ABOUT THE BAND
During lock down, songwriters Pete Riley, Andy Collins and Steve Balsamo started a Monday noon music club via Zoom, initially to offload and make sense of things as the world ground to a halt. What began as a friendly check in and a chance to shoot the breeze quickly turned into weekly songwriting sessions. Taking a Nashville style three hour approach, Steve says, "During the week we would send each other lyric and melody snippets on WhatsApp, and come Monday we only gave ourselves a few hours to wrestle the ideas into shape. It was quite disciplined, great therapy but great fun and we feel we have some really strong songs from it".
Pete, a Liverpool native formed the band Treehouse and signed to Atlantic Records in the mid 1990s touring extensively in America with most notably Hootie & The Blowfish and The Edwin McCain band. After releasing the full-length album Nobody's Monkey in 1997, Pete joined Edwin's band (is still a member today) and co-wrote on several albums. He later wrote, recorded and toured three albums with Amy Wadge.
Steve and Andy were founding members of The Storys, a harmony laden, West Coast influenced country rock band that after making their first album in a converted cinema in the Welsh valleys, caught the attention of Elton John who after hearing it, declared their debut "fantastic!". They toured Europe for two summers with Elton and support slots with Joe Cocker, Santana, Celine Dion and Van Morrison followed. They made two more albums as The Storys before calling it a day in 2010.
"For me it is all about the songs", says Andy, "There's nothing like feeling something move inside you when a lyric lands or a melody brings a tear to your eye. It's only bettered when we play live and that connection is felt in the crowd. It's some weird magic!".
"There's no real plan for these songs or the project", says Pete. "We've recorded our first EP, just to see what's what, how we sound. It's good, very good", he says.
Steve adds, "It's all been very gentle, easy and fun. We all like and respond to the same music, and love the fact that the last Scouse/Welsh connection gave us Without You, by Badfinger. We aren't saying that we are in that league of songwriting, but it's not a bad moon to be shooting for.".