Elliot Minor
Elliot Minor |
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Elliot Minor (formerly The Academy) are a band from York, England. They cite among their influences Something Corporate, Jack's Mannequin, The Used, Muse, All American Rejects, Queen, The Beach Boys and James Horner. The band members are all classically trained, and their music is to some extent a fusion of classical music and rock. Their first four single releases all charted in the UK Top 40.
Band History
Alex Davies and Ed Minton entered School House, Uppingham School in September 2000 as music scholars, where they were inevitably heavily involved in the school's formal musical activities as singers and instrumentalists. Spending a lot of time together, they quickly became close friends. Ed introduced Alex to what was at that time to the latter the unfamiliar world of rock music, and they soon started writing songs and performing in school concerts as an acoustic duo.
During their last year at school, Alex and Ed built a simple recording studio in their attic flat, where they spent as much time as their A-level studies allowed them writing songs and recording demos. After leaving Uppingham, they both took a gap year to develop the band, during which time Alex built a more sophisticated studio in his garage.
In October 2005, Alex Davies and Ed Minton arranged to have a band practice in Alex's garage along with Dan Hetherton as the drummer. Hetherton was soon accepted as a regular member of the band, and the three began recording new songs, improving old songs and sending out demos.
During live performances both keyboard player and a bass player were needed, so the band recruited Ali Paul and Teddy Hetherton, Dan's brother.
The members of Elliot Minor are all classically trained and between them play the violin, piano, clarinet, cello, double bass and saxophone. Alex, Dan and Ali were choristers at York Minster Choir School, while Ed Minton, born in Japan, began his education in England at the age of 8 as a chorister at St John's College, University of Cambridge, becoming head chorister in 1999/2000.
In a few short months the band was signed to Repossession Records, a new label founded by former MCA Vice President and Head of A&R Gary Ashley, who is credited with signing and developing acts including Dusty Springfield, Blink-182, Shaggy, New Found Glory, Something Corporate, Aqua and The Beatles among others.
In November 2006, they flew out to Los Angeles to record the first single with producer Jim Wirt (Hoobastank, Incubus, Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin). After hearing the track, Neal Avron (Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy) offered to mix the record and, of course, the boys accepted.
Their first single, Parallel Worlds, was released on April 9th, 2007. Parallel Worlds is an energetic rock track, driven by guitars, but woven together with violin and piano. The song is about the spooky/paranormal events that occurred in Alex and Ed's attic flat at school. They swear the room was haunted. Drawers would fly open, lights would swing and posters would mysteriously peel off the wall. In the video for the single the boys rehearse the song in a spooky old room, and as they play the energy from the music is transferred to the objects around them. The single entered at number 31 on the UK Singles Charts where it featured for one week in April 2007.[1] Prior to this it had already been playlisted on major channels such as Kerrang! TV, MTV2, The Box and The Hits.
Elliot Minor currently have around 42 songs recorded and are still writing and recording. All material to date is original songs written and recorded by Elliot Minor or Alex Davies, the frontman. Their debut album will be released on April 14th, 2008 in the UK.
Their second single, 'Jessica', was released on August 6th, 2007. It was playlisted on Kerrang! TV, The Box and The Hits and MTV Hits, and was ranked 19th in the UK chart for one week in August 2007.[2] The band have said the song is about the star Jessica Alba. The song includes many references to Jessica and her career. The song was originally entitled "Walk With Me".
Nearly every Monday the band posts a new webisode on to their MySpace page (also available on their Youtube account).
Elliot Minor have played numerous small gigs in their local area, including The Mount School, York where there was no entry fee. In March 2007, they began touring around the country on their "Glorious Nonsense Tour". Locations included the Fez Club Reading, Brighton, Southampton, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham. The majority of the venues booked were smaller halls within various Carling Academies. They were the second band to play on the Dimebag Darrell Stage on Saturday 9th June at the Download Festival 2007. The band were back on another tour in October/November and this was also the first time the band played abroad in Republic of Ireland with a gig in Dublin.
They were the headline act at ButserFest on September 15th 2007, Queen Elizabeth Country Park. On August 25th, 2007, the band supported Fall Out Boy in Edinburgh after Cobra Starship dropped out. The band stated that they had only met Fall Out Boy the previous day.
Elliot Minor's third single, titled "The White One Is Evil," was released on October 29th and reached number 27 in the charts. However, as with the previous singles, it only held its position for a week before dropping out. The song was originally about an ex-girlfriend of Alex's, but after numerous rewrites it is also about the goth community, a journey and "nothing in particular," according to a radio interview conducted with Alex.
It was announced on November 14 2007 that Still Figuring Out would be the band's fourth single, to be released on January 28, 2008. It reached Elliot Minor's highest chart position to date at 17.
Elliot Minor supported McFly on their "Greatest Hits" tour at the end of 2007.
They have another UK tour starting in January and ending in April of 2008. On Sunday February 3rd, Alex Davies confirmed that the album would be self-titled and would be released on April 21st 2008. On the same day, Still Figuring Out debuted on the UK Top 40 at number 17. The following week it was the first of their singles to stay in the charts for 2 weeks, charting at 38. On 25th February, the band announced the album date had been pushed forward to 14th April, 2008.
The final single release from the upcoming album will be a re-release of Parallel Worlds with a new video filmed on 5th February in London. It will be released on 7th April, 2008, one week before the album.
Influences
The band draws influences from Muse and Something Corporate which they see as great influences to their band and their style[3]
Discography
Singles
| Date | Single | Album | UK | UK Indie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 9 2007 | "Parallel Worlds" | Elliot Minor | 31 | 1 (1) |
| August 6 2007 | "Jessica" | 19 | 1 (1) | |
| October 29 2007 | "The White One Is Evil" | 27 | N/A | |
| January 28 2008 | "Still Figuring Out" | 17 | N/A | |
| April 7 2008 | "Parallel Worlds" (Re-Release) | N/A | N/A |
Albums
| Date | Album | UK | UK Indie |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 14 2008 | Elliot Minor | N/A |