Leaves

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Leaves
General information
Genre (s) Alternative rock
founding 2001
Website http://www.leaves.is/
Current occupation
Singing , piano , guitar
 Arnar Guðjónsson
Hallur Hallsson
Guitar , vocals
 Arnar Ólafsson
Nói Steinn Einarsson
Andri Asgrimsson
former members
Drums
 Bjarni Grímsson

Leaves is an Icelandic alternative rock band formed in early 2001 by Arnar Guðjónsson and Hallur Hallsson. A short time later the line-up was completed by Arnar Ólafsson, Andri Asgrimsson and Bjarni Grímsson. All musicians were friends with each other before the band was founded. The band name was chosen based on the album Five Leaves Left by the English singer and songwriter Nick Drake .

biography

After recording the first demos, they gave their first concert in October 2001 at the Icelandic Airwaves Festival . The following month they went to England to tour with bands like The Bluetones , Doves and The Strokes . Also at the end of 2001 Leaves signed a contract with the British indie label B-Unique, for which they turned down offers from larger companies such as Island Records , a label of the major Universal Music , or Virgin Records .

In early 2002 Leaves began recording their debut album . The awayTEAM production team was responsible for the recordings and had already made a name for itself through its work with Badly Drawn Boy and Athlete . The album was mixed in the Air Studios by Steve Osborne, whose references include the Doves, Suede , Happy Mondays , KT Tunstall , Elbow and Starsailor . The album, titled Breathe , was enthusiastically received by critics and voted one of the 50 best albums of 2002 by the influential British music magazine Q. The band was quickly compared to Coldplay and the Doves for their calm, straight melodies . A total of four singles were released from Breathe : Breathe , Race , Catch and Silence . Of these, only Race was able to get into the chart in England. In 2003 Breathe was released with the bonus tracks Sunday Lover and Favor on DreamWorks Records in the USA. Following the release, Leaves played a US tour as the opening act for Stereophonics .

In the summer of 2004 Leaves recorded their second album, The Angela Test , in their own studio in Reykjavík . The album was produced by Marius de Vries, who has worked with artists such as Björk , Madonna , Rufus Wainwright , U2 , PJ Harvey and Elbow, and mixed by Rich Costey ( Muse , The Mars Volta , Foo Fighters , Supergrass , Interpol ). The Angela Test was released in August 2005 via Island Records and contained the two singles The Spell and Good Enough .

On May 11th 2009 Leaves released their third album, We Are Shadows , on their own without the support of a record company.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Breathe
  UK 71 08/31/2002 (1 week)
Singles
Breathe
  UK 99 02/09/2002 (1 week)
Race
  UK 66 05/18/2002 (1 week)
Catch
  UK 81 08/17/2002 (1 week)

Albums

  • Breathe (2002)
  • The Angela Test (2005)
  • We Are Shadows (2009)

Singles

  • Breathe (2002)
  • Race (2002)
  • Catch (2002)
  • Silence (2002)
  • The Spell (2005)
  • Good Enough (2005)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d biography on the official Leaves Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/leavestheband
  2. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK