You and What Army was an English four-piece

electronic rock Electronic rock is a music genre that involves a combination of rock music and electronic music, featuring instruments typically found within both genres. It originates from the late 1960s, when rock bands began incorporating electronic instrume ...

band formed in 2007, originating from

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...

. It consisted of David Brown (vocals, synthesizers, sampling, turntables), Kieran Charles Smith (vocals, guitars), Jamie Hancox (bass, backing vocals) and Zak Hammond (drums, percussion) from 2008, and previously with Joseph Allen (guitar), Darren Smith (bass), and Thomas Bridgwater (drums). Although they are predominantly a rock band, they combine several different musical styles into their sound and are mainly influenced by heavy metal and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

History

The band was formed in 2007 and performed extensively between September and December 2008, playing in bars, clubs and other small venues. They were voted second in ''

Rocksound ''Rock Sound'' is a British magazine that covers rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, while also giving coverage to better-known acts. It generally focuses on pop punk, post-hardcore, metalcore, punk, e ...

'' magazine's readers; poll for Best Live Unsigned Band. In January 2009, the band began recording their first EP, ''Soundtrack to the Apocalypse'' in Brown's home studio. The EP was produced, mixed and mastered by Brown and was released on 5 June 2009. With the EP, the band gigged throughout the summer and supported Hadouken in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

during Hadouken's UK September/October tour. Early in 2010, You and What Army was voted the third best unsigned act in ''Rock Sound'' magazine. You and What Army then started work on a second EP, ''The End of the Beginning'', again recording in Brown's home studio in January and February. It was released on 26 March 2010. In 2010, You And What Army played at

Download Festival Download Festival is a British-created rock festival created by Terrance Gough, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003); in Paris, France (since 2016); at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 201 ...

T in the Park T in the Park festival was a major Scottish music festival that was held annually from 1994 to 2016. It was named after its main sponsor, Tennents. The event was held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire, until 1996. It then moved to the disused ...

Sonisphere The Sonisphere Festival was a touring rock music festival which took place across Europe between the months of June and August. The festival was owned by John Jackson and Kilimanjaro Live. It was jointly promoted by K2 and Kilimanjaro Live. It ...

Underage Festival The Underage Festival was a music festival in Victoria Park, London that was open only to those between 13 and 17. The festival took place at the beginning of August each year. There were five main stages: the Converse Century Main Stage, the ...

and

Hevy Music Festival Hevy Music Festival was a rock festival established by Claire Baker and James that took place annually near Folkestone, Kent, in the UK. It was originally held on 1 August 2009 on Folkestone seafront as a one-day festival with Feeder (band), Fe ...

and toured with

Kids in Glass Houses Kids in Glass Houses are a Welsh rock band from Cardiff. The band's name was inspired by the lyrics "not throwing stones at you anymore" from the Glassjaw song "Tip Your Bartender". The band achieved success on the strength of the singles " Gi ...

, and

Boys Like Girls Boys Like Girls is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2005, the group gained mainstream recognition when it released its self-titled debut album which went on to sell over 700,000 albums in the United States earning a ...

. You and What Army has also performed with Hadouken!,

Chase and Status Chase & Status are an English electronic music duo composed of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status). In addition, Andy Gangadeen is the drummer when the band performs live. MC Rage formerly performed as MC with the group, but left in Ju ...

Tempa T Nicky Nyarko-Dei (born 7 October 1984), known by his stage name Tempa T, is a British grime MC originating from East London. He is well known for his 2009 single "Next Hype" which is considered an anthem of the UK underground scene. Due to this ...

My Passion My Passion were an English band formed in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England in 2005. They released their debut album, ''Corporate Flesh Party'', in May 2009 on Cool Green Recordings. Produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios in Reading,

Goldie Lookin Chain Goldie Lookin Chain are a Welsh comedy hip hop group from Newport, south-east Wales. The group produces humorous, controversial and often explicit songs that satirise hip hop, today's consumer society, the "chav" culture and life in Newpo ...

, Dave McPherson, and

Silent Descent Silent Descent is a British metal band from Dartford, founded in 2004. They mix melodic death metal with melodic trance elements using turntables as well as predominant keyboards. History Silent Descent released their first EP in 2005, which ...

. You and What Army are also the winners of the

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

Bedroom Jam 2010. In 2011, You and What Army played smaller headline shows. They returned to play Download Festival and Sonisphere Festival as well as Camden Crawl and Main Stage Osfest in Oswestry. In 2012, the band released its EP ''You and What Army'' as both a digital release and physical copy. The MP3s were offered for free on

NoiseTrade NoiseTrade is a global online audio and book direct-to-fan distribution platform. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee. It enables its users to upload original music and books and give away for free without digital rights management to anyone w ...

. You and What Army returned to perform at Download Festival in 2012 and released a music video, "Into Your Eyes", with clips from their live performance at Download festival. The band stopped performing live and was working on their first album, which was scheduled to be released in 2013. However, on 10 July 2014, it was announced on their Facebook page that they were on indefinite hiatus, cancelling all plans of releasing what was to be their debut album. Brown runs the YouTube channel 'Boyinaband' where he has made music tutorials, skits and videos involving the band, although he now largely creates vlogs and content centred around personal interests (including music). He has also collaborated with other YouTube creators. Brown has a career as a producer, specialising in rap, electronic and metal music. Smith previously performed under the alias 12 Story Fall but now releases under his name 'Kieran Smith'. In October 2020, Smith discussed his experiences with child loss and released music dealing with this subject. He also spoke about his new role as guitarist in

Alt-Pop 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 commercial ...

band Bad Money.

Musical style

You and What Army are influenced by a variety of music genres, including rock, rap,

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

djent Djent () is a subgenre of progressive metal characterised by its use of off-beat and complex rhythm patterns. Its distinctive sound is that of high-gain, distorted, palm-muted, down-tuned strings. The name "djent" is an onomatopoeia of this s ...

, and various

genres such as

rave A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

gabber Gabber (; ) is a style of electronic dance music and a subgenre of hardcore techno, as well as the surrounding subculture. The music is more commonly referred to as Hardcore, which is characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, ...

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

, and

electro house Electro house is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by heavy bass and a tempo around 130 beats per minute. The term has been used to describe the music of many ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 DJs, including Benny Benassi, Skrillex, Steve Aoki ...

. The band's earliest songs didn't make use of clean vocals, however, following the addition of guitarist and vocalist Kieran Smith, the band started incorporating clean vocals on some songs. The band's second EP, ''The End Of The Beginning,'' features both rapping and screamed vocals from frontman Dave Brown, as well as clean vocals from Kieran Smith. The band's self-titled EP features influences from djent metal on tracks such as "Lucidity" and "Take the World by Storm", Dave Brown describing the latter one as "really heavy", as well as a "slow, less heavy" liquid drum and bass song ("Visionary") featuring both Brown and Smith singing.

Red Bull Bedroom Jam

In 2010, the band entered themselves into the 'Red Bull Bedroom Jam' 2010, an online competition where the prize was to win the chance to play at five major festivals and to be the opening act for major band on a full UK tour. In the first stage, You and What Army performed a live gig from a bedroom live on the Internet. In the second stage, they played on the Red Bull stages at

and Hevy Festival. In the final part of the competition, the band was picked by judges Andy Copping, Beckie Sugden,

Charlie Simpson Charles Robert Simpson (born 7 June 1985) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is a member of multi-BRIT Award-winning rock band Busted and he is also the lead vocalist and the rhythm guitarist in the British post-hardcore band F ...

(

Fightstar Fightstar are a British rock band from London that formed in 2003. The band is composed of lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Charlie Simpson, guitarist and co-vocalist Alex Westaway, bassist Dan Haigh and drummer Omar Abidi. Generally c ...

) and Darren Taylor (''

'' editor) to compete against the two other remaining bands within the competition in another public online voting system, which they won. The band then spent two weeks in October in the Red Bull studio in London and recorded a four track EP, produced by John Mitchell at Outhouse Studios. It was released as a cover-mount by ''Rocksound'' magazine. The band also went on tour with Kids in Glass Houses and Boys Like Girls in support of the 'Dirt' tour in November. The EP was released as RockSound's CD cover mount on 2 February and had a

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

which contained the band's progress throughout the RBBJ competition. This edition of ''Rock Sound'' had a full page feature on You and What Army.

Band members

Current * Dave Brown – vocals, synthesizers, sampling,

turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

(2007–2014) * Kieran Charles Smith – vocals, guitars (2008–2014) * Jamie Hancox – bass guitar, backing vocals (2008–2014) * Zak Hammond – drums, percussion (2008–2014) Former * Joseph Allen – guitars (2007–2008) * Darren Smith – bass guitar (2007–2008) * Tom Bridgwater – drums, percussion (2007–2008) * Jamie Patterson - drums, percussion (2008) Timeline

Discography

References

External links

Official Facebook page

Official Myspace page

Official Soundcloud page
{{DEFAULTSORT:You And What Army English electronic rock musical groups Electronicore musical groups Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups disestablished in 2014 Musical quartets