> Sign		Nottinghamshire
		Rock
contact	Contact Name
e	contact@signmusic.co.uk
web	www.signmusic.co.uk

Sign started as four students in Nottingham. From different points of origin, they met one by one. Tom and Ste, both initially from Birmingham, created the core of Sign, recording lo-fi acoustic harmonies and melancholic vocals onto a sketchy CD that became the way of spreading Sign. But once Mark and Deppy had been found the band was complete. It was now around March of 2001.

We hid away for the start of our lives together playing music - we developed our identity without consciously mentioning influences. We liked energy, rhythm and guitars. Nothing else was said. Through this came the freedom to play what we wanted rather than what we wanted to sound like and quickly Sign's audio feel fell into place.

Low key gigs at The Old Vic and The Social in Nottingham started our relationship with the outside. Doing these support slots were great for our love of the short and sharp. We grew a taste for fun, quick, melodic and ultimately quite throwaway phrases as well as more memorable dramatic conclusions. The Troubador in London (2002) ended in a fuzzed stupor and scratched guitars. And so, through the gigs after this, and through help from friends on the way (The Autoplan, The High and Lonesome), punchy 80`s rhythms and delayed, buzzing guitars became our signature.

Recording a 3-track `give-away` demo over the summer of 2003 added some seriousness to our efforts. A decent marker of what sound we liked - the stuff that we couldn't quite bring ourselves to throw away.

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