EXITBYNAME is Dave Anderson - guitars, Craig Ward - drums, Jay Robson - bass, Phil Saunders - vocals
The story so far…
In the year 2000 guitarist Dave Anderson, bass player Jay Robson and drummer Craig Ward formed a band in the North East of the UK; putting together some monstrously fat riffs and grooves. This band also featured a second guitarist, Chris McCue.
The results so far were an as-yet instrumental mix of deftones-esque sweeping chords and ferocious hooks and riffage. The 4 asked a friend, Phil Saunders, to try and add some vocals to the mix.
Phil had never tried singing before but agreed to give it a try with the as-yet-unnamed group, purely as an experiment.
In the first rehearsal they found themselves sounding like they had been playing for years. More new tunes were penned and the debut gig was booked after the band had been together for just three weeks… From the debut show, exitbyname quickly gained a reputation as a full-on, non-stop assault. The live show was musically brutal, yet always remained tight.
After just a handful of shows Chris left the band to travel the world and the band, now christened EXITBYNAME, decided to remain as a 4-piece.
The new bands fresh sound and awesome live spectacle won over the North East scene and in their first year EBN began to open up local shows for likes of Lost Prophets and Miocene.
The live show always got a great reaction from the press;
"a performance of true creative expression. Every action, every expression and every movement inspires the crowd to let go, a clear indication that the songs of 'ExitByName' have the ability to mentally provoke, something which today's music lacks." BBC Tees Live Review
"this band blatantly mean it, and God help anyone who gets in their way." Angi Ryan for 10FtTall
The band recorded their first demo on an 8-track at home with a friend; the tracks 1999, AMBULANCE, CLASS 1 and LEAVES ZERO scored great praise from press.
Organ Zine and Rock Sound Magazine had the following to say:
"It's their first demo, its raw but the vital bit of attitude and energy is coming through and YEAH! - These guys have something good going down here"
"I like this band a lot…there IS hope in Demo Mountain. If they ever get a decent recording then they could be shooting up the leagues... good front man, twenty times better than the first lost prophets demo, better than the first one minute silence demo. So stay tuned!"
The band continued to write, record and gig and in 2001 the band were spotted by A&R man, and Goldblade guitarist, Pete Black. Pete got the band their first record deal with the renowned UK alt-rock label Revolver.
EBN signed a 1-album deal and set about finding the man to record their debut offering…
As time went on, the band's song writing had matured, the non stop machine gun riffage became punctuated by uplifting chorus progressions and Phil's vocal style developed so that EBN had graduated from local hardcore crew into a melodic / hardcore / metal crossover band.
Then man chosen to record the album was Harvey Birrel. Harvey had recorded a huge range of bands from Therapy? to Rabies Caste and worked alongside some of the biggest names in rock such as Fugazi and Steve Albini…
In just 5 days in March 2003, the volatile EXITBYNAME sound was captured onto tape at Southern Studios london UK, the result was a massive wall of oppressive sound.
Over the next 10 months the album sat on the shelf while EBN gigged relentlessly, performing numerous headline shows on their home turf and travelling the UK to play alongside some of 2003's other rising stars such as Beyond All Reason, Aconite Thrill, Midasuno, Cubic Space Division and RSJ. The band also opened shows for Capdown, My Ruin, Instruction, Oceansize, Colour of Fire and Biffy Clyro. In the year 2004 the album and the band were ready to unleash EXITBYNAME on the world. The UK's press had this to say:
"The sort of naturally persuasive rebellion required of music with a mesasage…Truly Exciting" Nik Young, kerrang!
"a volatile hotbed of bludgeoning riffage, melodious vocals and a raw, throbbing DC-indebted energy….a tight knot of adolescent-deep rage that paints with the same poisoned brushes as Amen and a decidedly more fucked-up Deftones. It's hard, incapacitating and maintains the right level of vitriol without resorting to faux-angst bluster. Here EXITBYNAME have perhaps laid the foundations for a rather illustrious and long-lasting career." Pete Steel, LOGO magazine
"nothing if not versatile, ranging from Punk to Thrash; from Emo to Metal. The moody atmospherics are at times comparable to Will Haven, while at the same time, many of the tracks are just as accessible as the most popular of todays' metal upstarts…as relentless as it is brilliant" CORE
and a curious Terrorizer magazine labelled the band a "Heavier, cleaner, more commercial Fugazi- does that make sense?"
EBN hope so.
Now in the progress of gigging and promoting "The Disillusion is Real" as much as they can, the band have started to write and demo some new material, of which they are immensely proud. The Heavier songs are heavier, the melodic parts more so. Everything has been taken up a notch. The self-managed EBN machine strive to make 2004 the year that he hard work pays off..
Source: http://www.exitbyname.co.uk/
