Members

2 Degree Field were comprised of:

Alex – Guitars and backing vocals

Marcus – Bass guitar

Matt – Guitars

Mike – Samples / Keyboards

Pete – Drums

Ryan – Vocals / Guitars

Photo info

This photo was taken outside the bands rehearsal room in Sowerby Bridge in the corridor. I actually can’t remember who took the photo. There was an industrial work light that we had in our band room for some reason that we took into the corridor via an extension cord and this went on the floor which is why we got these massive shadows.

I have no idea why I look pregnant in this shot, I swear my stomach did not stick out that much lol. The shot was taken on a digital camera which would have been fairly low resolution as they were just about coming into mainstream use back then. The picture was originally in colour but turned into black and white and used on the website. Unfortunately I can’t find the original shots from this session anymore.

I believe everyone was told about the photoshoot, as we needed one for the website and the instructions were ‘dark clothing’. Mike rocked up in his bright red pod hoody lol.

Band History

The band went through a few iterations over the year starting out as a school band with Alex, Matt and Mike and a few other revolving people we used to jam with. Practice / jams were usually at Matt’s house.

Through Matt’s brother and PJ we got introduced to Marcus and a drummer called Steven. Matt originally started off on bass but as Marcus was already well established on bass, Matt moved across to guitar but played it through a Park (Marshall) bass amp to start out with. Steven didn’t really work out (I’m not sure he was into hard rock), so adverts were placed wherever we could place them, Freeads, in the local music shop Reevos. It took us ages to find a drummer but eventually a young lad named Pete showed up with his drum kit in the back of his dad’s car and he was actually a really good drummer. Pete stuck with us and we started out originally just playing covers and naming ourselves Youthanasia. It was Pete on drums, Marcus on his Dean bass, Matt on rhythm guitar and Alex on guitar and vocals. Mike was also there, but he just didn’t really have a defined role yet. We weren’t aware of the Megadeath album called the same thing, we just thought it sounded cool. At the time its not like we had lots of use of the internet either to search for these sorts of things.

The band played 2 gigs at the Ukrainian club under the Youthanasia band name before changing the name to 2 Degree Field. Why 2 Degree Field? For some reason we had a poster of the 2 Degree Field telescope in our physics lab and Mike and Alex thought it made a cool name so that’s what it became.

Though playing covers was cool, we also started to delve into and develop our own songs. Alex became less keen on singing so Matt stepped up and shared vocals, as the set list became more about our own songs and less about covers. As a band, we were now actively searching for a, or some vocalists.

In the mean time we needed a demo to get more gigs and had just moved into a new shared rehearsal space in Sowerby Bridge after issues with Matt’s neighbours and our increasingly loud arsenal of guitar amps! In our new surroundings we recorded the What’s the Point? EP. We recorded instruments live and then dubbed vocals over the top using whatever mics we had available into a borrowed mixing desk and then output to a computer running an early version of Cakewalk.

3 songs were recorded, Oblivious, What’s the Point?, Pain Killer showcasing a range of rock / punk / nu metal. We were definitely still finding our feet and sound. We did the best we could with what we had but at least we had something to give out to venues even if it wasn’t the best. Mike was more of a fixture in the band at this point and we had acquired an old Roland SH101 synth which featured on this EP in Oblivious and Pain Killer. Unfortunately that synth never really made much more of an appearance. I think it was sampled for live and that was about it. The problem was that sounds had to be dialled in fresh each time, it didn’t have programs you could select so live it was a no go.

During this point the search was still on for a proper vocalist and we finally had a bite from a guy called Ryan.

TBC