The Volares

In brief: The Volares consist of three best friends - Dare, Paul and Bucks. Dare lives in England, Paul and Bucks live in AmeriCo. In the course of their 10 year history (1996-2006), The Volares recorded two albums (The Night We Taught Ourselves To Sing) (Godvertising) and a CD single (Instant Karma).The music of The Volares is, above all else, melodic. Whether amazingly loud and hypnotic, or gently acoustic, or screechingly pop, the songs are irritatingly good, according to most who have heard them. And if you haven't, you should, via this site or thevolares.net. Bucks often describes their music as Easy Metal or Melodic Noise.More than an attempt to make it in show business, the band produced its music from a perspective of friendship and informal exploration. Bucks does not play live, which prevents them from getting a traditional record deal or touring. After 10 years of fantastic times but little success or acclaim, the band decided to call it a proverbial day in September 2006. Bucks plans to continue promoting the band's music and history. "The world's largest band, The Beatles, remained active in many ways after their breakup, and so shall The Volares. We will always be the Smallest Band In The World, and no one can take our place."After the music itself, The Volares are perhaps best known for their amazing array of special guest stars. The first album featured appearances by Julianne Regan (All About Eve), Marty Willson-Piper (The Church), and David Tibet (Current 93). The second album enjoyed contributions from Joe Ely (The Flatlanders), Ian McLagan (Small Faces), Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond) and legendary British pop master Martin Newell (Cleaners From Venus), who also appears on the band's final recording "Instant Karma," released December 8, 2005, in honor of John Lennon's influence on planet Earth and other universal territories. The band was booked to play at The Cavern in Liverpool May 28, 2006, for the International Pop Overthrow Festival, but finances and Bucks' reluctance to play live resulted in a last minute cancellation. "Still," Bucks says, "we got booked at The f'n' Cavern! Too bad we couldn't make the gig 'cause we were gonna open with The Monkees Theme just to piss off the purists."Bucks wrote the lyrics and music for both albums, but insists that "Dare and Paul rescued the albums from myself. Without them, I'd suck."While the self proclaimed Smallest Band In The World never moved many units, they got several positive reviews in magazines ranging from Magnet to MOJO, and got played by Bob Harris on BBC Radio. But most importantly, they had a grand adventure. Bucks is planning to produce a DVD documentary about the band called The Next Small Thing.Dare is currently producing music at his own VIP Lounge studio in Penzance, England, and records with Marty Willson-Piper in a cool band named Noctorum. Paul is in the Dallas Beatle band Hard Night's Day as well as his own Doubleplus Pop outfit; Bucks is recording his first solo album and can be found at myspace.com/bucksburnett.The band has enjoyed a small but devoted following. It was, is and will always be a remarkable thing between three friends on two continents. Viva Volares!