Offtheradar

About Offtheradar

Born in the ashes of the Benson garage explosion, Off The Radar began in a rehearsal room under the shadow of the airbase in January 2001. Before long the 3-piece guitar combo were playing their explosive melodic set across the South-East of England, and yearning for travel further afield.

By 2002, the band’s promotional CD ‘Making Waves’ was being played on student and regional radio stations as far afield as Italy, Holland, Germany, and Serbia-Montenegro. Their second promotional CD ‘Here It Is!’ was recorded in the now legendary ‘Toe rag’ studios (White Stripes, Datsuns, Supergrass) in London, leading to their first gigs in New York City in September 2003 at Acme Underground and Arlene's Grocery, as well as an out of town show at The RoxxY in Connecticut, New Jersey.
The enthusiastic reception that they received led to their return to NYC in April 2004, playing Acme underground and The Trash bar in Brooklyn.

Recording sessions in March 2004 at TPot Studios in Path of Condie, Scotland, introduced the band to Robin Wynn-Evans (The View, The Manic Street Preachers, Dodgy, Sam Brown) and resulted in their first album, ‘Seen From Space’. The album was released by Reading label Velocity Recordings in 2005 and two songs were picked up by UK TV's Channel 4 in national TV and radio promotional adverts for their CH4 music web site.

In September 2006 OTR were back at TPot studios with Robin to record their second album ‘Cut To The Chaser’, also released by Velocity Recordings in the UK. By now the band had begun to draw on a much broader range of influences, taking control of the studio process to develop their arrangement skills and now distinctive sound.

Returning once more to NYC in September 2010, OTR played at Kenny’s Castaways, and at the Trash Bar in Brooklyn. During their visit they met up with Adam from Fountains of Wayne at his studio, Stratosphere. Their ongoing fascination with NYC remains an inspiration for their song writing and also yielded the title of their next recording project.

Third album, ’12 Shots From the Coffee Shop’, brought the band to Riverside Studios in Bath, England (Robert Plant, Owl In The Sun, Roger Tarry, Jeff Beck, Basement Jaxx) in August 2011 to work with Seb Pecchia. Mixing sessions resumed at Riverside in March 2012 shaping a leaner, meaner yet Phatter sounding album, packed with the by now trademark OTR harmonies.

In 2013 the band stepped up the pace with their first foray into the visual medium, working with Toby Rossiter on videos for Novaya Zemlya and Leo’s Song, and 10 new songs launched into their live set.

2014 saw the recording of the new set, with a return to Riverside Studios. This 4th album, titled ‘The Benson Garage Explosion’, has not yet been mixed and mastered for distribution.

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