This City (Europe only)

To put it simply, the difference between This City and other melodic post-hardcore bands is this - you can dance to This City. It is truly the thing that sets this group apart from the other bands operating in this realm, the thing that opens up a world of possibilities for their music.

"Obviously melodic post-hardcore is a big part of what we do," says Grant Coleman, the band's lead guitarist. "But there's more to it than that. We're not just a run of the mill MPH (for short) group. I would say that the thing that sets us apart is our beats. It's possible for some bands in our genre to sound a bit similar to one another. But we definitely try not to fall into that trap."

It all began not with music but with tattoos. In 2006 two strangers met on a train on the way to a tattoo convention in London's Brick Lane. These two people were Chris Purr and Arran Day. Brought together by a mutual friend who had also tattooed them both, on the journey north from their hometown of Brighton Chris and Arran began talking about music. They discovered they had a lot of common ground.

Within a couple of months they were in a band together, and soon enough that band became known as ThisCity. Chris Purr is on vocal duty and Arran plays guitar; the group's line-up was completed with the addition of Grant Coleman, bass player George Travis and drummer Nick Burdett. Between them, the group, This City, have a slew of original sounding songs as well as a small mortgage worth of tattoos. "We are quite literally a very colourful bunch," says Chris Purr.

Not only this, but they are also a very busy band. Since forming, the quintet have played literally hundreds of shows, both large and small.....designed all their own artwork and t-shirts and covered themselves in impressive amounts of ink. As well as performing under their own banner, the group has shared stages with, among others, Rival Schools, Kids In Glass Houses, Ghost Of A Thousand, Sparta, Taking Back Sunday and Biffy Clyro.

This hard work paid off earlier this year when ThisCity signed an enviable new record deal. After releasing a handful of independent singles in 2007 and 2008, in January they joined forces with the Epitaph label for a worldwide contract spanning three albums.

"It's such great news that Epitaph opted to pick us up," says Arran. "It's a real honour for us all too." "We all grew up listening to the awesome bands that signed to Epitaph Records and never dreamed that one day we'd be able to be part of that great legacy"

He's not wrong. He's not wrong. Epitaph Records, owned by Bad Religion's founding member Brett Gurewitz, has become one of the world's most acclaimed and successful independent imprints. Epitaph owns the record for the biggest selling indie release of all time (with the Offspring's Smash album of 1994) and today boasts a roster that features acts as diverse as Tom Waits and Converge.

Then again, This City's courageous and colourful brand of melodic post-hardcore with danceable beats fits well with Epitaph's left-field mentality. Although as proof that accidents will happen when designs often won't, the nature of this sound came about in a most unplanned manner. The guitars were playing punk rock power chords when, just for a laugh, the drummer laid down the type of beat one could dance to.

Everyone stopped. Hang on a minute, they said, there's something kinda cool about that mix.

"It was a proper Eureka moment," says Arran. "We were like, hang on, this is a brand new sound for us. And then we got to thinking about it, and we couldn't think of anyone else who did what we were doing; who does what we are doing, actually."

Which is something that you can decide for yourself all throughout this year, as the band plan on spending as much time as they can on the road. Chances are they'll be pulling up in the van at a town near you sometime soon.

By late summer the group will also have released their debut album. As yet untitled, this first full length outing is, as they say, already in the can. This City spent the first two months of 2009 in chilly and rain swept Seattle recording with legendary producer and erstwhile Minus The Bear member Matt Bayles. Bayles' past credits include such names as Blood Brothers, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Pearl Jam, The Fall Of Troy, Soundgarden and Mastodon.

This City's debut album will include newly recorded and reworked versions of limited edition releases such as We Move and Romantic and also new births such as Black & Blue, Moving Parts and No Hero. "There's a unique blend of hardcore laced with some classic pop sensibilities on the album and I think it's a sound that has definitely found its own audience," says Arran.

"We're ready to get out there," says Arran. "We're getting ready to work hard and we want to make an impression. We want to play to as many people as we possibly can, and to be heard by as many people as can hear us. We want to tour the States, go to Japan, play for all the fans in Europe who message us constantly, visit Australia.....in fact I have a mate that has a record store in Brisbane. I want to us to be well known enough that we can do a signing at his shop.

"I'm serious," he says, sounding very serious. "I know the idea of wanting to play a small shop in Brisbane sounds silly, but I want our band to be heard. We're good enough that if people hear us, they'll like us. I'm sure of that."