And So I Watch You From Afar
Encyclopedia
And So I Watch You From Afar are a three-piece instrumental rock
band from Belfast
, Northern Ireland. The band consists of Rory Friers on guitar, Johnny Adger on bass and Chris Wee on drums. In October of 2011 the band announced a deal in North America with management and record label Sargent House
who will release Gangs on November 8th, 2011.
and Jetplane Landing
and Johnny Black of LaFaro
. By the time they came to recording their debut full length album the band had toured the UK as well as in support of High On Fire
, Crippled Black Phoenix
, 65daysofstatic
and Yourcodenameis:milo
and would go on to tour with the likes of Clutch
, Oceansize
, Envy
, Trash Talk
and Them Crooked Vultures
. They had also, by this time, been getting noticed by UK and European media.
In 2009, ASIWYFA played 170 gigs in Europe. From tours in the UK to opening Pukkelpop festival in Belgium in front of 4500 people to Nova Rock Festival
in Austria, gigs in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Their hometown Belfast shows range from the 1,500 capacity headline Christmas homecoming gig in the Ulster Hall
to a basement party. Their self-titled debut album was released in April 2009. It was named the 6th best album of 2009 by Rock Sound
.
In 2010, they played EuroSonic Festival
and were nominated for both Ireland's Choice Music Prize and the XFM New Music Album of the Year for 2009 in the UK, and played South By South West (SXSW) festival in Texas.
Touring in 2010 brought the band to the US with Japanese band Envy
, to festivals such as Lowlands
, Pukkelpop
, Electric Picnic
, Oxegen
and Sonisphere and to a total of 17 countries in Europe. As well as festival shows and the band's own shows, they have also toured as the main support band to Them Crooked Vultures
.
In 2011 the band won Best EP at the Digital Socket Awards in Dublin.
On 23rd September 2011 Tony announced he was leaving the band.
Instrumental rock
Instrumental rock is a type of rock music which emphasizes musical instruments, and which features very little or no singing.Examples of instrumental rock can be found in practically every subgenre of rock, often from musicians who specialize in the style, most notably Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Link...
band from Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Northern Ireland. The band consists of Rory Friers on guitar, Johnny Adger on bass and Chris Wee on drums. In October of 2011 the band announced a deal in North America with management and record label Sargent House
Sargent House
Sargent House is a Los Angeles based management company and record label. It was founded in June 2006 by Cathy Pellow, who is a music video commissioner for Atlantic Records and who also owns a music video production company called Refused TV. Pellow began managing the rock outfit RX Bandits in 2006...
who will release Gangs on November 8th, 2011.
History
The band was formed in late 2005 and released their debut mini-album This Is Our Machine and Nothing Can Stop It in early 2007. This was followed by a collaboration EP entitled Tonight The City Burns, released in October 2007, that featured vocals from Cahir O'Doherty of Fighting With WireFighting with Wire
Fighting with Wire are an alternative heavy rock and punk band hailing from Derry, Northern Ireland. They have toured with Biffy Clyro, Million Dead, Reuben, Twin Atlantic, yourcodenameis:milo, Kerbdog, Helmet, You Me At Six, Nomeansno, InMe, Brigade, Against Me! and Seafood...
and Jetplane Landing
Jetplane Landing
Jetplane Landing is a four piece band from Derry and London . They comprise Andrew Ferris , Jamie Burchell , Cahir O’Doherty and Raife Burchell . Jamie and Raife are brothers...
and Johnny Black of LaFaro
Lafaro
LaFaro are a four piece alternative rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. They consist of Jonny Black , Dave Magee , Cahir O'Doherty and Alan Lynn .-History:...
. By the time they came to recording their debut full length album the band had toured the UK as well as in support of High On Fire
High on Fire
High on Fire is a stoner metal band from Oakland, California, that was formed in 1998. Matt Pike, the band's frontman and founder, previously played guitar for the influential stoner doom band Sleep.-History:...
, Crippled Black Phoenix
Crippled Black Phoenix
Crippled Black Phoenix is a post-rock supergroup from the United Kingdom. Several musicians have contributed to Crippled Black Phoenix's albums and play with them during their live shows.-History:...
, 65daysofstatic
65daysofstatic
65daysofstatic are an instrumental post-rock and math rock band from Sheffield, England comprising Paul Wolinski, Joe Shrewsbury, Rob Jones and Simon Wright...
and Yourcodenameis:milo
Yourcodenameis:milo
-External links:**...
and would go on to tour with the likes of Clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...
, Oceansize
Oceansize
Oceansize were a British rock band, formed in Manchester, England on 19th October 1998. The band consisted of Mike Vennart , Steve Durose , Richard "Gambler" Ingram , Mark Heron and Jon Ellis for the majority of its career, with Steve Hodson replacing Ellis on bass in 2006...
, Envy
Envy (band)
Envy is a rock band from Japan. They are signed to Rock Action Records in Europe and Temporary Residence Limited in North America, though originally they worked with Level Plane Records. More recently in their career, Envy's music has grown to include elements of post-rock.Vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa...
, Trash Talk
Trash Talk (band)
Trash Talk is an American hardcore punk band from Sacramento, California, formed in 2005. Trash Talk combines hardcore punk with the aggression of power violence...
and Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures is a rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 2009 by John Paul Jones , Dave Grohl , and Josh Homme . The group also includes guitarist Alain Johannes during live performances...
. They had also, by this time, been getting noticed by UK and European media.
In 2009, ASIWYFA played 170 gigs in Europe. From tours in the UK to opening Pukkelpop festival in Belgium in front of 4500 people to Nova Rock Festival
Nova Rock Festival
The Nova Rock Festival, also just Nova Rock, is a music festival that has existed since 2005 and takes place each year in June. It is Austria's biggest rock music festivals, and also one of the largest in Europe. It is located in Burgenland, the easternmost federal state of Austria, near...
in Austria, gigs in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Their hometown Belfast shows range from the 1,500 capacity headline Christmas homecoming gig in the Ulster Hall
Ulster Hall
The Ulster Hall is a concert hall and grade B1 listed building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Situated on Bedford Street in Belfast city centre, the hall hosts concerts, classical recitals, craft fairs and political party conferences...
to a basement party. Their self-titled debut album was released in April 2009. It was named the 6th best album of 2009 by Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
.
In 2010, they played EuroSonic Festival
Eurosonic Festival
Eurosonic is Europe’s largest showcase festival and takes place on a yearly basis on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday previous to Noorderslag festival in the dutch city Groningen. Eurosonic is part of The European Music Conference and Showcase Festival Eurosonic Noorderslag. During the festival 250...
and were nominated for both Ireland's Choice Music Prize and the XFM New Music Album of the Year for 2009 in the UK, and played South By South West (SXSW) festival in Texas.
Touring in 2010 brought the band to the US with Japanese band Envy
Envy (band)
Envy is a rock band from Japan. They are signed to Rock Action Records in Europe and Temporary Residence Limited in North America, though originally they worked with Level Plane Records. More recently in their career, Envy's music has grown to include elements of post-rock.Vocalist Tetsuya Fukagawa...
, to festivals such as Lowlands
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, also known as simply Lowlands, is a music festival, held annually in the Netherlands in August. Lowlands has about 55,000 visitors, over 200 acts and more than ten stages every year which are named according to the NATO phonetic alphabet apart from the Grolsch...
, Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop
Pukkelpop is an annual music festival which takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid-to-late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—between a dual carriageway called Kempische Steenweg—in the village of Kiewit, approximately 7 km north of Hasselt...
, Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic
The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...
, Oxegen
Oxegen
Oxegen is an annual music festival in Ireland held since 2004, sponsored by Heineken. As of 2007, 2008, 2009, the festival has been cited as Ireland's biggest music festival. And by 2009, the festival is cited as the greenest festival, being a 100% carbon neutral event in Ireland. It was previously...
and Sonisphere and to a total of 17 countries in Europe. As well as festival shows and the band's own shows, they have also toured as the main support band to Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures is a rock supergroup formed in Los Angeles in 2009 by John Paul Jones , Dave Grohl , and Josh Homme . The group also includes guitarist Alain Johannes during live performances...
.
In 2011 the band won Best EP at the Digital Socket Awards in Dublin.
On 23rd September 2011 Tony announced he was leaving the band.
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRL Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
UK UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
||
| 2009 | And So I Watch You From Afar And So I Watch You From Afar (album) And So I Watch You From Afar is the self-titled, first studio album from the Northern Irish instrumental band And So I Watch You From Afar, released in April 2009.-Track listing:#"Set Guitars to Kill" - 05:29...
|
— | — |
| 2011 | Gangs Gangs (album) Gangs is the second studio album from the Northern Irish instrumental band And So I Watch You From Afar, released in April 2011. This album continues the aggressive math rock sound seen in ASIWYFA's debut album.-Track listing:... Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... , Download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment... |
28 | — |
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart. | |||
Singles
| Year | Title | Peak chart position | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRL Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
|||
| 2009 | "Set Guitars To Kill" | — | And So I Watch You From Afar |
| "S Is For Salamander" | — | The Letters EP | |
| 2010 | "Straight Through The Sun" | — | |
| 2011 | "Search:Party:Animal" | — | Gangs |
| "BeautifulUniverseMasterChampion" | — | ||
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart. | |||
Extended Plays
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRL Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
||||||
| 2007 | This Is Our Machine And Nothing Can Stop It
|
— | ||||
| Tonight The City Burns
|
— | |||||
| 2010 | The Letters
|
— | ||||
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart. | ||||||
Band Members
- Rory Friers - GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Jonathan Adger - BassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- Chris Wee - DrumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, PercussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...