Its all about...ME
Two of ME - or should that be us? - met at a spiritualist nudist festival so it’s hardly surprising that the debut single by ME should be called Naked. Naked is mini rock opera on the grandest of scales and a song that asks whether life, the universe and everything must always be like this. The band cite The Beatles, The Mars Volta and Led Zeppelin as influences but if we threw Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, Rachmaninof and Queen in there you’d start to get scared – so we won’t. Instead we’ll just suggest that ME are one of the most exciting new rock bands to appear this side of the millennium.
ME are Luke Ferris (voice, guitar, piano), Damian Tapley (guitar, voice), Michael Godde (bass, voice) and Spike Rogers (drums, programming). They formed in 2009 in Melbourne, the epicentre of the Australian music scene and a place the band describe as “an outburst of happiness that no one wants to leave!” And why ME? “Because it’s faintly absurd and un-googlable” they suggest and it’s true that there’s something intangible about both the name and the band. “We use drum troupes and orchestras, we love classical music and theatre and showmanship and we like to go places no one has been to before”, explains lead singer Luke.
ME have just completed work on their debut album produced by the legendary Simon ‘Barny’ Barnicott (Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Temper Trap) and are set to embark on a nationwide tour with Panic! At The Disco, followed by an appearance at the HMV Next Big Thing showcase. The dates run as follows:
25th January 2012 Newcastle O2 Academy
26th January 2012 Leeds O2 Academy
27th January 2012 Manchester 02 Academy
28th January 2012 Glasgow Barrowlands
29th January 2012 Birmingham O2 Academy
31st January 2012 Bristol O2 Academy
1st February 2012 Southampton Guildhall
2nd February 2012 Brixton Academy