Cheatahs frontman Nathan Hewitt and guitarist James Wignall met eight years… Read Full Bio ↴Cheatahs frontman Nathan Hewitt and guitarist James Wignall met eight years ago while working in a Camden pub, and instantly bonded over their shared passion for music and Seinfeld. Nathan had just moved to London from his hometown of Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, while James, originally from Leicester, had moved to the capital after studying in Leeds. Fast-forward six years––each having played in various bands in between––and the friends finally began to work seriously together when Nathan asked James to collaborate on a batch of songs he’d been working on. The musical understanding between the two was instantaneous and they went about recruiting two friends to complete the lineup––bassist and producer Dean Reid, who had moved to London from San Diego, California, a few years before, and drummer Marc Raue, originally from Dresden, Germany.

Following a few tapes and seven inches on various labels, in June 2012 Cheatahs released their first EP, “Coared”, recorded and produced by Dean, on Marshall Teller Records, of which the NME wrote: “by pushing the hooks and melodies to the fore and not just relying on the “sound”, this new quartet are elevating themselves to be one of the best.”

With songs written by Nathan and James beginning to pile up, the band decided to make a follow up EP immediately; again produced by Dean, the quartet recorded the bulk of the music in their Hackney studio over a weekend in June. Shortly after, the band supported Milk Music in East London, a gig at which, as luck would have it, Mark and Ben from Wichita Recordings were in attendance. The duo were impressed by the set and asked the band if they had any recorded music they could listen to. After hearing “Coared” and the unreleased songs, Wichita offered to sign Cheatahs and put out the newly recorded EP – “SANS” – as their first release on the label.

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