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)
Switches South End - by the wonderful Adrienne Burns
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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