HEAD OF STATE have an underlying politi-punk ethos that spews out into a heavy foundation fused with emotive vocals and straight-up rock guitars!
It all began in April 2003 in a quiet suburb of Newcastle, Australia…
Murray and Tim are pals from Kempsey, Tim and Ty sold people alcohol in Newcastle, and Ty and Matt are pals from Newcastle. A Sunday afternoon jam at a primary school hall began the band. We have crystallized… as musicians, as a creative force, as band mates, and as friends! In March 2005, Matt Spencer made a decision to move on, and Levi Dallen (also of Election Day) was quickly appointed the new drummer for HEAD OF STATE, adding his own bangs and crashes to the existing formula.
A few names were tossed around and paced over, but we thought settling on HEAD OF STATE was a great option as we thought it specific to today's political climate, the attitude we wanted to portray, the name suited our music, and basically it was the first name that all of us agreed upon!
HEAD OF STATE play vocally driven rock music! We like similar music, but really different music too; which shows in our diversely flavoured brand of original rock! We believe in our music and style, and believe in our ability to make it a success; that being recording our music, sharing it, and making people move. Currently we have about 16 finished songs, with about the same number in the works.
We made a unexpecting crowd of people move at our first gig at The Cambridge on 22nd October 2003 (the same date as Pearl Jam's first gig in 1990, so hopefully an omen), where for 45 minutes... we introduced ourselves to the Newcastle music scene!
All of November '03 was spent recording a 6-song EP at Jungle Sounds. It was produced, recorded, and mixed by Dean Glass of Jungle Sounds, Newcastle, and mastered by Meredith Brooks at Soundwarp, Sydney. The self-titled EP is only now available at Newcastle's Sound World.
Our EP received great feedback from members of Jet, Spoon (USA), The Stands (UK), The Casanovas, Grinspoon, Eskimo Joe, Donovan Frankenreiter (USA), Gary Jules (USA), Betchadupa (NZ), Vanlustbader, The Black Keys (USA), and Powderfinger; and even a personal hand-written note of thanks from the legendary Tom Waits upon receiving our CD!
Since conception HEAD OF STATE have played multiple venues in Newcastle (Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Bar On The Hill, Palais Royale, Cambridge Hotel, Lass O'Gowrie) and Sydney (The Hopetoun, Vic On The Park, The Marquee, The Cat & Fiddle). We have played with Spoon (USA), Faker, Betchadupa (NZ), Vanlustbader, Dappled Cities Fly, and a host of Newcastle's best bands including The Wireflys, The Looks, Poland, ½ Shot, Cotton Sidewalk, Sleight Of Hand, and Solver.
HEAD OF STATE were named as finalists in the Best Heavy Rock category in the 2004 1233 ABC Newcastle Music Awards for “Moon Tonight”! 2004 also saw us as “Homegrown” feature artist on Newcastle 's NEW-FM, and as guests on the Central Coast's 2CCC “The 4th Floor” program. HEAD OF STATE also recently began gaining airplay on Sydney's credible FBI-FM, Newcastle's TiN-FM, and the University of Virginia's college station!
During 2005 we played many shows, built up our profile in Newcastle and Sydney as a hard working, hard rocking band, and then spent December recording at Scope Sounds.
