100 Bullets Back

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100 Bullets Back are an electro/dance/pop duo from Oxford, England consisting of David Clayton (keyboards, synthesizers, bass guitar, backing vocals, programming) and Noel Pearson (vocals, guitars, synthesizers, programming). They release their second album "A duty to Yourself and thy Neighbour" in the summer of 2010.

[edit] Early history

David and Noel first met at The Henry Box School in Witney, Oxfordshire when David joined the Sixth Form after moving to the area. Realising a shared interest in music and especially the Brit Pop, the two formed their first band, The Hairy Palmers with friend James Wood. The band never performed live and although primarily played covers, saw the two write their first songs together.

After finishing school, both David and Noel attended Staffordshire University. With the demise of The Hairy Palmers, the two started writing original material in earnest under the guise of Cider and Black. A cassette entitled "Cider and Black: The demos" was recorded live and showcased an acoustic, britpop sound of original material. A few live acoustic performances took place before the band changed their name to Atticus and began to introduce electric guitars into their material, although this was relatively short lived as the band soon disbanded when the two went back packing around the world, only reuniting for a couple of open mic events when the two met up in Sydney, Australia.

On returning from their travels, the pair decided to form a fully amplified live band which saw Noel taking up guitar and vocal duties while David took up the bass and vocals. Needing a drummer, David's brother Martyn was recruited, who had learnt the drums while the others had been away and had spent the previous year playing in local metal bands. Martyn's main input however was that of choosing the band name, 100 Bullets Back. The trio played their first gigs together later that year and saw a set consisting of new original material and some favourite covers such as The Kinks "Waterloo Sunset".

[edit] First Recordings and Initial Interest

After only a handful of gigs and one live recording "Clipped", the band ventured into the studio to record their first demo proper, "Significant Silence EP". Needing piano on a couple of songs, the band brought in school friend Andrea Johnston for the recordings, but were so happy with her input, asked her to join permanently. The new line up started gigging regularly whilst developing their bank of songs and ventured into the studio once again to record another demo, "The Violence EP". With the musical direction of the band beginning to move away from Martyn's own taste however, he soon left the band and was replaced with Helen Stevenson-Miller.

"The Violence EP" and local shows soon caught the ear of Reading promoter and record label owner Sid Siddle, who chose to put the band on numerous times at his Club Velocity night before deciding to release the band's debut 7" single on his Velocity Recordings label the following year.

[edit] Singles and a Little Attention

With their new line up, the band decided on recording a new track for their first full single release. Taking a more electronic direction but coupled with their live energy, the band released "The Lost Souls Club" to good reviews. Radio airplay was achieved both locally on BBC stations and nationally on the Claire Sturgess XFM show. During this period however, Andrea grew tired of gigging and decided to leave the band before the followup single "I KnOw" was recorded later that year. Again well received, this second single showcased a much more electronic sound utilising sequencers and synthesizers over dance beats. This period also saw the band play their biggest gigs to date supporting Bloc Party, TV On The Radio and The Zutons. At this point however, due to work commitments, Helen also left the band and was replaced by Scott McFaden for a number of gigs before ex-The Candyskins John Halliday took over on drums. Some gigs also saw Brett Gordon (also ex-The Candyskins) fill in on bass guitar, as David began to take over full time keyboard duties.

[edit] Refute Fake Icons

The band's debut album was recorded over a month and quickly took a electro pop direction with songs based around keyboards and sequencers and often utilising programmed beats. The album was recorded by John Halliday who also played the live drum parts, at Shonk Studio in Oxford and was produced by the band and Halliday. The album was released to generally positive reviews in September 2005 and was toured by David and Noel as a duo throughout England. A short tour of Italy also saw interest in the band spread through Europe with airplay in countries such as Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Serbia. In the USA, legendary DJ Rodney Bingenheimer also championed the record playing tracks such as "West End", "The Lost Souls Club" and "I KnOw" on his KROQ radio show, Rodney on the Roq.

[edit] Abort, Retry, Fail?

By the summer of 2006, David and Noel had struck up a friendship with Oxford music scensters Michael Barry and Jason Philip. A shared desire to set up their own club night dedicated to electro/club music incorporating bands and DJs, saw the foursome set up and run the successful Abort, Retry, Fail? (ARF?) night for two years. Notable shows included three appearances by Foals as well as Friendly Fires and Youth Movies.

Although primarily DJs, Jason and Michael joined the 100 Bullets Back live line up on guitar and keyboards respectively and played the inaugural ARF? club night. Although Jason soon left the band, Michael played live at numerous gigs including support slots with Friendly Fires, Shy Child and Metronomy and a slot at 2007's Truck Festival before leaving the band in late 2008.

[edit] A duty to Yourself and thy Neighbour

Over the next couple of years as ARF? and "life" forced 100 Bullets Back live appearances to be kept to a minimum (only venturing out for Oxford's annual "Your Song" covers nights), the band continued to record new songs which would form their 2nd album. With only the release of the ltd. edition free giveaway "Under 21 Girls" CD at Truck Festival (2007) between albums, a wealth of material was recorded. Taking a more DIY approach than the first album, recordings took place in various locations including bedrooms, garages, frontrooms and studios. A number of different people were involved in the recording process giving the whole thing a more fresh but energetic feel.

The album's sound is influenced by the two years the band had running the ARF? club night and certainly has a heavier electro/dance feel to the first, although with lighter moments scattered across for good measure. Song based structures still dictate what is meant to be a piece of work listened to in one sitting, rather than as individual snipets like so much in today's ADD culture. The record was produced by ARF? sound engineer and former Suitable Case for Treatment guitarist Jimmy "Evil" Heatherington and is released on download through Velocity Recordings (July 2010) and as a ltd. edition CD through the band's own ARF? Recordings label in June 2010.

[edit] Remixes

Due to the nature of many of the tracks on "A duty to Yourself and thy Neighbour", a number of remixes have been made by other DJs and bands. Three of these were included on a white label promo CD prior to the album's release, these being "All These DJs" (Player Player remix), "Nervousness" (Richard Wyatt remix) and "Genocide" (Coloureds remix).

[edit] Discography

Year	Type	Name	Tracks
2003	Live CD	Clipped	Flashboy (live) Mrs. Jones (live) Rock 'n' Roll (Suicide) (live)
2003	CD EP	Significant Silence EP	Flashboy Mrs. Jones I Am Al Thesame Fighting in the Street
2003	CD EP	The Violence EP	Disco Beat Falling Down Violence
2004	7" single	The Lost Souls Club	The Lost Souls Club Violence
2004	7" single	I KnOw	I KnOw Bangkok (Everybody Needs Somebody To Love)
2005	CD album and download	Refute Fake Icons	DBM I KnOw Wichita Junk Food Violence February A Transmission Of Joy West End Don't Follow Fashion (Buy Something That's Out Of Date) Bangkok (4,2,1) Heart The Lost Souls Club
2006	Download single	West End	West End Antibiotic
2007	Ltd. Ed. CD single	Under 21 Girls	U21 Girls Fitness & Physique Simon U21 Girls (TJ Hertz Remix)
2010	CD album and download	A duty to Yourself and thy Neighbour	Ted Danson S.I.M.O.N. All These DJs Anger Management Co. German Dancing Musik Nervousness -Interlude- "ON" Genocide Michael's Holiday Never Meant A Thing NSA Fat Asssss!