Drop Down Smiling
Name: Drop Down Smiling (Chris West - Lead Vocals/Guitar, Martin Dale - Bass/Backing Vocals, Mike Brown - Guitar/Backing Vocals, James Porter - Drums/Backing Vocals/Samples)
Sounds Like: We struggle to compare our sound to any one out there, the producer we worked with on our latest EP came up with an interesting comparison, he thinks we sound like "RHCP meets Nine Inch Nails", were not so sure, but people need to listen and let us know who they think we sound like!
History: We all met at school in Nuneaton around 10 years ago. We became friends and started dabbling in music and jamming with each other and we never stopped! We just stepped up the game and turned what we were doing into a whole new beast. Drop Down Smiling was born! In our younger days we were nominated for a Kerrang Award (Best Live Unsigned Act 2007) at the Vodafone Live Music Awards, that was a pretty awesome experience. We have also been lucky enough to support some great bands on our journey to this point in time, a highlight of which was our recent main support slot for personal favorites of ours, We Are The Ocean - we can't wait to share the stage with them again in the near future! We are also extremely proud of our recent music video for single "Why Should We Change", which has been really well received and earned the band a prestigious award from Beat100.com. The video features violent gorillas playing life-size chess with equally as angry humans!
Something Special: We're a well educated bunch, all of us took a break from the music to study for degrees around the country, we achieved this, put the pens down, picked back up the guitars and got right back to business! We're also well protected when we're out on the road, our drummer James served some time in the forces training to be a Marine, and our bassist used to throw naughty people out of clubs for a job!
Where to Find: www.dropdownsmiling.co.uk, twitter.com/dropdownsmiling, and facebook.com/dropdownsmiling
Future Plans: Right now we are pushing the new EP Sign Here. We are having a great response so far and gaining a lot of air play around the country with the lead single "Why Should We Change". We are also currently in talks with a major brand who wish to license some of our music so were looking at opportunities in all markets to get our music out to as many people as possible. We have some great shows lined up in 2013 also, we are supporting Rat Attack in May and heading south to Camden in June for Kerrang's Camden Rocks festival with acts such as Fearless Vampire Killers, The Rifles, Therapy?, and loads more!
UC Takeaway: There are many artists out there who would rather play tiny, mostly empty rooms wherever they can book them as a headliner than open for another band. Drop Down Smiling know the truth: those artists are missing out on a fabulous opportunity. Look, headlining is great; the majority of people in the room are there to see you. But it keeps you in your comfort zone. When you're an opening act, half the people in the venue may have never even heard your name before. Embrace that fact! Show them all what they've been missing and build up your fanbase in every city you play. That way, when you return to that location or one nearby, you'll have a room full of new fans and old friends there to see the show. Look, everyone wants to be a rockstar on stage, closing out the night with thousands of devoted followers singing along to every word of the songs you wrote. Yet that doesn't happen overnight. So take full advantage of the chance to open for a more successful band (maybe you'll even learn a thing or two!), and check out Drop Down Smiling below!




