It’s not often that a British band debut on North American radio, are confirmed for Glastonbury and Big Chill festivals, gatecrash the iTunes Top 30 with their debut single, and all before anyone in their homeland had ever heard of them. With their critically-acclaimed and bestselling debut album, Helium, already hailed “as close to musical perfection as it gets,” Urban Myth Club certainly don’t do things the traditional way.
Urban Myth Club began with a chance meeting between electronica artist Mark Desvaux and Hollywood film composer Stephen Barton who had recently returned to the UK having worked on blockbusters such as Gladiator. When LA called with the offer to write the music for the Shrek and Narnia movies, Stephen took a sabbatical from the Club and the idea of a collective was born.
Mark hooked up with enigmatic producer Ian Sanderson whose genius and passion for creating his own samples has led to his sounds being used by artists as diverse as Bjork, Jean Michel Jarre and Massive Attack, as well as across film and TV. Together they created one of the most talked about albums of the decade.
Recording together but often separately sending files back and forth across the internet from their respective studios a few hundred miles apart, the self-confessed workaholics Desvaux and Sanderson created Helium which sold 10,000 of copies, hit No.1 across many genre charts and has stayed in the Amazon Top 100 for over 200 days.
Fusing electro beats with swirling, cinematic sounds, with a collective of stunning female vocals, the album picked up a broad spectrum of support ranging from KISS FM to Radio 1, Xfm to Radio 2.
“We established this rule that when one of us had a track, they could do anything they wanted to it, building on or stripping away what the other person had created. We have quite different styles, one of us darker, cool and ambient, the other more upbeat, anthemic and hooky. It’s like Yin and Yang that gives the whole things a unique sound with lots of twists.
Urban Myth Club gave fans live performances to remember at festivals such as Glastonbury, Secret Garden Party, Big Chill and Glade as well as in more intimate clubs and bars.
It’s fantastic that our music has such wide appeal. We remember getting two bizarre emails a few hours apart – one was from a top DJ in Ibiza saying that one of our tracks was going down a storm during his sunset set, whilst a presenter on Classic FM said they were going to play another on their evening show. That same week, other tracks were being played by Rob da Bank on Radio 1 and Bob Harris on Radio 2.
Following up on the commercial success and critical acclaim of Helium, Urban Myth Club released their latest album Open Up in 2011. The new album establishes Urban Myth Club as one of the most popular and cutting-edge electronic artists in the UK with their music constantly heard across radio, TV and film worldwide.