Four boys, one band, one dream

Ruled by Fate

Mikey Williamson, 20, Hairdresser at Toni & Guy
Rob Sweeney, 19, Unemployed
Simon Crofts, 20, Trainee accountant
Aarin Martin, 21, University student studying computer programming

The head banging, guitar smashing rock band, Ruled by Fate are long time friends from Leicester.
Their genre of rock music is alternative rock; it has emerged from independent underground music, which is becoming more and more popular in the 21st century. There is no set musical style for alternative rock but is proving successful in mainstream culture. Bands are starting off in bars and pubs and end up playing in front of a wide audience of up to a 5000 people.
The band regard themselves to have fate as forming the band just happened to fall into place. Mikey and Simon could play the guitar, Aarin could play the drums and Rob could sing. Therefore came up with the band name Ruled by Fate.
To begin with, forming the band and playing together was just a hobby, meeting up a couple of times a week to just play together. However, they have now started to take it seriously and see it as a profession and hopefully would like to make a career out of it.
They are dedicated to practising their music. As they rehearse at a professional studio, Lock 42, meeting up 3 days a week for 6 hours in total.
All the band members’ parents are very supportive in helping the band purse their career, as they are aware that their son’s have started to take it seriously.
At the moment the band are making group decisions but in the future they will think about getting some sort of management.
Simon handles a lot of the PR work. He finds venues to play their gigs at and produces the flyers for the band.
Mikey puts in the creative aspect to enhance the image of the band. He plans the layout of the group dynamics when performing on stage. Also co-ordinates the dress code for the band when performing live gigs.
Rob writes most of lyrics – the whole group puts ideas together and then they will melt it into one. The track lyrics are about their feelings and life experience so far. “The concept of our songs will grow lyrically as we get continue to get mature and develop as a band.”
Aarin makes the background beat to the tracks. He uses technical equipment in order to produce the final piece.
They are currently getting into playing regular live gigs at small venues. The show creates an energetic atmosphere that pulls in a large audience. Their loud rock tunes gets the crowd fighting to music. Each set last around 25 minutes which consists of 5 songs.
Callum Broughton, 20, a member of the audience at the shed thought “There really good for a new band, I enjoyed watching them, they definitely got my heart racing. I’m going to go home and follow them on twitter.”
How do you feel when performing live? “The first song is always nerve racking, as when you first get on stage you can’t help but notice everyone looking at you. After you’ve played the first song you forget about the audience and by the time you know it time fly’s bye. However if you’re the second or third band to play, you’re sitting around waiting to go on stage which makes it tense. Also when other bands are playing at the same venue its daunting as you feel you need to impress them.”
When I asked the band, would you consider going on X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent? They replied, “No, we would like to do it our own way, we’re like a family and to keep it that way. We have built a good reputation with our loyal fans and like to make connections of our own. So when we do make it we can feel like we have earned it.” They seem independent and know the road they want to pursue in order to achieve their success.
The group of lads are inspired by famous bands such as The Used and Chemical Romance as one day they hope to be just as triumphant as them.
So far the band has released an EP ‘From the Depths’ which is a short demo of their songs. It is available to download via Facebook/Twitter. In addition they have an album coming out on 14th May which is available to download from iTunes.
Future plans for the band are to produce some cd’s and merchandise for live gig events. It will make them feel more official and ambitious towards their goals. Hopefully over the next few years they would like to progress further and play at festivals like Glaston Budget and Brooke Fest. Therefore attracting a wider fan base ranging over the country.
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