North for the Winter are songs about the end of the world, artistic violence, love, loss and shiny things explored through the abuse of a handful of guitars, violins, harmonies and drums. Likened to local legends Hundred Reasons and Hell Is For Heros, North For The Winter are 3 twenty-something university drop-outs looking for a new singer.

"Dark and brooding when required, they play with passion and conviction throughout. A band most effective when going for the skyscraping half-time breakdown, on the whole they are a well-honed Britrock machine." - Chris Carter, Warwick University Entertainments Administrator

"Intelligent yet poppy, abrasive, delicate and eccentric." - Basingstoke Gazette Newspaper

"Not just joining the rock scene, but truly going about finding their place, this band care about their music; this shows in their performance and dedication to their art. North For The Winter are a band who want to be able to say that they came and made their mark."

We are currently looking for a new singer

If you or anyone else you know (male/female) fancy having a bash please get in touch.
Ideally You'd Like: Singing and jumping around a stage like your pants are on fire
Bonus Points Awarded For: Also playing an instrument, and having past experiences of band life.

Chris - Guitars, Vocals

Chris abuses a guitar and shouts like a neanderthal.
Chris likes: Sucioperro, Biffy Clyro, Hundred Reasons, Reuben, Idlewild, Million Dead, Mono, Marmaduke Duke etc.
Chris doesn't like: most things!

Andy - Basses

Andy emits a low frequency buzzing, often in the key that the song is played in.
Andy likes: All things metal.
Andy doesn't like: things that aren't metal!

Jim - Drums, Vocals

Jim batters drumskins into submission with suprising accuracy.
Jim likes: Biffy Clyro, Foo Fighters, Reuben, Jimmy Eat World, Paramore, Hell Is For Heroes, Hundred Reasons etc.
Jim doesn't like: when Tesco runs out of Chocolate Swiss Roll.

Previous Band Members

Hannah - Vocals (features on "Back Off Man, I'm A Scientist").
Chazz - Vocals (features on "Perfect Automation").
Dave - Vocals, Keyboards, Synth (features on "And What Of Your Loyalty" and "50 Years Here, What a Remarkable Achievement").
Mark I Drummer - Drums (features on "And What Of Your Loyalty" and "50 Years Here, What a Remarkable Achievement").
The Stig - Some say he plays the Banjo upside-down and features on a hidden track in "Back Off Man, I'm A Scientist"...

De Boom Boom Boom

Message published on: January 7, 2012

After over a year of waiting, it’s finally arrived, and isn’t she just gorgeous!?!!

I’m sorry folks, but I just can’t help myself from blogging about how amazing this new kit really is. For those of you that are wondering, it’s a Jobeky electronic (yes, electronic) custom-built drumset powered by a Roland TD-9 Drum Module, sporting a rather excellent Roland VH-11 hihat and a suite of modded top of the range Yamaha triple zone cymbals. This is literally as close as it gets to being an acoustic kit. So I’m sure you can forgive me for wanting to blab about it!

Each of the drums (besides the kick) operates in dual zone fashion which allows the player to sound a note on the rim as well as the head of the drum, and the sensitivity on these beasts is just unparalleled – even against the most tippy-top, overpriced products that current industry-leader Roland  can provide. There are zero dead spots! And then there’s that stunning ‘bubinga fade’ finish that my appalling photography just doesn’t do justice to. What’s nice about this kit is the drums aren’t made of bouncy rubber the sizes of saucers like most electronic kits. They’re actually real drums in real sizes made with real wood, and skinned with dual-ply mesh heads. As such, they happily accept a proper walloping like only a rock drummer can give without losing an ounce of sensitivity. I’ve played on lots of electric kits both cheap and massively dear from many brands in the industry and I have to say there’s just nothing quite like these beauties.

That said, I find it’s actually the cymbals of an electronic kit that are the hardest thing for manufacturers to get right. Either you go for triggered metal cymbals like my old Alesis Surge cymbals (but they’re way too loud), or you take the traditional rubber route. Ruling out all the rubbish pizza-slice offerings that you see plaguing the lower spectrum of the market, this gives us basically two options: Roland and Yamaha. Roland cymbals are nice but they’re absurdly expensive. Yamaha cymbals offer the same level of sensitivity without the price tag, but they’re not 100% compatible with my Roland module – thus I had to break out the soldering iron to tweak the circuitry. A resistor here and a jack socket there and you’ve got yourself a triple zone cymbal: sporting inputs for bell, bow and edge, with full choking, for under £100 a pop! Brilliant! And I’m pleased to report they’re holding up extremely well considering I’m the last person on earth that you want to present with any kind of DIY tool.

At this point, not only has a non-insignificant amount of money been spent, but also a fair bit of time has elapsed. Now, you might reasonably ask, well this is all well and good but why go to this much effort when you could just have a real acoustic? The answer is: I do indeed have a wonderful acoustic kit, but unfortunately it’s in Wales and I’m in a flat in London. An acoustic kit just isn’t practical to play* anywhere I’ve lived so far, and in fact the impact noise from most electric kits (including my previous Traps kit) still renders them too loud to play regularly. This kit solves this problem – it’s extremely quiet, it doesn’t sound like someone is putting up shelves next door, and it acts and feels exactly the way my Pearl ELX does. That’s a massive win in my opinion.

Finally, what makes or breaks any musical instrument? It’s sound. The great thing about all electronic instruments is that you can make them sound however the hell you like! I’m a massive fan of software-based drums and have recorded using them for several years. This is the approach I’ve always taken for spatial, aural and financial reasons. I just can’t afford the proper environment to host regular drum sessions. So at the moment I’m using my new kit with Addictive Drums running on my laptop. I think XLN Audio are the closest the world has come to producing life-like, expressive and articulated acoustic drum sounds and no doubt they’ll feature on the next NFTW EP. Check it out: North For The Winter Drumsounds: Lively Snare Kit 1

If you’re at all interested in learning more, feel free to send me a message. I can’t recommend this package enough to other drummers that suffer the same issues that I do, and please do check out the Jobeky website: www.jobekydrums.com

Jim – NFTW

* (or store for that matter!)