About Us
Posted by Kate
We’re a sort of concoction of a band, built from different bits and bobs from all over the place. And we like standing next to things which may be dangerous, and/or cause death. In true “hello, we are Ultraxine” style, let’s introduce ourselves…
Taz
Name: Taz
Nickname: Taz was my nickname, until I made it in to my real name.
Instruments you play: In Ultraxine…Bass guitar and vocals. Additionally…piano, violin, drums and kazoo. Plus I do a very bad approximation of playing the guitar.
Where you’re from: Bromley in Kent. These days they’ll tell you it’s in Greater London but they’re wrong. It was in Kent when I was born there.
Bands you like: Ultraxine (duh!). Like everyone else I know, I like a lot of music. I will however almost certainly listen to anything by the following people: GMT (Guy McCoy Torme). Eureka Machines. The Wildhearts. AC/DC. Devin Townsend. Motorhead. Rammstein. Metallica. Iron Maiden. Anything with George Clinton or Billy Cobham in it. Sweet. Miles Davis. Cream. Nine Inch Nails. Chuck Berry. Ramones. Cheap Trick. Green Day. AntiProduct. Gogol Bordello. The Living End. Marilyn Manson. Nirvana. Rob Zombie/White Zombie. Tenacious D. Twisted Sister. Supersuckers. Weezer. The Who.
Styles of music you like: Harmonious/melodic pop-ROCK-punk.
Favourite food: Fish and chips and gravy and milky tea.
Favourite Colour: PINK
Favourite Saying: If there’s enough blue in the sky to stitch together a pair of Dutchman’s trousers it’ll be fine for half an hour.
Favourite Word: Kraken.
Anything else you’d like to say? Ummm…buy our album? Please?
Kate
Name: Kate
Nickname: Kateyay. Kate Yay. KateYay. Kate of Yay. Kate of the Yay. Kate!Yay! etc. and Dude.
Instruments you play: In Ultraxine – an approximation of the guitar and the singing. In other places, i hit drums unsuccessfully, i love tambourines, triangles, glockenspiels, vibraslaps and the kazoo, so basically all the instruments you learned to play at primary school. Times never change.
Where you’re from: a wee town in Kent about five miles down the road from where Taz was born!
Bands you like: Silver Sun, The Wildhearts, Clearlake, Radiohead, The Supernaturals, Disco Inferno, Cheap Trick, Sufjan Stevens, Elbow, Four Tet, Jackdaw4, Sigur Ros, Ulrich Schnauss, Paul Steel, Supersuckers, Vin Garbutt, Richard Hawley, Ramones, ELO, Eels, Pixies, Ben Folds/Five, Cardiacs, Rammstein, The Presidents of the United States of America, Caspian, Show of Hands, Duke Special, and of course Ultraxine!
Styles of music you like: PopRockPunkPowerpopIDMIndieWeirdElectronicaTweeClassicMetalRandom. So quite a lot.
Favourite food: Shichimi & dill salmon (sashimi)
Favourite Colour: Purple. And blue. And pink.
Favourite Saying: What do you see when you turn out the light? I can’t tell you, but I know that it’s mine. (ooh.) (The Beatles, by the way. The next line is “I get by with a little help from my friends”. Hmm!)
Favourite Word: Plethora.
Anything else you’d like to say? No, ta. brew?
A.N.Other…
The Ultraxine drum stool is currently vacant…if you think you’d fancy a bash with the girls then please get in touch
Ultraxine
Taz and Kate first met in a pub a long time ago and since then have shared numerous interesting experiences together, from having pigeons nest in their hair in Swansea to walking the streets of Sheffield dressed in pyjamas – both of which which obviously sounded like a good idea at the time. Having exhausted all the general topics of conversation, they decided to form a band together after playing some covers with friends for another great friend’s birthday party. A fellow partygoer suggested they should either form a band or a relationship, and in the spirit of pursuing all things new, exciting and interesting… Ultraxine were born.
[cue crying baby noises and the clamour of cheerful doting parents]
Taz and Kate wrote songs and rehearsed rather fortuitously, extolling the virtues of life to their very core. For example, after writing a song named Drunken Celebration… you get the picture… This was all rather easy at the time as they lived next-door to each other. The band made a pact to continue with the writing and music when Taz moved to Leeds, and especially secured the pact when both Kate and Taz broke an ankle and foot respectively over the torridly dark times in 2007. At Christmas that year a pledge was made to record an album in 2008 – and thus good friend Rick Steckles was recruited to sit on the drum-stool and bash out some tunes.
After travelling the length, breadth and width of the Pennines most weeks, Taking Sweets from Strangers was written, recorded, released, designed, produced and sold in 2008 – with many many thanks to Bernie Torme at Barnroom Studios for producing, studio superiority and general musical maestroness! Hurrah.
Not to rest on any laurels which may have been laid, the band continued to write, demo and gig – playing and writing acoustically when Rick left the band to concentrate on his music degree. The band found a temporary replacement for Rick in the form of Micky P, who joined the girls for 18 months for a few gigs and laughs. Unfortunately Micky has now left the girls and gone off to look for someone to strangle (or something like that) so the drum stool is once again vacant. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring you news of a new – permanent – drummer soon!
Whatever happens, we’re looking forward to the future – who knows what it will bring… Hopefully a lot of gigs, lots of fun and general madness.
So that’s all about us. How the devil are you?
One Response to “About Us”
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bazzegboy Says:
August 11th, 2009 at 6:36 pmPresent for Ultraxine:
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo77HUHGujo