You Me at Six Band- Serving Young Alternative Music

There is proof that the US is not the only country with great alternative music. Many bands from the UK have gone on to sell albums internationally. One group that is worth watching out for is the You Me at Six band from Surrey, England. This is one group that has steadily moved up from a slow start.

For a group with an engagingly unique name, you’d expect them to already be somewhere close to the top by now. That might just be the case but the rise to fame and great album sales has most certainly been slow.

The band was officially formed in 2004. Leading the pack was Josh Franceschi who took lead vocals. Rounding up the group were Joe Phillips, Max Heyler, Chris Miller and Matt Barnes. To date, only Phillips has left the group and was replaced in 2006 by Dan Flint. The fairly well knit line up should have made the start of a You Me at Six discography easy. This was not what happened though. Looking back at the band’s history, it seems they took their own sweet time climbing up to their popular status, enjoying small playing engagements in the meantime.

The year 2006 was therefore a special year for them. This was when they were able to push out We Know What it’s Like to be Alone, an EP with four tracks. The following year presented another break for the group as they sent out another four track EP. With these two releases, they started playing in better venues, one of the most important of which was Camden Underworld. This generated interest in You Me at Six merch.

Because of their growing fan base, the group was able to successfully release the debut You Me at Six band album. Take Off Your Colours came out in 2008 under the label Slam Dunk and surprisingly took the 25th position in the UK charts. The singles Finders Keepers and Kiss and Tell in particular found high slots in the singles chart.

The positive reception that their first album generated was enough indication that the alternative genre needed the group. This opened the path for the recording and release of Hold Me Down in 2010, this time under Virgin Records. This was an even better piece of work and landed on the 5th position in the UK chart. Currently, the album carries a silver status.

The evolving You Me at Six discography saw a new EP added to its ranks. In 2010, they released Underdog which featured the almost amusing Fact-tastic. Interestingly, it is a piece that details the group’s opinion on the inaccuracy of information propagated by various popular sources such as forums and websites. This is perhaps a clear reference to such sites as Punktastic.com. After this piece of work, the band flew by with more releases. The year saw more of the group’s music with the EP Liquid Confidence and the iTunes bundle Stay with Me.

The origins of the group are obviously less dramatic than other bands that have risen in popularity. Nonetheless, being less than exciting isn’t a hindrance to success. The band has been nominated three times at the Kerrang! Awards for Best British Band. There’s hope that they’ll soon be number one in every band store in the UK and US.