Introducing: Elliot Minor

Matt Seymour BBC Radio York Introducing

The band have come a long way since their days of singing in York Minster

They may look and sound every bit the American pop punk band, but they are in fact from York and, as their divine harmonies hint, were once choristers at York Minster. As their inevitable rise to pop stardom began Matt Seymour met Elliot Minor.

When the CD dropped on my desk I thought to myself "Nah, this lot are American". The band's first single, Parallel Worlds is a non-stop steam train of screaming guitars and well thought out harmonies. The tune isn't bad either, but as I was convinced they were from somewhere across the Atlantic I didn't pay them too much attention.

Shows what I know.

So it was with great pleasure that I discovered The Minor (as I like to call them) were looking likely to be the next big name band to come out of York. In March 2007 they popped into the BBC Radio York studios to play a tune for BBC Radio York Introducing. They also stopped for a chat. It seems they'd already played some pretty big gigs. They supported McFly at Newcastle Arena and they've played in Carling Academies.

So how did the band get started?

"We all knew each other one way or another. Me (Alex), Dan, Ali and Teddy all went to the Minster school and me and Ed started off as an acoustic duo after meeting at secondary school.

"We got together, and then started building up a fan base. We actually started off as The Academy but changed the name to Elliot Minor just under a year ago."

How important was the band name to you, and how did you end up with the name Elliot Minor?

"It took three months to come up with a new name, but we picked Elliot Minor because when you hear it you don't necessarily think of anything, so we could make our own way.

"There are so many myths behind the name: That Elliot came from Scrubs, also our piano's called Elliot... and we use a lot of minor chords. The music's quite dark and moody, but not all of it."

How did you come to record your CD in the States?

"One of the bands that we look up to is Something Corporate. We wanted the same producer as them, and he lives in California. LA's so big you can get anything you need musically. If you need an instrument it's so easy to get things, there are so many studios. We've got the guy who played uilleann pipes on the Titanic soundtrack, a guy called Eric Rigler, playing on our CD.

"Our management is American and he has a really good link with a lot of American producers. That was the sound we wanted to go for so it made sense."

Does this mean it suddenly goes all 'Irish' in the middle?

"No no no, although we thought we'd submit it for Titanic II when that comes out."