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Citizens! are an English
indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...
band from
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, formed in the summer of 2010. The band consists of Tom Burke (vocals), Thom Rhoades (guitar), Martyn Richmond (bass), Lawrence Diamond (keyboards) and Mike Evans (drums). Their debut album ''Here We Are'' was released by Kitsuné on 28 May 2012 in the UK / Europe and on 9 October 2012 in North America. Lawrence James Diamond is the son of singer/songwriter Jim Diamond.


History


Formation

The band formed in the summer of 2010, when Mike, Tom and Lawrence, previously of
Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...
, sat together at a rather disappointing house party, listening to music. The three of them met Martyn through a mutual friend, and Thom later, after an old friend of the band suggested him to them. The reason they started the band was to make "amazing, imaginative pop music". Their bold statement about pop music is that "pop is not a dirty word, it’s a holy one!" They named the band after a headline on a
Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city in the Northeastern United States that serves as the primary city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his List ...
newspaper in a
Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...
comic and they like to think of it as "a call to arms, a statement, a mark in the sand". Lead guitarist Thom Rhoades is also a world renowned Carp angler, finishing as runner up in the 2013 Dorset Carp Angling Championships.


2011-12: ''Here We Are''

In early 2011, the band signed to French independent record label Kitsuné. In Spring that year they recorded their debut album ''Here We Are'' in Scotland with Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, who asked to produce their record after hearing one of the band’s early demos. Kapranos told the
NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...
that "there are only three or four bands a decade that really matter. Citizens! sound like one of them to me. They do something you haven't heard before, yet you feel they've always been in your life. They sound fresh because they aren't followers - they have the balls to do something new and it sounds good." Three singles were issued from the album: ''True Romance'', ''Reptile'' and ''Caroline''. An EP of these tracks was released prior to the release of the album in the US. Acts such as Goldroom, White Shadow, Gildas Loaëc and Gigamesh have all remixed their tracks. ''Here We Are'' received generally favourable reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 69, based on 7 reviews. Les Inrocks placed ''True Romance'' at number ten on its 100 Best Songs of 2012 list. The band first began touring the UK and Europe in August 2011. They have toured with The Rapture (2011), The Maccabees, Spiritualized and Two Door Cinema Club (2012).


2013 – present: Second Album ''European Soul''

After completing an extensive world tour including Australia, Asia, South and North America, the band confirmed on Twitter in April 2013 that they were working on their second studio album. Their second album, titled European Soul, released officially on 13 April 2015. Its launch was supported by a two-month-long European Tour.


Awards and nominations

In November 2012 Citizens! were nominated for the "New Blood Award" for Best New Band by Artrocker. The video for ''True Romance'' directed by We Are From L.A. won a number of awards, including the 2013 Fubiz Award for Best Music Video.


Discography


Albums


EPs


Singles


Other appearances

* Kitsuné Maison, Vol. 11: The Indie-Dance Issue (2011) * Gildas Kitsuné Club Night Mix #2 (2011) * Gildas Kitsuné Club Night Mix #3 (2011) * Gildas & Jerry Kitsuné Soleil Mix (2012) * Kitsuné Maison Compilation 14: The 10th Anniversary Issue (2012)


References


External links

*
Record Label

last.fm profile
{{Authority control Indie rock groups from London Kitsuné Musique artists