It’s refreshing to find a truly humble and hard-working British band on the scene today, but Manchester four-piece City Reign tick all the boxes.

City Reign first began to blossom four and a half years ago when Chris Bull (Vocals/Guitar) and Michael Grice (Guitar) met at a Ryan Adams gig. “We’d both recently moved to Manchester from London and got chatting at this gig and realised we had quite a lot of shared influences. We started to write songs together and played in a band for a couple of years which ended up breaking up” said Chris.

Then two years ago they met Michael Glaze (Bass) and Sam Jones (Drums) and have been playing together under the name City Reign – inspired by Adams’ song ‘City Rain, City Streets’ – ever since. Mike Grice says “In the previous band we were maybe trying to write songs to fit a style of that moment but now we’ve started to write some new material and finally started to develop our own sound that seemed quite natural to us”.

City Reign’s sound has been difficult to pin down for some. “We’ve been described as a lot of things, from indie, to grunge, even country influences. I guess that’s just a reflection of all the kinds of music we like” said Chris. “We have an energetic sound but we’d like to think the melodies are pretty strong too.”

The lads are fans of bands such as Idlewild, Doves and The National. Chris admits “They don’t really sound like each other but I guess they all have found their own sound with a certain subtlety that I think is what we love about them”.

But City Reign have not stopped at creating music. The band have also established their own independent label, Car Boot Records. Chris said:

“We decided to set up the label because we wanted to start releasing material so people could actually hear us. We wanted to try and reach a broader range of people than just the few people we knew, who could sometimes be persuaded and bullied into coming to see us live. With the internet and people like AWAL it’s possible to release music and have it reach all sorts of people”.

And all the hard work has paid off as the lads now have fans from as far afield as the States, Canada, Europe and even Japan. A little closer to home, BBC Radio DJ Steve Lamacq has also heralded City Reign, listing them as one of his ‘bands to look out for’ on his ‘In The City’ show.

“That was pretty amazing to be honest. Steve is such an influential figure in the modern music scene so for someone like that to support us like that was great. Since he played our first single and then featured us on his show we’ve been shamelessly using his name to get more people to listen to us! It’s definitely been a massive factor in whatever small success we’ve had so far.”

The band are so humble that they prefer not to feature in their own music videos, instead opting to play their music alongside old movie footage. “We just felt that while we’re trying to get people to listen to our music it would be best to stay out of the videos” Chris said. “We didn’t want a standard video, which would’ve been really bad as we wouldn’t know what we were doing. It’s been good for people to hear our music first before they realise what idiots we actually are.”

The video for new single ‘Daybreak’ for example, has a spaghetti Western theme which came about after the band watched Blazing Saddles. “Thankfully the American archive had an abundance of old Cowboy and Indian films” said Mike, “the running horses just seem to fit the pounding nature of the drums”.

‘Daybreak’ is the band’s third single and will be released on 9th May as part of an EP recorded with Grammy nominated producer Dan Parry. The track has been a fan favourite at their live shows and its original recording was the title track of the band’s early demo. ‘Daybreak’ has echoes of fellow Mancunians Oasis, yet with a more atmospheric grunge sound. Raw vocals give it that unique British feel while the subtly progressive drums build up to something even bigger.

Chris:

“It’s probably the song we’ve been most proud of. We always enjoy playing it live, as it has that typically youthful conflict between despair and restless hopefulness. The harmonies in the outro really capture that feeling that there’s always something else to reach for, even when you don’t know exactly what it is.”

However, the band don’t want to stop at an EP. “We have the track listing for the album we want to record written up on our dingy practice room door. We would love to be able to record it in the next year” said Chris, “We think we have enough songs to make one that we’d be really proud of.” Mike adds; “The only problem we have after that is thinking of a name for it, as the current ideas being banded about are horrendous!”

Daybreak is released May 9th.

By Jo Stass

The Encyclopaedia of Momentsis a book/project originally started by London-based artist Frederick Myles Julian Botham. Started in January 2010 as a Facebook group, members of the public have been submitting their own moments. Mark got the opportunity to ask Frederick a few questions the other day about his project and what he sees the future holding for The Encyclopaedia of Moments.

There is an very limited number of copies available from their website HERE!

What prompted the project?

I think the project has in some ways been a long time in the making. For a while I have thought about particular ‘moments’ and what makes them special, and how, in turn, it could be possible to represent them in some way. This turned out to be an interesting challenge because at the heart of most of these experiences is a certain intangibility or abstract quality which renders the act of putting them into words and pictures almost absurd. There was something in this incongruity which appealed to me and which, ultimately, stimulated the project.

Did you expect the response you received?

The response I have had has exceeded my expectations. When I first began the Encyclopaedia, I had no clue whether it was something other people could embrace. As the project progresses it feels like I am continually seeing things in a new light, which is refreshing. The enthusiasm of others has been rather touching, and continues to surprise me.

Are there plans for more EoM?

The release of a printed volume of the project was an experiment, really. From the start, I always envisioned the Encyclopaedia eventually being made into a book, and with Volume One I wanted to see if this was actually something anyone would like to buy. So I guess Volume Two is the next thing – but in my mind, it will have much more content and maybe more group input.

How did you choose the particular ‘moments’ and photos?

The moments definitely came first. I remember going through the complete list of things people had submitted and picking out a couple in particular that caught my eye, and gradually building up a list of moments which somehow seemed to work well together. I invited photographers to submit images which they felt related to particular items on this list, stressing that I wasn’t necessarily looking for literal representations but also images which echoed the tone or feeling of the moments.

Are there any other projects you’re working on?

I am working on a small collection of writing which I am planning on self-publishing – again it’s mainly an experiment to see if it is something that would appeal to anyone else. I am also about to begin co-writing and illustrating a children’s book about talking shapes and a lost child. Should be interesting.

Profound and slightly mysterious Paul Richardson only 21 yet the work he has produced will leave the viewer speechless. Every so often we get to meet someone who not only inspires but produces art that is simply breathtaking and Paul Richardson is a digital artist to watch. There is a gentle beauty and honesty in his work that touches the viewer through the warmth and narrative he creates.