The Fumes

Sydney

Genre: Blues/Rock

Delivering multi-faceted, stylistic raw blues tunes mashed with healthy rock riffs and snappy beats, compelling Sydney two piece, THE FUMES are about to explode with the debut album Guns of Gold.

The story so far…

In 2004, after a year long trip to the US, enigmatic vocalist and gifted guitarist Stephen Merry returned to Australia reaping the benefits an unbelievable twelve months spent aboard. During his time away, Merry was mentored by blues great Bob Brozman and had immersed himself in many different styles of music that would later help him define, and develop THE FUMES.

Upon Merry’s return he formed THE FUMES, complete with the addition of percussionist Joel Battersby, who had been drumming with members of The Beautiful Girls. Their first year together as THE FUMES was spent writing, recording and gigging around Sydney’s Northern Beaches while the pair honed their live sound and grew their audience.

THE FUMES surged through 2005 with lightening pace. Never out of the nation’s gig listings, they relentlessly delivered red hot live shows and supported various acts that ranged from The Beautiful Girls, Dallas Crane and, Ash Grunwald to The Pictures, Dan Kelly, Cog and, Hayseed Dixie (USA). THE FUMES also made their festival debut in 2005 performing at The Great Southern Blues Festival, Peats Ridge and Newtown Festival and delivered their own headline shows too, notably numerous in Sydney where they played many sold out shows that always guaranteed fantastic live reviews.

In July 2005, THE FUMES released their first radio single - Oh My Babylon - and the acclaim for the band grew. With its beautifully built arrangement, a big intro and a huge rousing ending the track ensured THE FUMES had radios’ attention. Oh My Babylon went on to gain airplay on Triple J, community and regional radio nationally.

To cap off what was a stellar year for THE FUMES, the duo were named Blues Artist of The Year at the 2005 Music Oz Awards, signed to Sydney independent label Silent Partner Recordings and began recording their debut album with producer Lindsay Gravina at Birdland Studios in Melbourne. Now in 2006, THE FUMES debut album Guns of Gold featuring a new recording of Oh My Babylon and latest radio single, Automobile is stacked full of swagger, groove and assured great times and was relased on May 1st 2006.

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