This City.

This City are one of my favourite bands right now! Hailing from Brighton these lads just seem perfect for the scene right now with catchy as fuck songs, an imaginative and original rhythm section and live they are just so tight it's unbelievable.
Imagine a mix of at the drive in and Bloc Party with Johnny Whitney singing and you're still not even close to describing them! Best to catch them live (they seem to be constantly gigging so it will be easy to catch them somewhere) and to also buy their debut album as soon as it's released, which was recently recorded in that haven of music, Seattle.

We recently caught up with George of This City...

- So, before we start i think it's best if you could try explain your style of music to any of our readers yet to hear you!

between the 5 of us we like a lot of different types of music and hopefully that comes across in our music. Arran will put his discordant rhythm guitar against grant's more melodic lead parts, combined with a mix-up of rock and disco drum beats and punchy basslines. then the lead vocals try to create a unique intensity that is balanced by the melodic backing vocals. but we consider ourselves to be a fun band that gets played at a party and gets everyone dancing!

- And What can our readers expect from one of your live shows?

lots and lots of energy, playing live is why we do this. releasing records and making videos mean that we get to play live more, so you can expect to see us really enjoying ourselves and hopefully have a good time too!

- So it's pretty well known that you guys are into your tattoos big time and that this has quite a lot to play in the formation of the band; what's the story there?

arran and chris met at a tattoo convention, and i was asked to come along to a practise because i had the same tattooist, Woody from In2U in brighton. that really is as far as the story goes, our tattoos are more about our personalities than the fact we like tattoos - they're almost read like a catalogue of bands or films or artwork we liked when we had it done. so far grant and nick still have the original colour skin they were born with though.

- Currently the music scene in Britain seems a little unbalanced with a mix of shit bandsgetting all the breaks whereas a lot of the better bands are remaining a lot more underground.What are your thoughts on the state of the british music scene?

well it depends. i think a lot of bands are reaching the pinnacle of their career too early. bands are reaching a high before they're ready, and then can't produce decent 2nd album to take it further. where as a band that slowly makes their way to the top, or even just the middle, will have a career and will hold their own and keep their fanbase. however, as a musician myself it is hard to do it the latter way because you get to a stage where you need to be on the road all the time but need to also work to pay the bills, so a lot of the 'career' bands never really get the attention they deserve.

- You recently recorded your debut album in seattle; how was that experience?

amazing. just the culmination of everything we had worked for together since we started. this was us 5, making our debut album for a truly fantastic record label we had all grown up listening to, working with a producer who was in and worked with some of our favourite bands. in a city legendary for its musical history. if we broke up now, noone could take that away from us.but if you wanna know what it was like, it was fantastic. we we sleeping on the floor round the gear half the time, playing from the moment we woke up to well after our bed time, we got so bored in the day when we weren't doing our parts, we ate so much, we went out all the time... we're wading through the video footage at the moment, there's gonna be a making of video where you'll see it all!

- As of now where does the record stand? Any date of release planned yet or is it still a work in progress?

no specific date of release, just end of summer when all the festivals are done and dusted.

- Finally, which bands (other than yourselves of course) do you think we should expect big things from in the future?

this is an interesting one. i could go on forever about everyone! but i'll just name a few:Data Select Party - we've been going on about these guys for years, we're almost friendly rivals always doing the same things at the same time.Outcry Collective - just signed to visible noiseRig Up Explosive - our mates from up north, on small town records. they're gonna be hugeMy Emergency! - guys from liverpool who can write a melody and a halfJoey Nightmare - from chichester near us, just about to release their EP and a video that chris and i were in last weekChaos Days - Brighton Pop punk that Nick has been helping out since their drummer left them a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks a lot guys!

You can check out This City's myspace HERE

And their online blog HERE