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Who's
who in the band?
James
Yardley has been a musician most of his life, mainly with bands
in the South West. He's into programming and keyboards.
Richard Newton Austin - our bass player - has an enormous amount
of musical talent; he could pick up a teapot and get a tune out
of it!
And our vocalist is Demelza.
Demelza has a
background in classical music - a far cry from the Urban scene...
She's
only been singing really for the past couple of years which is kind
of unusual because that's what she's really good at. The music paths
she pursued in the past have not been urban types of music, either
in genre or type of instruments.
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| A
very happy Demelza at the podium accepting the title of Best
Urban Act in the 2004 Diesel U Music awards. |
Even
in the time Demelza's been with Obedientbone her voice has changed
and matured.
Demelza used to work in the local garage and the boys spotted her
working there - then a mutual friend of theirs put them together.
Things
have taken off for obedientbone. How has winning the award helped?
What it does is give us kudos. And perhaps that's the most important
thing it can give.
It gives us substance, and means people will take us seriously.
They're more likely to open the envelope when we send them our music,
even if they don't bother playing it!
Are you happy to be
an unsigned band?
What we'd really love is a good marketing, distribution and press
deal.
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| Richard
"could pick up a teapot and get a tune out of it!"
|
How
important is Devon?
Devon's really important to us - it's a huge influence musically.
We've all lived away and moved back and we're not in any hurry to
move again.
You don't need to be in New York to make good Hip-Hop music so why
can't you make Urban music in rural Devon?
And you record in a
barn on the edge of Dartmoor?
It's an old Devonshire cob and stone barn which, prior to being
the band's studio, used to be a carpenter's workshop.
The carpenter sound-proofed it which was very useful, and being
an old building it has no right angles so the funny shaped walls
and slopes help the sound. It's an ideal spot really.
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| Obedientbone
playing live at Sheffield University |
Obedientbone
perform live too - which do they prefer?
Whichever they are doing at the time.
But is there a difference
in sound?
That's a good point. Yes. To say it's more raw is a bit harsh because
it is smooth and it is sophisticated when it's live but perhaps
simpler.
It's edgier, more dynamic. It takes on a life and makes you want
to bounce around - it's more invigorating playing live and it's
something we're trying to do more and more.
Is it difficult to
find venues to play in this neck of the woods?
It's not easy to generalise and say 'well it's not jazz, it's not
punk, it's not rock 'n' roll, it's not drum and bass - but it has
all those elements within it'.
That's makes it very difficult for people to identify and for a
promoter to say 'OK yeh, we know what kind of crowd we'll attract'.
I think people need to see us to understand us - but that's a bit
of a catch 22.
The
song that Obedientbone have chosen to demo is called 'Aware'. You
can listen to it by clicking on one of the links at the top of this
page.
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