Rockers My Jersualem heading for Brum gig
American indie rockers My Jerusalem will preview songs from their second album, Preachers, when they headline Birmingham's O2 Academy 3 on Tuesday 6th August
The band, who formed in 2009, have enjoyed success throughout the USA and are now looking to build a British audience.
The band originally began as a collective featuring Jeff Klein and Dave Rosser of The Twilight Singers, Rick Nelson of Polyphonic Spree, Ashley Dzerigian of Great Northern and Cully Symington of Bishop Allen.
They released a successful debut EP, Without Feathers, and soon dazzled fans, radio DJs and critics alike.
The glue that bound the band was Jeff Klein, who had played with each of the band's members on his solo tour. He'd also played alongside them as a touring and recording member of The Twilight Singers and The Gutter Twins.
Klein said: "I didn't actually start out thinking of forming a band. I'd played with all of them at different times, and I was like, 'How great would it be to play will all of these people at the same time?' And then when we did it made perfect sense for that to be what we do. We clicked immediately."
Preachers, the second full length album from Austin's My Jerusalem, leads the listener on a cinematic journey through a reckless, jagged landscape of Raymond Carver-esque stories, fueled by Klein's persuasive baritone, ominous guitars, dream-like keyboards and a deep rhythmic pulse.
The band have been garnering attention since their grand introduction in 2009 at SXSW.
Their debut album, Gone For Good, was released in 2010 to much critical acclaim. The band quickly gained support from BBC 6Music, which hosted a live session on Marc Riley's show.
Klein added that the inspiration for the band was a collective desire to make great music: "Creativity is a muscle and if you don't exercise it, it will atrophy.
"I think we were all feeling a bit bored at the moment and wanted to all make something together. The juggling isn't too bad. Contrary to what I've seen some people write, this isn't a "side project".
"It's a collective and a main focus. It's a living, breathing dragon with a lot of heads, arms, and feet. Sometimes some people will be busy with other things, but there is a large family of almost 20 of us to work with to pick up the slack. You'll always probably have at least six of us up in your face at all times. This way it's always moving forward.
"Recording is chaotic whether its two people or 20 people. The whole process is pretty democratic though and we all are kind of coming from a similar place. So far everyone's input has been valid and valuable. The songs in the moment define where they go, we just kind of follow."
By?Andy Richardson
