Colours material as they began the process of writing album number two, a more considered and orchestrated affair than the D.I.Y efforts of the first album. When it came time to go into the studio to record these new songs, Strike The Colours approached producer Paul Savage (Mogwai, The Phantom Band, Franz Ferdinand) in the hope that he would agree to the job of producing them. Luckily, Savage agreed immediately and the result was full-length album, Seven Roads released in September 2009.

Again, the press response was unanimously glowing, with editions such as The List, Clash Magazine, The Skinny, The Scotsman, The Herald, The Line Of Best Fit and Converse Music all singing it's praises. Overwhelming too was the response from local and national radio stations with respected D.Js such as Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Mark Riley and Vic Galloway all playing material from the album and personally offering live sessions.

Strike the Colours embarked on a U.K tour in support of the album with fellow Scots band, Zoey Van Goey, playing sold-out shows in both London and Glasgow. Songs from the album were used in the Kudos Television series, Lip Service and in recent feature film, You Instead directed by David MacKenzie (Young Adam, Asylum, Hallem Foe, Perfect Sense) at the personal request of the director.

FRUIT TREE FOUNDATION:

In the midst of all this activity, Reeve still found time to co-write a charity compilation record for the Scottish Mental Health Association entitled The Fruit Tree Foundation - a series of artistic collaborations between artists such as Alisdair Roberts, Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit, James Yorkston, Karine Polwart, Emma Pollock , Rod Jones of Idlewild and Jill O' Sullivan of Sparrow And The Workshop.

ALBUM NUMBER 3:

And so Strike the Colours began work on album number 3 in Spring 2010. Sadly, bassist Gareth Russell was forced to leave the band due to touring commitments with The Vaselines and Idlewild and so Scott's best friend and musical wife Graeme Smillie was added to the line-up. Working solidly over the year, Strike The Colours have formed a new sound, one rockier and proggier than Seven Roads with influences such as Rush, P.J Harvey and Radiohead and yet still in keeping with the gentle, organic influences of their previous two releases. With the promise offered by the new songs, Strike The Colours have considered the path of this new album carefully. In order to step forward still further, the band have set themselves the challenge of recording it entirely live. It seems to the band an obvious move, since many a classic album was recorded in this way and so they have scoped out the splendour of the Monnow Valley studios in Wales. With an unrivalled live-room, this residential studio promises to provide the band with not only the perfect acoustics but also the ideal back-drop against which they can sketch their ideas and build what promises to be their best record yet. With Paul Savage once more at the helm, we wait in anticipation to hear the fruits of their labour.