Darwyn were an

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

and acoustic band from

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. The band featured

Matt Cardle Matthew Sheridan Cardle (born 15 April 1983) is an English pop singer. He was born in Southampton and grew up in Halstead, Essex. Cardle has been involved in music since his early teens and has been a member of two different bands; Darwyn and ...

as the lead singer and acoustic guitar player. The other Darwyn members were; Ali McMillan on drums and percussion and Richard Grace on piano. The band members met at Lights Music Action and formed Darwyn in 2005.

Career

2005: Formation

The band, who described themselves as acoustic rock, recorded the 11 track album ''When You Wake'' in 2006, which included the tracks "Violet" and "When You Wake". They were subsequently awarded an Arts Council England grant which they used to record the follow up EP ''Little Sunlight'' in 2007 which included the track "Junior". The band played at many festivals including Stortford Music Festival and Brownstock Festival and regularly played at the venue and recording studio Highbarn in

. Cardle and McMillan also played as a two piece under the name Darwyn playing acoustic cover versions of popular songs in venues in and around the Suffolk area and videos of them playing together have gained many views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

2006: ''When You Wake''

Darwyn released their Studio album ''When You Wake'' in 2006.

2007-08: ''Little Sunlight''

In 2007 Darwyn released their second album ''Little Sunlight''.

2009-10: Split up

In 2010, the band split and

joined a new band called Seven Summers

After Darwyn

After Darwyn, Matt Cardle became part of Seven Summers with Alex Baker, John Holland and Neillo. The band released a self-titled album in January, 2010. Matt Cardle went on to apply for the UK ''

The X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–2003 ...

'' eventually winning the seventh series of the show

Discography

Studio albums

References

External links

Darwyn on Myspace

Ali McMillan -

LMA 2016 : Llama to the Core
Lights Music Action {{DEFAULTSORT:Darwyn (Band) English rock music groups Music in Essex Musical groups established in 2005