Branded

Branded is a four-piece all-female metal band based in Preston, Northwest England. They play original material with the occasional cover for fun.

Michelle (guitar), Max (drums) and Swin (bass) met at Preston University in the late 90s and soon discovered they had similar tastes and were all disheartened and really rather pissed off with the absence of talented, accomplished female musicians in rock. They started jamming together in a university practice room (reluctantly shared with three boys playing crap cover songs) and determined to form an all-female band that would show the world women could do it too! Swin met Lisa at a Bush gig in Manchester where most of what she saw of her were her flailing arms and legs as she hurtled overhead towards the stage time and again. However she was not yet to join the band. Michelle, Max and Swin wanted to form a traditional, metal five-piece and they spent a long time searching for two more female musicians to complete the line-up. The band went through many incarnations with various members but nothing seemed to take off. All along the core three stuck together on a long infuriating struggle to find the right musicians. Adverts in Kerrang! only resulted in calls from blokes and other time-wasters. Why cant people read adverts properly? Why would someone spend two thousand pounds on equipment and not bother to learn to play? Eventually they gave up, yes gave up! on the full line-up and decided to do it as a three-piece. Raw talent and bloody mindedness would have to do it! Unfortunately this meant Swin would have to sing. Several months later Branded had their first gig at the Golden Cross, Preston, supporting Gotukola. A couple of months after that Lisa returned to Preston after three years of traveling the world (sixteen different countries in an ambulance, god love her) with the sole purpose of joining a rock band. Somehow she persuaded Branded to let her in (I think it was the shiny rock n roll pants). Having another guitarist freed Michelle to play more solos, melodies and generally fretwank. The result is hard-hitting yet melodic metal music with very angry vocals like youve never heard before! Since then Branded have played numerous local gigs, all well received, and are gaining an enthusiastic following.