Fade to Sepia have been extant since 2005, slowly spiralling out of (or into) control in a display of post-punk insanity.
Based in and around Birmingham, we've tried to push the ethos of the live performance, travelling up and down the UK and across North-West Europe in a pair of cars. Hopefully we do it well.
This is a selection of our recorded work, with certain early tracks of which we're grossly, grossly ashamed being left out.
For the real intense hard nuts... our bio...
David Duell (guitar, vocals), James Goddard (bass, vocals) and Sam Lockie (drums) have been friends since 1999, having met in the second year at school. In June 2005, they finally formed a band: Fade to Sepia. Their influences were (and are) broadly in the raw, guitar and bass-driven post-punk vein, with such bands as Joy Division, the Wipers, the Fall, Shellac and NoMeansNo playing a part.
After a summer of rehearsal, the band supported Cazals (London band on 1234 Records) and local band Eight Legs (whose “These Grey Days” soundtracked Hedi Slimane’s Dior Homme winter collection 06/07) at Stratford’s Cox’s Yard venue. The set was frantic, tight and intense, and a selection of free demos and postcards were immediately snapped up.
More local gigs followed, and by the end of 2005 the band had played Birmingham several times (including the Carling Bar Academy) as well as shows in Coventry and Kettering (Beat Connection Xmas bash). They’d also recorded the “Fashion” single. Self-released, this single suffered from poor production as the original producer ran away to Scotland with, among other things, the band’s rough mix and artwork. The entire thing had to be re-done in an afternoon.
2006 saw the self-managed, hard-working band go from strength to strength, a string of favourable live and EP reviews, and fans won from A&R scouts to Kerrang! Radio presenters. They gigged around the country, including a series of prestigious London dates, and shows in all the way from Newcastle to Brighton, as well as regular slots in the surrogate hometown of Birmingham. They had the pleasure of playing with such up-and-coming bands as the Suffrajetts, The Enemy, Noisettes, and good friends Cherubs, now sadly broken up. The year was one for gigging, and a loyal fanbase developed throughout the UK (and abroad!)
In 2007, Fade to Sepia broadened their sound and their minds: playing abroad for the first time with a Dutch/Belgian tour in June with friends the Stutters (NL), the band also garnered attention from Artrocker Magazine and yet more internet ‘zines. A live studio demo in April became a hit among those in the know, and a brace of live recordings from shows in Birmingham have also done the rounds.
Beginning 2008 with their maiden Artrocker show (which was immensely well-received) and already booking dates up and down the country, including some with the likes of Untitled Musical Project and goth-rockers Betty Curse, the year looks set to be an interesting one.
Fade to Sepia have created a buzz around their live shows, which are frenetic, desperate and, at times, unpredictable. Onstage, they are at war, and it shows.
As bove... we play live everywhere. Petrol rise hit us hard. I wouldn't say we "like it" because that's a bit wishy-washy. I think to a great extent we find it a compulsion, and when we don't play live for a long while we get very irritable.
We've had A LOT of special moments.
Joy Division... the Fall... Shellac... Big Black... NoMeansNo... the Wipers... Bauhaus... Gang of Four... lots of bands.
Our own. It works okay.