http://adrianroye.bandcamp.com

Adrian Roye & the Exiles are a folk-r… Read Full Bio ↴http://adrianroye.bandcamp.com

Adrian Roye & the Exiles are a folk-roots four-piece from North London formed in 2008. This summer the group recorded their debut album in the US with producer Michael Chorney, who garnered critical praise for his arrangement of Anais Mitchell’s ‘Hadestown’ released last year (featuring Justin Vernon and Ani DiFranco on guest vocals). After seeing them play live at the 12 Bar in London earlier this year, Chorney invited the band to record at his secluded home studio in Vermont.

Adrian Roye leads the group with his distinctive, soulful voice and acoustic guitar, in the vein of artists like Tracy Chapman and Ben Harper. The line-up is completed by Simon Lewis on cello, Beth Dariti on bass and Dan Paton on drums. Features of their music are a rich texture of stringed instruments, cross rhythms and layers of vocal harmonies. As well as their regular formation, they will sometimes feature mandolin, djembe and highlife guitar in some of their songs.

Although they broadly come under the category of folk music, other roots genres make their way into individual tracks: here and there you can hear hints of blues, calypso and afrobeat.

To date the band have released a five-track EP, Telephones & Traffic Lights, which came out in 2009. The intervening years have seen the group playing regularly in London (Jazz Café, Dingwalls, 93 Feet East, Brixton Jamm, Green Note, 12 Bar), Paris (Songs from a Room) and New York (Rockwood Music Hall). They have opened dates for Michael Chorney and Nell Bryden and shared bills with Tinashé and Ruby & the Vines. This summer they will be making an appearance at the Greenbelt Festival, and have more tour dates planned in the UK in the Autumn. The debut album will be released early 2012.