Indighost were formed at the Guitar Institute in West London in 2006. the band has gone through a few line up changes to the now current standing of Matt Simon (Vox/gtr) James Hewitt (Gtr) Freddy Pinto (Bass) and Martin Griffith (Drums). Their unusual blend of rock/metal/jazz/classical influences merged with intelligently put together arrangements and unusual lyrical themes create a sound that grabs the ear and holds on.

Matt:

"Melody and class. Those are the two things main things I focus on when writing. The next area of attention is reeling in the indulgence so that people will actually want to listen to it, and then listen to again. Writing a riff is easy, but putting together a song that people will actually care about it the real skill. This is what separates the bad from the good from the great. The nearly was from the actually was. 

I have been in bands since school under various names but the name Indighost came into being while I was at guitar college. Lots of material written but it came to light as a final degree performance. Martin was on drums, Cian O'Brien on bass and the fabulous Masashi Tsubakimoto on guitar. This guy looks and plays like a total rockstar, and does so without breaking a sweat!  Playing with such talented players was fantastic and they really brought the songs to life. The first gig wasn't without problems. Horrendous monitor mix, cramped stage and a broken string halfway through the set (backup guitar wasn't tuned, d'oh!) I found out about a year later that Martin couldn't hear anything onstage that night. How could he play? "Well, I just learned everything really well...."   Quality!

Martin and Cian were only playing for that one performance so I had to find another rhythm section. Meanwhile, Martin played for some tracks we did at the BBC studios in Maida Vale.  Mash rang up two hours before he was supposed to be there (allowing for an hour travelling time) and asked what songs we were doing.   I couldnt believe he'd forgotten or not prepared but he came down and absolutely nailed in typical jaw dropping style. Tracks were:

Johann Ting, a very talented friend of mine introduced me to Graham Brind, or "G" as he liked to be called and he knew a bass player called Stu Taylor. Indighost Mk II was born.  Mash still managed to drop jaws (including ours) regularly and we played the customary small/crap gigs that is normal for a new band.  Stu's commitment to the band wavered so a replacement was found in the form of Arek Zdroyevski and Indighost Mk 3 is now 33% fretless.  We had now recorded studio demos of Never (acoustic version) at SAE and When You Were Mine at Toy Gunn Studios with Lauren and Paul from The Occasional Strings. By now we were rehearsing at The Great Frog in Soho. This is a jewellery shop run by a great guy called Pat who designs and makes all sorts of gothic stuff. Massive fan of music and he liked our stuff so much he let us rehearse there after hours.

A little later on and Graham called to say that he couldn't continue indefinitely as he was already playing in a few bands and funds were stretched to the limit. Arek was having some difficulty fitting us in to his schedule so in July 07 Indighost Mk 3 played their last gig together.

Masashi had been back to Tokyo briefly and had got through to the final round of a guitar competition. He was considering moving back as he'd received some work offers and was struggling in London. He moved back over the new year and hit the final. Didn't win overall but got a special prize, impressed Paul Gilbert and was offered a teaching post at the Musician's Institute in Osaka. Not bad!  the search for a whole new line up was on and the guitar spot would be especially hard to fill.   

I was writing lyrics for a band called Miss Misery and got their drummer, Mirungee, on loan. He had played in a band a few years back with a guitarist called Lee Fitzsimmons and following a successful audition was recruited.  After a long search we found a bass player in the shape of Freddy Pinto. What a character! Indighost are partially fretless again.  Freddy has brought an unusual energy to the band, as well as a jazz sensibility and explorative bass lines. He even brought a ghost with him as he was haunted at the time! Yes, actually haunted.

The rehearsal rooms we use have mirrors on one wall of the walls, this makes the place look bigger and you can see what you are doing, performance wise.  On the second or third session we had with him I could have sworn that there was someone standing in black behind him at one point.  With the layout of the room it couldn't' have been the drummer and Lee was the other side of the room. I turned to the mirror and saw this tall black figure in a robe, it's face looked scarred and melted like a burns victim. Very weird. I spoke to him afterwards and he said "Oh THAT m***f***r?! Oh yeah, he's been following me around for years! Can't seem to get rid of the b****d!"  A psychic friend of mine later described exactly what I'd seen, confirming it.  Indighost now had a ghost!

The spiritual side of the band was starting to come through a lot more now, with songs like Burn and Shapeshifter being a staple part of the set. Gearing up for this line up's first set together, the gig at The Fiddler's Elbow in Camden was one to remember. The atmosphere was awesome, and despite it being mid November the heat was incredible. There's a blow by blow account of it on the myspace blog but we really took the roof off. This was recorded and the live tracks are available  free  in the downloads section.  We called in some 'backup' (we have some very cool friends) and managed to get Freddy's ghost under control. It's still kind of there but at a distance and doesn't hassle him like it used to. Speaking to his landlady we got some background information on the pub as she seems to be quite up on this kind of thing. The pub used to be called Mother Shipton (Mother=witch) back in the day, and there is one nearby called Mother Red Cap. The area was used for ceremonies way back and it is a natural energy point, anyone with knowledge of ley lines etc will understand this (very interesting, look it up). We thought we really were the dogs danglies that night but we must have tapped into the energy source which intensified everything.  Other bands played that night but didn't have the skill or presence to deliver a powerful performance so their sets (and by comparison) were limp and dull.  

Recording had started on the recordings that would make up The Yang Collection and Martin had put down some excellent drum parts. Guitars were tracked at home and vocals were done at Nova Studios and Paine Studios. Through the spring of 2009 we added They Don't Believe Me, Chinese Whispers and Psychosis to the set. Psychosis shows a jazzier/funky side to the band and allows us to flex different musical muscles. I had derfretted a couple of old guitars and these are the Fish and Mantis that you can see on the guitars section. Indighost are now almost 50% fretless. The fish has made some live appearances and both will be used on a side project called The Scepticle Testicle. More on that later. 

May 1st 2009 was one of our favourite gigs to date. Some friends were putting on an Ann Summers themed night at the Purple Turtle in Camden. There was to be 3 bands, 2 professional burlesque dancers and an adult themed fashion show. It was awesome... A band would play and then strippers would take to the stage!  There was also girls walking around with fruit bowls full of condoms and lube handing them out to everyone. Pockets were bulging and they decided the best thing to do with the surplus was to throw them at us while we were playing! Ironically during Camille, which is a song about trying to deal with a blazing libido. Later that month was a gig at the Underworld, not the most profitable we ever did but we made £20 from hiring our drum kit out to the other band who were to lazy/disorganised to sort one out for themselves. 

Tensions in the band were now starting to spill out. Mirungee and Lee wanted to take the band in a purely metal direction getting heavier whereas Freddy and myself wanted to incorporate more rock/jazz. A split was the only way forward, as it would have left everyone unhappy and compromised, eventually bitterly pulling itself apart given enough time. A clean break is for the best.   We are thrilled to have Martin back on drums and after a few guitar auditions James Hewitt is our new player.

Coming up in the future is the Yin Collection and the band are working on acoustic arrangements of the songs. the tracklisting for The Yin Collection hasnt been finalised yet as new songs are pouring out. However, the artwork has already been done by Amy Pearson who did a great job for the Yang and we will be using Jonas Westling for production again. an acoustic gig is planned for sometime in the new year (2010). We will be hiring real string players, lighting candles, maybe hiring a church and in general making a really good evening out of it, this wont be just your average 'unplugged' session, the arrangement are being reworked and a real string section will add an extra element to the proceedings. More gigs are lined up and possibly some international dates this autumn."