Switches

Switches crafts sharp, clever rock songs packed with hooks that feel transported from an era when glam and Britpop ruled conversations across Britain. The project revolves around frontman and guitarist Matt Bishop, who recalls composing tunes on a miniature instrument crafted by his BBC-engineer father when he was just five. He captured those early efforts on a Fisher-Price cassette recorder, building layers by blasting the tracks through his mother’s stereo and adding new vocals over them. Because his chord vocabulary was limited to two or three shapes at that stage, the results often echoed T. Rex.

Rock soon became an all-consuming passion. During his teenage years Bishop upgraded to a four-track porta-studio, using it to probe the mechanics of record-making. At university he assembled a group of similarly inclined students—Ollie Thomas on lead guitar, Max Tite on bass, and Jimmy G on drums—forming Matt Rock & the Others. In 2002 the quartet claimed victory in a campus Battle of the Bands contest, earning the chance to open a national tour for the Darkness.

Convinced of their prospects, Bishop and his bandmates abandoned their studies and settled in Guildford to refine material, at which point they adopted the name Switches. After inking a deal with the independent Degenerate Music imprint they cut a five-track demo and traveled to Austin, Texas, for a showcase at the South by Southwest conference. The combination of the recording and their high-energy performances attracted attention from Atlantic Records executives, leading to a major-label contract.

While supporting acts such as Graham Coxon, Hard-Fi, the Rakes, and Louis XIV on the road, Switches prepared their first release, the EP Message from Yuz, which appeared in summer 2006. Three singles arrived in the ensuing months, followed by the band’s debut album, Heart Tuned to D.E.A.D., on April 23, 2007. A second full-length, Lay Down the Law, surfaced the following year.