===>> Archive @=@=-- FUTURE STYLE -:-:- electronic machines and trend artists MUSIC magazine

DARIUS KEELER BIOGRAPHY - written by Darius Keeler

I started playing music when I was six years old at school. They had these three trumpets and gave me one to learn as I showed an interest in it. I learned classical music as my mum and dad wouldn’t let me listen to pop music at that time. After two years of playing the Trumpet I moved onto the French horn and started playing in orchestras. This was very helpful later on when I wanted to arrange strings and brass. I played the horn for about another three years in which time I started getting into pop music.

The first record I brought was Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ ‘O’ Geno’. I moved swiftly onto The Beatles and, inspired by the introduction of Sgt Peppers Reprise (the drum break intro), I started playing the drums. From that moment I started trying to form various bands. I always found it quite hard getting on with other band members because I used to write the songs and knew exactly what I wanted them to sound like. By the time I was 17 I had my own four-track recorder and was recording on my own. At this time I had started getting into electronic music, Detroit House and UK hardcore music was beginning.

My elder brother had moved to London and brought a sampler AKA1 5900 and asked if I wanted to combine his equipment with mine, I agreed. My brother also knew Kristen Ogden the man behind Genocide 2. He had made a few bootlegs and had done the first three Genocide 2 releases that were very groundbreaking. He wanted to do a hardcore tune with chords and vocals, so we went up and within a month we had done our first tune together under the name Turbulence. Soon after he approached me to do the next Genocide release with him, ‘Narra Mine’. This is where I first met Danny Griffiths. We all worked on the tune together, Dan working with the rhythms and myself with the lyrics and music. We finished it in two days and it became an underground classic. Dan and myself eventually parted company with Kristen and started working on our own music. We had our own label for a while and released about four tunes. These were progressive house records and were great for experimenting with sound and arrangements.

I soon got bored with the limitation of house music and went back to the drawing board. Dan went to Australia for a year in which time I met Rosko. He was a great rapper and had an inspiring outlook on music. I wasn’t really into mixing slow British breakbeat music with rapping, but with Rosko it seemed to work. Within a year of recording we had the demos for Londinium ready. Dan had come back from Australia and Roya Arab was working with us. We named the band Archive and before we knew it we had every record company in the country trying to sign it.

It was all down hill from there. Record companies can be hard work, especially if the band don’t get on either. So within two years Dan and myself had fallen out with Roya and Rosko and lost our record deal. By this time Dan and myself were experimenting with song writing. Something I had done many years ago with my early bands but only touched on in Londinium.

‘Take my head’ was an experiment of that, which is why it is a fairly ropy album. I think with “You all look the same to me” we had found something we were happy with, a way of self-expression using sound arrangements and songs.

I think if you get these three things right you can make the most expressive music of all.

CRAIG WALKER BIOGRAPHY written by Craig Walker

I started playing music in primary school at the age of 8. Mr Ferriter, my teacher at the time, was a music buff and encouraged me to take up the recorder. I found it easier than all the other kids to pick up, and I was quickly annoying anyone unlucky enough to be around me by playing ‘You Fill Up My Senses’ by John Denver.

I continued with the recorder until i saw The Jam on Top Of The Pops. I no longer wanted to play recorder and hassled my parents into getting me an acoustic guitar. I quickly realised the guitar was going to be a bit more tricky to learn, so I took some lessons with a teacher called Kevin, he introduced me to the wonders of John Carpenter and Sergovia. I played classical guitar for a couple of years and then got my first electric guitar. I can't remember the make but it was dark red and most probably rubbish but it changed my life forever. I started writing songs immediately and found the neck so much easier to handle than my acoustic, I could experiment with chords and noise, and fell in love with it.

My brother, Keith, had got himself a drum kit for xmas so we nearly had a band. Mick Kerslake joined us for a while on bass and was eventually replaced by Michael Lennox, who was a friend. We practiced in the smallest garden shed and started playing under the name ‘Power Of Dreams’. We played school halls, scout halls, teen discos and anywhere that would have a bunch of snotty nosed kids.

We made a demo and started playing the legendary underground bar in dublin’s ‘Dame Street’, regularly. Jeff Brennan was the owner and didn't mind us being underage. We played Saturday afternoon gigs that were pure punk rock. Our friends could come and see us and get pissed so everyone was happy.

Somebody gave a copy of our demo to a guy in London who was starting up a label. He loved it and got us to record an ep called ‘A Lttle Piece Of God’. It got rave reviews in the english press and we were suddenly hot property. We signed to Polydor Records, December 1989, it was my first record deal, aged 17. We recorded our first album "Immigrants Emmigrants And Me", early 1990, and it came out later that year. Ian Olney, a guitar player from Cork city, joined us to tour the album and never left. We toured the world for 18 months, having the time of our lives, supporting The Pixies, The Wedding Present, Wire, The Mission and many others.

We were having such a good time we forgot to write songs. We recorded a second album ‘To Hell With Commonsense’, and got dropped the week after release. We continued as a band and signed to Lemon Records in the UK and Polygram in Japan, where we had a strong fanbase. We recorded an album, ‘Positivity’, and then the label collapsed. We recorded our final album ‘Become Yourself’ and finally called it a day in 1995. We played a final show in Dublin and said goodbye.

I had to re-adjust to everyday life and started a succession of jobs I would rather forget. I did meet Gary Oldman while working in the Five Bells on the Old Kent Road in 1997.

It took a while but I eventually got a band together with Ian Olney, Chris Pierce and Morty MacArty, called ‘Pharmacy’. We signed to an American label that folded before we got to release our album. We were gutted and broke up after releasing only one single called ‘Shine’. I ended up working in music retail for a few years and, apart from the shit pay, I enjoyed being a music fan again. I had no desire to play music for a couple of years until one day, while sitting in the canteen at my job, I saw an ad for a band looking for a singer. It was the first time I ever answered an ad like this and, before i knew it, Darius was in my living room telling me his vision and plan, and I liked what i heard. I joined straight away and was in the studio the next day recording with Archive. I met Dan and Pete, Archive’s long term engineer and fourth member of the band, and fitted into Archive's world immediately. They spoke the same language as me, believed in the power of song as much as i did, had been jerked around as much as i had, and yet they retained an innocence that was as infectious then, as it still is now. I was in the band I had always wanted to be in.

Today we released ‘Noise’, I couldn't sleep much last night, nerves i guess, so i got up late this morning and listened to ‘Noise’. I felt proud of Dan, I felt proud of Darius, I felt proud of Pete, I felt proud of myself….we've come a long way!

DANNY GRIFFITHS

Recent Films:

Jesus Son, Lost In Translation and School Of Rock

Recent Books:

A Drink With Shane McGowen - Victoria Clark
The Damage Done– Warren Fellows

Favourite Book:

“To Kill A Mocking Bird” – Harper Lee

Most Played Music [in the last 3 months]:

Roots Manuva, Jeff Buckley and Queens Of The Stone Age

Favourite Films:

It’s A Wonderful Life, Beat Street, Big Lebowski, Apocalypse Now and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

Favourite Actors/Actresses:

Richard Harris and Kathy Burke

Most Recent Live Band Seen:

Kraftwerk

Act I Wish I Had Seen:

Bob Marley and The Doors

Best Live Show:

Ennio Morriconie

People You Would Love To Meet:

David Attenborough

5 People You Would Like Around A Dinner Table (Past):

Bill Hicks, Bob Marley, Jesus, Jam Master Jay and Richard Harris

DARIUS KEELER

Recent Films:

Recent Films:

Sexy Beast

All Time Favourite Films:

2001 A Space Oddyssy, Elephant Man and They Live

Recent Books:

Fast Food Nation

Favourite Book:

Animal Farm

Most Listened To Music [in the last 3 months]:

Birdpen

Musical Influences:

Too Many – from Mozart to The Who to Kraftwerk

Favourite Films:

It’s A Wonderful Life, Beat Street, Big Lebowski, Apocalypse Now and One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

Favourite Actors/Actresses:

Gary Oldman and Kathy Burke

Most recent live band seen:

Birdpen

Act I Wish I had seen:

The Who live at Leeds

Best Live show:

The Who

People You Would Love To Meet:

Uma Thurman

5 people you would like around a dinner table (Past):

Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Abraham and Bill Hicks

CRAIG WALKER

Recent Films:

School Of Rock, Cheaper By The Dozen, 28 Days Later and Big Fish

All Time Favourite Films:

2001 A Space Oddessy, Elephant Man and They Live

Recent Books:

Nothing – Paul Morley
George Orwell Biography – Gordon Bowker
Porno – Irvine Welsh

Favourite Book:

Crime And Punishment – Fyodor Dosteyofski

Most Listened To Music [in the last 3 months]:

Leonard Cohen, Air, Beatles and Marvin Gaye

Favourite Films:

The Third Man, Apocalypse Now, The 39 Steps (Hitchcock version), Jacobs Ladder, The Field, Dr Strangelove, It’s A Wonderful Life, Citizen Kane and Saturday Night Fever

Favourite Actors/Actresses:

Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, Clint Eastwood, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep

Most recent live band seen:

Kraftwerk, Shane McGowan and Brian Wilson

Act I Wish I had seen:

The Beatles, Velvet Underground, The Doors and Marvin Gaye

People You Would Love To Meet:

Lou Reed and Brian Wilson

5 people you would like around a dinner table (Past):

George Orwell, John Lennon, Marilyn Manson, Spike Milligan and Oscar Wilde

First Record bought:

Cliff Richard – It’s So Funny We Don’t Talk Anymore

Favourite City:

Berlin

Favourite word:

Sublime

Favourite Season:

Autumn

Favourite Colour:

Purple

Favourite Soup:

Stilton and Broccoli

Source: Archive website