Ashdowne

Ashdowne is a four pieces band from Leicester (yep again!!!), I was supposed to write about them on here for about 1 year or more but as usual I get lazy but here they are!!!!!

Ashdowne is formed by 

Lee Wakeling at the vocal and guitar

Andy Kempin at the lead guitar

Gripper Groves at the drums

Ben Hepworth at the bass

They're from the "outskirts of Leicester", they formed in 2004, they were just a bunch of mates who decided to put their creativity together and play music together.

On their Facebook's page, you can read: 

"Formed in 2004, Ashdowne are a four piece indie rock band from the outskirts of Leicester. Just four mates that share a passion for making and playing music together, fusing their individual influences and creativity to radiate a sound which portrays ambience along with catchy distinctive lyrics, melodies and guitar driven eclectic overtones.

Playing to the ever faithful crowds in and around their home town, they quickly established themselves on the local scene, winning the ‘Battle of the Bands’ two years consecutively, which lead to a whole string of national gigs and festivals including venues such as The Cavern, The Half Moon, Roadmenders and The Charlotte, where they supported the likes of Speedway, Morning Runner and The Subways. They were also successful in securing a place out of over 4,000 entries in the final at the 2007 Indie Music Awards ceremony, where they were nominated for ‘Best Rock Act’ and ‘The Peoples Favourite’ awards.

After building their own recording studio above a DIY shop at the back of an old industrial estate in their hometown, the band soon got to work on recording demos striving for a sound which would help set them apart from the stripped, guitar pop bands of today. It wasn’t long before one of their demos captured the attention of London based producer Chris Sutton.

“We were lucky when our demos captured the ears of Chris” says singer Lee Wakeling. “He seemed to understand our sound and the depth in which we wanted the songs to develop. He has definitely helped to nurture Ashdowne into the mood, feel and direction we were already steadily heading, I guess you could say he helped give us that final push.”

With his help they continued to write and record, either in Chris’s studio based in Surrey or at their own makeshift studio back in Leicester.

“We always had in our heads a big production for Ashdowne and wanted to get that across to the listeners as much as our tiny budget could afford” continues Lee, “…so we tried to experiment with anything we could lay our hands on; e-bows, live strings, pianos, French horns, samples from news reports and media clips, even the odd angelic female vocal seemed to help the songs come to life.”

After several months of hibernating in their studio with no daylight, living off coffee, takeaways and pep pills, sweating bullets and almost driving Chris into meltdown, Ashdowne have ultimately finished up with a collection of strong, diverse and entrancing songs, which they hope will take them to the next level.

Ashdowne are now dedicated to playing their captivating live shows up and down the country to introduce their material to the masses and build on their existing loyal fan base."


I discovered them after their drummer send me the link to their page on facebook, he "discovered" me through my friendship with The Screening!!!!! aaaah what a small world...
I personnaly find Lee's voice quite amazing! And I finally been able to see them live at the end of August at the Strawberry Fields Festival, and I can tell you that I was waiting to "see" if this voice was still amazing and the same live... Well, yes, I don't know what is Lee's secret but in live his voice is as perfect as on the album version.  But I was disappointed when I realised that there was not a lot of public around me... My friend Kevin who know them and saw them several times, told me that it was probably because they're not one of this new band "a la mode" and followed by crazy screaming teenage girl but more by connoisseurs... Well I must say that sometimes it's great to see a good band play his music without some teenage yeller around you!!! 
They're at the mo' working on their new EP and new album, for which I hope and think they will play around the whole UK and no more only Leicestershire and maybe also in Paris! (yeah I love to dream of my own festival!)

You can find them on their Facebook page, Facebook Fanpage, Twitter, Official website and their Myspace.  

 Here's my videos of their set at the Strawberry Fields festival. Enjoy and spread the word.