Biography
Right after high school, Michael Siegrist (Avant-Harde) and Jonathan Lawless (Jonny Handshake & the Agreements) assembled First Rate People as a roaming indie/hip-hop/electronica outfit modeled on the Go-Team and the Avalanches. The pair developed rapidly, shifting the project from a duo into a loose collective that eventually drew in more than thirty additional young Ontario musicians. Although dozens contributed, the central recordings rested on Siegrist and Lawless together with Linsey Beckett, Jess Kropf, Claire McLeish, Alicia Ross, Liam Sanagan, and Hayden Stewart. Their first release, the ambitious concept album Let’s Get Nautical, appeared in December 2007. Wider notice arrived only in 2010, when the Junior Boys-esque single “Girls Night” began circulating among blogs. The band’s leaders turned down early label proposals so they could finish their studies, yet they still scheduled an EP and a tour spanning Ontario and the States before the year ended.
Albums