Taz, Kate and Rick are three musicians from three different cities, but have been great friends for over twenty-five years through the love of music.
They like standing next to things which may be dangerous, and/or cause death. In true “hello, this is Ultraxine” style, let’s introduce the band…
Taz
Name: Taz
Nickname: Dude
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: Ultra-world
Bands you like: Like everyone else I know, I like a lot of music. I will however almost certainly listen to anything by the following people: Anything written by Willie Dowling…The Grip, HoneyCrack, Celebrity Squares, Jackdaw4, The Dowling Poole, the Meg and Mog theme tune… GMT (Guy McCoy Torme). Eureka Machines. The Wildhearts. AC/DC. Devin Townsend. Motorhead. 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. Nirvana. Rob Zombie/White Zombie. Tenacious D. Twisted Sister. Supersuckers. Weezer. The Who.
Styles of music you like: Depending on the mood, melodic pop, angry punk or the world’s heaviest metal.
Favourite food: Fish and chips and gravy and milky decaff tea.
Favourite Colour: PINK
Favourite Saying: Do we need some more harmony on that?
Favourite Word: Kraken.
Anything else you’d like to say? Milk, no sugar, thanks.
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, drones, triangles, glockenspiels, full-Venga synths, guiros, 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: Orbital, ELO, Cheap Trick, Vulfpeck, Silver Sun, XTC, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Henge, ABBA, Jon Hopkins, Confidence Man, “A”, The Wildhearts, Pet Shop Boys, Steve Roach, Clearlake, Freezepop, Radiohead, Bob Vylan, The Supernaturals, Kyros, Disco Inferno, Lambrini Girls, Clearlake, Brian Eno, Pop Winds, The Durrutti Column, Sufjan Stevens, Four Tet, Alexi Murdoch, Barry Can’t Swim, Jackdaw4, Sigur Ros, Jellyfish, Ulrich Schnauss, Robyn Hitchcock, Paul Steel, Blur, Supersuckers, AntiProduct, Fairport Convention, The Grid, Sparks, Snarky Puppy, Michael Jackson, Underworld, Show of Hands, Richard Hawley, Tears for Fears, Ramones, Eels, Pixies, Ben Folds/Five, Rammstein, The Presidents of the United States of America… too many more to list.
Styles of music you like: PopRockPunkPowerpopAmbientIDMIndieWeirdDiscoFunkSoulJazzyElectronicaClassicalMetalSymphony. 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?
Rick
Name: Rick
Nickname: Rickles
Instruments you play: Drums
Where you’re from: Manchester, The North – home of rain and hills
Bands you like: Wildhearts, Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Arcade Fire, Silver Sun, Pearl Jam, Steve Earle, Jason & The Scorchers, Paul Simon, Weezer, Alexi Murdoch, Frightened Rabbit, Buckcherry, Jack’s Mannequin, Devin Townsend, Black Stone Cherry, Townes Van Zandt, Rocket From The Crypt, Hamell On Trial, Death Cab For Cutie, Far, Jimmy Eat World, Spin Doctors, Brian Wilson
Styles of music you like: Pop, Rock, Blues, Folk, Funk, Metal
Favourite food: Chinese
Favourite Colour: Green
Favourite Saying: Before you criticise a man, walk a mile in his shoes. Then you’ll be a mile away, *and* you’ll have his shoes.
Favourite Word: Hurdy gurdy
Anything else you’d like to say? Nope!
Ultraxine
Taz and Kate first met in a pub before a gig around twenty-five years ago, when they lived in Nottingham and Kent respectively, 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, and having been on a number of musical shenanigans all across the UK, they decided to join a group of wonderful friends, to play some covers for another great friend’s 40th birthday party – including releasing this “single”…
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 in the same house.
[Listen to Aldgate for why they don’t live there any more]
The band made a pact to continue with the writing and music when Taz moved to Leeds to further their professional career as Dr. Clever Pants, and the pact was secured 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 all the songs into 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 one year – with many many thanks to the legend 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 continue to write, demo and gig – playing and writing acoustically when Rick left the band to concentrate on his music degree and other bands in his hometown of Manchester.
The band found a temporary replacement for Rick in the form of Micky P, who joined for 18 months for a few gigs and laughs. Micky was offered a full-time position with Straighten Out – so once Rick’s studies were complete, the drum stool was once again championed by Rick! Hurrah.
Two singles/EPs have been released since then – Danger of Death EP on 20th December 2010, and Silence single on 13th June 2016.
Whilst they would love to be full-time rock stars, in this economy, Ultraxine is an entirely DIY effort that the group can only take on whilst not at their day-jobs. Whilst all three people love making music, all three also contribute to the ‘Bandmin” which goes along with it – booking rehearsals, making videos, creating artwork, stickers, flyers, merch, booking gigs, sharing music… all of this is so much easier when you have a massive team behind you. They don’t.
They ARE the team!
The band continue to write more music, demo, rehearse, gig and create in their own chaotic and joyous way, despite all three band members now living in different cities, but also still being separated by the length, breadth and width of the Pennines.
Some things never change!
So that’s all about us. How the devil are you?
