North London’s Proceed have been on a steady climb of good press. After releasing two full length EP’s, 2008’s ‘Seven months and a fire blanket’ and last year’s highly acclaimed ‘Curious Electric’ their latest release includes two cover songs, Ceelo Green’s smash single ‘F*ck you’ and another Kelly Rowland’s average club banger ‘Commander’.
Backed from day one by Kerrang! Radios Alex Baker, the band have in Dan Lancaster a beautifully gifted vocalist, capable of hitting almost if not every note that’s ever been sung in the history of recorded music, ever.
In a time where guitar bands have almost died out Proceed are still waving the ‘riffs are for winners’ flag high, and the song ‘Strange Meeting’ from the ‘Curious Electric’ EP is a fine example of this.
Gone are the hardcore screams of ‘Treading Water’ and ‘The First in a Long line’ from the first record, replaced this time by top draw guitar work, best shown on the excellent ‘Strange Meeting’. With a running time of little over half an hour ‘Curious Electric’ is a relatively short effort, but shows off the talents of a band heading in the right direction.
Why did you decide to bring out an EP of cover versions?
Tom Doyle, Bass: We wanted something to keep people interested whilst we were writing and recording our album, and the covers seemed a great way to do this.
It’s not an EP of cover versions as such, but we released the 2 covers because so many people wanted to download them, having watched the YouTube videos for the songs online.
Dan, our singer runs his own studio and so we have the benefit and luxury of spending time recording and writing in there as we did with our previous release, ‘Curious Electric’.
Are playing at any of the festivals?
Tom:We’re concentration on the album at the moment so there is no live dates confirmed at the moment, but watch this space.
The most important thing in North London? I’m sure a few Arsenal and Spurs fans would disagree, but give it twelve months and who knows?
For more info visit www.proceed-online.com