Switches were an indie rock band which formed in Guildford, England in 2005. They consist of Matt Bishop (vocals, guitar), Ollie Thomas (guitar), Thom Kirkpatrick (bass) and Steve Godfrey (drums). The band’s debut album “Heart Tuned to D.E.A.D.” was released on April 23, 2007 in the UK and on March 18, 2008 in the US (under the title “Lay Down the Law”).
Singer/Guitarist Matt Bishop grew up on the Essex coast where the edgy glitz of Southend seafront did nothing more than inspire Madison Square Garden fantasies. After hearing T-Rex’s ‘Electric Warrior’ when he was 4 years old he wrote his first song called “It’s My Shadow So Leave It Alone”. While other kids were at school learning the three Rs he was studying the three Bs, Bowie, Bolan and Blur, skipping lessons to write songs about girls, more than 200 (songs, not girls) by the time he was 16. Realizing that the musical monkey wasn’t getting off his back, he learned to play every instrument he could find, then he asked everyone he met what their favorite album was and played it over and over again, searching for its secret…that moment on every album when it all comes together, by accident or design, the essence of music, the holy grail of the song. From Beck to 10cc to Jon Spencer to Weezer to Captain Beefheart and back to Blur, it was getting obsessive and becoming mental, taking over his life, listening and listening and writing and writing and playing and recording and twitching until at last, his friends Ollie Thomas (guitar), Max Tite (bass) and Jimmy G (drums) saved him, by agreeing to form a band, share the obsession and spread the load. Switches gigged around the south until they begged a support slot with their current favorite band, The Rakes, taking them around the UK and all the way to Texas. Having released their debut album “Heart Tuned to D.E.A.D. they are now touring across the UK. See www.myspace.com/weareswitches for details.
The band released a blog post on their MySpace on October 17, 2009, saying that they had split up some time in 2008. |
