Band profile

Cranefly

Back, back, way back, in the mists of time, Miloco launched a find-a-good-demo competition in collaboration with City Showcase 2005 and Big Issue. The winners of this competition would then be entitled to two days of free studio time at Miloco.

And the competition was duly won, but - and here's the twist - by a band that had since split up!

Here's a little more of their story...

Mark (vocals, guitar), Dave (guitar), Pete (bass) Brett (drums) and Owen (keyboards) formed Cranefly in the golden-leaved autumn of 2005, but that's far less than half the tale, as this curious extract of their online biog reveals:

"After a few false starts we eventually hatched late 2005. It's been a long time. There used to be 10 of us but when we were kids our favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that we found out that Uncle Caveman was a bear. Shortly after that we developed cave bear fear which is ruinous when you are out on a walk in the mountains. We decided to stay on the plane, where we learnt how to run extremely fast. This was when we lost the rest of the band."

So, shorn of five brave (and tasty) members, they, the survivors, decided to plough on regardless, perhaps to honour their fallen comrades, perhaps not...

Listing their influences as (the predominantly animal themed): Lambchop, Grandaddy, Sparklehorse, The Beatles, Castanets, Neil Young, Pavement, New Order, The Smiths, Royal City, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Mountain Goats and Silver Jews, they went out into the world and wrote lovely music. They then decided to enter the City Showcase 2005/Big Issue/Miloco demo competition, did a few more bits, pottered about, perhaps whistled, and then, dismayed and distracted by life's other callings, they called it a day...

...Thumbs were twiddled...Guitars grew dusty...

...Until, months later, the postman brought news. Great news. That competition they'd entered so long ago and thought no more about? You guessed it - they'd only gone and won it!

On receipt of this delicious prize-winning news, they swiftly and gleefully made the decision to re-form, seconds later said, "Yes, please!" and were duly booked into the studio.

So, back together, they descended on Miloco's Hoxton Square in the bare-leaved winter of 2006 and were introduced to our own Joe Hirst. Joe's mastery of Hoxton's monster desk, allied to his boundless enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge of all things tunes, technology and toe-tapping, enabled them to record some splendiferous lanky-legged rock, and a good time was had by all, as this extract from their diary of the time reveals:

"...It's all over to Joe now as he starts the mixing. But wait, Knocked Down is need of a shaker and tambourine track! Joe quickly does the honours adding the icing to the cake. The hours tick by, just the raw tracks sounded good to us but something rather special to our ears slowly starts to evolve. A full on aural experience! Meanwhile Dave's beloved Leicester hit an injury time winner against Spurs. He doesn't play it cool..."

Later that same evening...

"...A listen to the final product - we're very happy. All done and everyone packs up and departs into the rain clutching freshly burnt CDs in their sweaty hands. What a weekend. Such a sense of satisfaction about creating something together. So much learnt too including the need to often use the words of the studio, Joe's favourite being "vibe"!

And still later...

"...Still buzzing from their Miloco session, Cranefly play their first gig in Reading. It goes well, we party, we go home, we sleep for a day and a night..."

And so what's next for these fate-blown fellows? Only time will tell, but surely with such luck and happenstance in their kit-bag, the future will be bright. In the meantime, head along to their website or Myspace space to hear the tracks themselves (Shaky Hand and Knocked Down), and join us in wishing them the very best on all their future adventures.



www.cranefly.org.uk
www.myspace.com/cranefly


© Milc@Miloco 2006