The raw, emotive vocals of frontman Demetrie Wyatt are counterpoint to his brooding Joy Division-esque basslines. The schizophrenic guitar of Gareth Eveleigh thrashing over the tribal beats of drummer Nathan Griffiths, who provides the driving, thumping backbone of the band.
They form the alt pop three piece nineplanfailed based in Swansea, South Wales.
The band have been described as ‘a mix of Bush, Maximo Park and The Strokes’ in reviews and ‘the most exciting band we’ve heard in ages’ by themselves.
“Its always so difficult to answer when asked to describe our sound,’ they say. ‘But we’re very influenced by the early eighties post-punk and the recent post-punk revival; think early Cure, Joy Division, Killing Joke meets The Rakes, Editors, The Killers…but with big hooks, like Therapy? We’re always looking for the hooks!”
Nineplanfailed formed at the tail end of 2008. Its founding members, Demetrie and Gareth, had played in various bands and first met over a decade ago, when Gareth’s then-current band held auditions for a new singer.
“I remember this weird, almost psychotic looking guy turning up,’ he remembers. ‘He made me feel a bit uncomfortable from the off, and when he started mentioning his preference for wearing fetish gear on stage, that didn’t really help matters!”
Ten years, five bands, and several thousand miles worth of travelling later, a chance meeting prompted Gareth to ask Dim to write some songs with him. Despite Gareth moving from his first instrument (drums) to guitar, and Demetrie picking up on bass guitar duties as well as singing for the first time, new material started appearing.
The now vacant drummer role was filled by 19 year old Nathan Griffiths, a first year computer science student, studying in Swansea University.
“I was new in town, and actually got in touch with them through an advert they’d placed. To be honest, I didn’t really think that they’d be into my playing, but it didn’t take long for us to click at all!”
Demetrie remembers the origin of the bands moniker being decided quite serendipitously not long after they had completed the lineup.
“The name ‘Nineplanfailed’ is taken from an early Adam and the Ants song; ‘Nine Plan Failed’. I was raving to Gareth that he should listen to ‘Dirk Wears White Sox’ (Adam and the Ants’ first album), and after he heard song four, Side A, he said, very matter of factly that we’d found our band name”
Attracting something of a cult following in South Wales, Nineplanfailed recorded and released their debut self titled EP with Death Monkey Records in 2012 and was received with much anticipation and critical aplomb.