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Its a busy time for Strawberry Rizla... The lads are proud to welcome thier newest member - Alex is a lead Guitarist who has brought style charisma and completion to the group. Since his arrival SR have been reworking/finishing the existing material as well as writing new. Expect some new songs and replacements of the old demo's on the page soon.For those who don't know...
Strawberry Rizla were formed in mid 2007 though the concept and most of the early songs were dreamt up in the years previous.......
Russ had been playin guitar a while and had almost completed the material for a solo album. This is the material that would make up the bands first songs.
Next came Shirecliffe Studios. A small 2 bedroom property of S5 which was a 24/7 smoke, sesh and jam. Still without a name but dreams n visions none the less, Russ and Lewis wrote and performed numerous titles, Lewis sharing the soothing sounds of his Irish whistle. Often guests would play along on guitar, singing or just tapping their feet but always getting involved. "A Mans Got Needs" was recorded here. And although Russ lost his job on the strength of it (mainly because of all the yellow lynx and the bottle of whiskey) the song is no longer played. Other songs including "Enchant me", "Underclass" and "The Festival Song" would go on to make the "Shirecliffe Sounds Ep" produced by Lewis and Russell also featuring Kirk Wells (Mantank)
After leaving Shirecliffe the lads drifted and so did the music. But Russ played on and had met two new band members. An enthusiastic learner and a new session musician coming off the back of a couple of years lessons. He was happy to be playing although he knew it wasnt really the band for him. He asked his brother to come and watch them practice and thats when Lewis realised he needed to get back involved. There was no room for an Irish whistle in the new band, they had two guitarists already and the previous drummer had parted ways. This is when Lewis made the decision to down his other instruments and be the bands drummer. Later that day he had his first kit. That night him and Russ got hold of a local space where they started to revive some of the old magic.
The band now needed a bass and, after mentioning it to a good friend, Lewis drafted in "The Rock Father" aka Kirk Wells of the awesome Sheffield band "Mantank". Kirk is a brilliant musician who has been drumming for years but after lite persuasion decided to try his hand at bass. The other lad soon found he couldn’t meet the commitments, Kirk switched to a more suited 6 string and way more than filled the small shoes of his predecessor. But once again the lads were left with a problem, Bass.
Russ, Lewis and Kirk had discussed it and, although trying somone out for the briefest of periods, had decided to go for somone close to the group/on the same level rather than just a bassist. Lee Marshall, an almost life long friend of Lewis, had been to see the band practice and although aware of their presence had never dreamt of joining them. Russ made the call to Marsh and commitment has been in the tone of his voice ever since. Lee was a brilliant decision for the group. He soon learnt the material and is now rolling out some top notch bass lines aswell as keeping the band happy by rolling up some top quality smoke.
The lads decided to record their first song together which was done at a small low budget (to say the least) studio on the outskirts of sheffield. "Everday" (above) was the result.
WATCH THIS SPACE!!!