Bio

A band called .Breathe plays its last show on New Years' Eve 2001 after which, the drummer leaves the group. Unable to find a replacement in the early months of 2002, the remaining four members write an album's worth of new songs with an old drum machine and find that it drastically alters their sound. They embrace it and begin to weave a dense mesh of sounds around the machine's unfaltering metronomic pulse. The new songs are dark. The new songs are loud. It is the beginning of a new band entirely; Dead End Beat.

The band enlist the help of Rikki Gooch from the TrinityRoots to recreate and embellish the drum machine patterns on his drum kit then enter the recording studio in 2002. The band work closely with producer Mike Gibson, at Inca productions in Wellington, to realise their songs over late nights that blur into five months.

The debut album from Dead End Beat was completed early 2003.

The band finds Rick Cranson freshly back from the UK and immediately recruits him as their drummer. Channelling Bonham, Moon and Moe Tucker, Rick powers the band through their live sets as the group drop bombshells on audiences in their Wellington home. A fortnight tour of the UK follows in June. The group scares audiences from Dublin to Brighton and returns home having played more shows as Dead End Beat out of their home country than within it.

2004 arrives and Dead End Beat move to release their debut album in March. In tandem with the release of the album, they plan to release a single 'All My Riches' with its Joe Lonie-directed video. The new video features infamous American porn actress Shayla La Veaux while the group themselves perform in the flickering shadows of an old movie theatre. It is a perfect summation of the Dead End Beat sound: A hypnotic drum and bass pulse wrapped in layers of electric sound with intoning and insistent melody.

Band Members:
Andrew Tilby (vocals, guitar)
Pet Johnson (bass)
Rick Cranson (drums)
Richard Small (guitar)
Steve Gallagher (keyboard)