Tin Alley are an Australian rock band from Melbourne formed in 2007 by brothers Paul and Jim Siourthas, and Peter Hofbauer. The band released one studio album, ''Everyturn'' (2007). Tin Alley's first single, "In Your Hands", charted consecutively and peaked at number 13 between John Butler and Sneaky Sound System in the Australian indie charts. In 2009, Tin Alley's release "Out of Control" reached number 1 on the Australian Music Office charts and was at number 1 on the Australian Independent Record Labels Association charts for five consecutive weeks. In November 2009, "Out of Control" reached no.7 on the ARIA Australian singles charts and was in the ARIA Charts top 20 for six consecutive weeks. In early 2010, Tin Alley had a special dance version of "Out of Control" mixed by Luke Chable. In February 2010, the Luke Chable Vs Tin Alley "Out of Control" dance mix was used on many shows and radio playlisted programs Australia wide. In August 2010, "Out of Control" was featured and marketed internationally by the fashion company Billabong as part of the 2010 Designers Closet Series. In mid August 2010, Tin Alley released Monster (Pop), a special pop edit taken from the group's original rock version mixed by David Treahearn and Rob Haggett in the UK. Soon after its release, lead singer and guitarist Jim Siourthas left the band for personal reasons. In July 2011, Stefan Waltersson briefly joined the group and in September Tin Alley released "Ride the Wave", written by Jim Siourthas, Peter Hofbauer & Paul Siourthas, which was voted by the music network as a top ten release (a song recorded the previous year) in Queensland. "Ride The Wave" and "Bounce Back" were later played nationally on commercial play-listed programs. During the "Bounce Back" release in September 2011, Paul Siourthas signed an endorsement with

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n guitar manufacture Maton. March 2013 saw Andrew Carter join the group to finalise the line up as lead vocalist which then saw the addition of guitarist Kieran Murphy, a member of Carter's previous band. In December 2013 Tin Alley returned to the studio where they recorded ''The Ghost EP'' in Queensland. March 2014 saw the group release the first of three tracks under ''The Ghost EP'' titled "Chosen Few".

History

Early years

Brothers Jim and Paul Siourthas grew up in Reservoir. Paul received his first guitar at age eight. The Siourthas brothers formed the group Everything in early 1998 with friends Bill Wall and Angelo on Bass. In 1998 drummer Peter Hofbauer of Austrian descent read an ad in ''The Sunday Herald'' and after two auditions joined the band Everything. In 2006, after producing some demo recordings at Melbourne records, Paul invited numerous labels and profile managers to various shows and showcases. In the process, Jim helped facilitate their progression in musical style from Indie rock to the more

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

approach that is now their trademark. On the strength of these demos, Mark Huxley took the band to meet with executives at MGM Distribution where they were immediately signed to a distribution deal.

2007

Tin Alley's debut album, entitled ''Everyturn'', was released in

on 17 October 2007, released along with its lead single, "In Your Hands". It peaked at number 13 and 17 consecutively in the

AIR Charts The Australian Independent Record Labels Association (commonly known as AIR), formerly Association of Independent Record Labels, is a non-profit trade association which supports the growth and development of Australia's independent recording i ...

. Due to the success of Tin Alley's first independent release, another single from the album was released through MGM titled "Polar Bear". The video clip for Polar Bear was filmed and directed in the United States of America by producer Max Rubitzky and proved to be an underground university hit in the United States. The track Polar Bear was only a digital release through MGM, unlike "In Your Hands" which was marketed to

n record stores. In mid-2007, Tin Alley was voted in as

3RRR 3RRR (pronounced "Three Triple R", or simply "Triple R") is an Australian community radio station, based in Melbourne. 3RRR first commenced broadcasting in 1976 from the studios of 3ST, the student radio station of the Royal Melbourne Institut ...

album of the week and soon found themselves playing on numerous TV shows such as ''The Breakfast Show'' and doing guest appearances and acoustic performances on various radio stations. In December 2007 Tin Alley were struck down with the near loss of Drummer Peter Hofbauer from a serious motorbike accident stopping the band in the midst of their first Australian tour.

2008

In late 2008, Tin Alley were back and began work on their second release ''Crossing Paths''. The EP was written and recorded in Queensland and produced by Stuart Stuart who has also worked with The Veronicas and Small Mercies and many other Australian artists.

2009

In October 2009, the title track ''Out of Control'' was released to national radio as the lead single from the 2010 EP release ''Crossing Paths''. The track ''Out of Control'' was written by Tin Alley and had spawned from drummer Hofbauer's near death experience at the age of 27. The number 27 had led Tin Alley to delve deep into the history of the

27 Club The 27 Club is an informal list consisting mostly of popular musicians, artists, actors, and other celebrities who died at age 27. Although the claim of a "statistical spike" for the death of musicians at that age has been refuted by scientific ...

that further led them basing the lyrics in general on that theme and even quoting

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

's last words in his suicide note "Best to burn out bright than fade into the night" in the final seconds of the track. In early November 2009 Tin Alley made the top 100 on the ARIA Charts and in the weeks to follow ''Out of Control'' also made No.1 spots on

and AMO " Australian Music Office" Charts for six consecutive weeks and later peaked at number 7 on the ARIA Australian Singles Chart in early December. The track "Out of Control" also featured as mover of the month on the Jägermeister AIR Charts and was the fourth most added track to National radio and a week later got inducted into the 27 club hall of fame. Unplugged Session Tour 2009 / 2010 During the bands ''Out of Control'' release Tin Alley were busy on their National ''Unplugged Sessions Tour''. The Media Acoustic Tour kick started in Queensland that spanned across Australia over a four-month period from November 2009 to March 2010. While the band were in Sydney Jim mentioned on the Ugly Phil show on Triple M: In December Tin Alley came back to Melbourne to play a special showcase performance supporting Boom Crash Opera for their Christmas party in Melbourne along with other guests on the night such as Taxiride.

2010

Tin Alley were invited to assist Juke Kartel on their ''Return To Australia Tour'' with other special guests

Electric Mary Electric Mary is a rock and classic rock band from Melbourne, Australia. Their debut single "Sail On" reached #76 on the ARIA Singles chart. Synopsis The band formed in 2003 and named themselves after Rusty Brown met Mary Campbell, the manager ...

. The group's success to date from the ''Out of Control'' release had created landmark achievements and new opportunity's for the band. Following the success of ''Out of Control'' in late December 2009 Tin Alley received notice that Luke Chable was offering to create a special dance version of the band's rock track. In the weeks to follow Tin Alley accepted and the track was later received and backed by commercial and community radio stations in Australia and also received spins on commercial stations in the UK and United States and received a Top Ten review in The Music Network. Lead singer Jim Siourthas later went on to mention in an interview on

Nova 969 Nova 96.9 (call sign: 2SYD) is a commercial radio station operating in Sydney, Australia. The station is owned by NOVA Entertainment along with sister station, smoothfm 95.3 Audience In 2014 Nova had a 4% share of the Sydney audience on av ...

he was not to happy at first listen with Luke's vocal effects on his voice however he was still very pleased to have Luke collaborate with Tin Alley and liked the dance version. Tin Alley were fortunate enough to showcase on the Friday night at the Melbourne

Moomba Festival Moomba (also known as the Moomba Festival) is held annually in Melbourne, Australia. Run by the City of Melbourne, it is Australia's largest free community festival. The Melburnian tradition is celebrated over four days, incorporating the Labo ...

before bad weather and storms hit the Melbourne districts the following days resulting in headlining act Vanessa Amorosi and other performances being canceled on the Saturday and Sunday.

Band name

The name Tin Alley was taken from the name of a laneway at Melbourne University where the brothers studied and regarding how they chose their name, Jim Siourthas states: "The name is something we thought about for a long time, and we wanted it to be something that we can relate to and the name Tin Alley was always on the books but Everything seemed to be more punchy at the time," Jim has said.

Musical style and influences

Compared with the other

bands of the late 1990s, Tin Alley's style is noticeably less heavy and harkens back to the classic rock music of the 1970s. Tin Alley has cited many punk rock and classic rock bands as influences, including The Who, The Doors, and

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...

. Tin Alley's success to date has been attributed to its sound, which fuses "the riff-heavy stadium rock of the '70s with the grit and anger of '80s post-punk, without ever neglecting hooks and choruses". By early 2006 the band began to incorporate more funk influences into its music. The band's 2007 album ''Everyturn'' was a deliberate break from the musical style of Tin Alley's earlier sound. The songs on the album featured elements of

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

, worldbeat, and experimentalism which was somewhat of a return to the straight forward rock approach of the band's early work in Everything, when the band dabbled with experimental

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

and folk rock elements on 2001's "NYC". Some of the band's tracks on the 2007 album ''Everyturn'' was cited as a return to the band's early sound. The band's upcoming album, ''Crossing Paths'', contains elements of

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

and new wave. Tin Alley's lyrical topics range from personal to social and political concerns ("Looking Up", "Get By" and "In Your Hands"). The band's lyrics have often invoked the use of

storytelling Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Every culture has its own stories or narratives, which are shared as a means of entertainment, education, cultural pre ...

and have included themes of

freedom Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...

, individualism, and sympathy for troubled individuals. The dynamic began to change when Paul went from guitar to bass and during the ''Everything'' era. Siourthas said in 2007, "Even though there is now only one guitar, I think there's maybe more room now, Peter will pull back and play a solid beat and Jim will do a power chord thing, and I fit into all that."

Discography

Albums

* ''Everyturn'' (2007)

EPs

* ''Crossing Paths'' (2010) * ''The Ghost EP'' (2014)

Charted singles

Sources

* Rave Magazine
''Rave Magazine''. 6 September 2011. * MGM Distribution
''MGM Distribution''. 13 October 2007. * Australian Recording Industry Association, ARIA
''ARIA Charts''. * National Library of Australiabr>
* PBS 106.7FM, PBSbr>
* The Music
''themusic.com.au''. 12 February 2008. * Faster Louder * Channel 31 (Australia), Channel 31
''Channel 31''. 2 January 2008. * Triple J
''Triple J''. * '' Rage (TV program), rage''
''Rage''. 25 July 2008. * Oz Music Scene
''Oz Music Scene''. 24 August 2009. * Neos Kosmos
''Neos Kosmos''. 2 March 2009. * ''Girl''. ''Girl''. 24 August 2009. * Australian Music Office. ''Australian Music Office''. 9 November 2009. *

. ''AIR CHARTS''. 9 November 2009. * Christie Jayaratnam Eliezer. ''AIR CHARTS''. 10 November 2009. * ''Access All Areas''
''Access All Areas''. 10 November 2009. * ARIA Charts
. ''ARIA Charts''. 9 November 2009. * ''Aus Pop''
. ''ARIA Charts''. 9 November 2009. * Facebook
''Facebook''. 12 May 2011.

References

External links

*
National Library of Australia

Triple J
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tin Alley Musical groups established in 1998 Georgetown University alumni Australian alternative rock groups Australian new wave musical groups Musical groups from Melbourne