Artist description "If it was easy, then everyone would be doing it, wouldn't they?" That's what we constantly have to remind ourselves. It's not easy to make it as a successful rock band, especially not in these times of manufactured pop and vast musical diversity. Add to that the fact that we take much of our inspiration and ethos from periods of music that most current bands wouldn't be seen or heard dead referring to, it gets a little bit harder. Being part of a band is hard, ask anyone who's ever tried, it also happens to be all we've ever wanted to do. Nobody has a God given right to be successful at anything, but if you don't put the effort in then you can guarantee you won't get what you want out of it. So one thing is for sure, no matter how good we might think we are, we will always put in 120%. So what do we want out of it? Money? Adoration? Critical Acclaim? Not really. Any musician in a rock band would be a liar if they said they have never dreamt of the rock star lifestyle, but it certainly isn't our driving motivation. We don't even want it to be easy, in a perverse way that would take half of the fun out it. We want to know that we truly deserve our success.

Music Style Hard pop/rock

Musical Influences Jeff Buckley, Stereophonics, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Queen, It Bites, Planet X, Linkin Park

Similar Artists Whetus, Stereophonics, Queen, Rush, Jeff buckley, Pearl jam

Artist History The Janitors began life as the writing duo of brothers Trevor and Chris Brown. Although they had been playing music together, growing up at home and in bands, from a young age it wasn't until 1996 - 97 that they recorded their first demos as The Mild Mannered Janitors. With Chris playing the guitars and Trev on the vocals. Despite producing some strong material the project wasn't developed any further until after Trev had finished studying for his degree, some 3 years on. It was whilst living and studying in Cheltenham (UK) that Trev met guitarist Alex Waring. Having discovered a shared passion for writing and playing music, as well as a love of similar bands and musical styles, the two friends set about writing and demo'ing some new material. By mid 2001 Trev, Alex and Chris (who was still providing the blistering lead licks) had recorded the five-track demo "Got it Coming". Whilst still writing new material, The Janitors also started to work on a live set. The trio took the bold and somewhat unorthodox step to play without a real drummer and bassist, instead preferring to use Trev's midi programmed backing tracks. They made their live debut in early 2002 at Slaks in Cheltenham. Strange as it may seem these early low-key, drummer-less gigs always seemed to go down well. The novelty factor of a band without a real drummer and bassist never failed to raise a few eyebrows. However, the band was acutely aware that despite being a nice novelty the backing track lacked the impact that a full band would bring to their songs. So by April the hunt for the right bassist and drummer had begun. As luck would have it, the first bassist that replied to the ad in the N.M.E., was Oliver Cahalane from Leamington Spa. Oliver's enthusiasm for the tracks he had heard was immeasurable; as far as he was concerned he simply had to join this band. Unfortunately, in-between Oli's first call to Trev and his audition date, Chris dropped a bombshell; he was leaving the band. All of a sudden the momentum that had been gathering ground to a halt. Trevor wasn't even sure whether he would carry on without his brother. The Janitors were in danger of falling apart without ever even playing a gig as a full band. It was probably Oli's subsequent words of enthusiasm and belief in the material he had heard that persuaded Trev to go ahead with his audition. By the summer the Mild Mannered Janitors advert was still in the N.M.E. only this time it read, "wanted drummer and lead guitarist". Things never move quickly when you want them to and time seems to stand still when you are in a band that can't play any gigs. It wasn't until September that The Mild Mannered Janitors became a five-piece band for the very first time. Oli had settled in as the new bass player, even playing at Chris's final gig. Ian Kirwan, from Redditch (UK), had responded the advert for a lead guitarist and had impressed at audition with his Vai-esque technical playing. Finally, Chris Scrivens took on the role of the drummer. At last the band could progress! During all this time Trev and Alex had been busy writing a recording a rake of new material for the new band to work on in the rehearsal studio. Two months after finalizing the new line-up The Mild Mannered Janitors emerged from Lansdown Rehearsal Studios for their very first live gig at Boom in Cheltenham. A hectic period ensued for the band, including the recording of their first music video "Know Her" in November 2002. This was followed by 20+ gigs, including a number of eventful treks to the big smoke of London, a bizarre Battle of the Bands contest, successful appearances in Leamington, Worcester, Newport, Wolverhampton and Gloucester to name but a few. The band played regular gigs and continued to improve as live act and gain support until March of 2003. It was at the end of this month that the Janitors parted company with drummer Chris Scrivens - no major rock 'n' roll bust up just an amicable parting of ways. All of a sudden things had grinded to a frustrating halt again. Given an impromptu stop gap the remaining Janitors decided to get into the studio and get to work on the first self produced MMJ album. Whilst the search for the replacement drummer continued the 11 album tracks, including more new material, slowly took shape. It wasn't until May, and after numerous fruitless auditions, that the Janitors got their man. Bern Welz, all the way from Vienna, Austria responded to the N.M.E advert and made the journey to Cheltenham for an audition. The band was suitably blown away by Bern's intent and commitment, not to mention his playing! Needless to say he was offered the gig. The Janitors now continue to go from strength to strength, playing festivals and venues accumulating friends and followers. So, here they are, new line up, new album, new image, better sounding than ever and it feels like it's only just the beginning!

Group Members Trevor Brown - Vocals, Oliver Cahalane - Bass, Ian Kirwan - Lead guitar, Chris Scrivens - Drums, Alex Waring - Rythm

Instruments 3 part vocals, Bass, Rythm and lead guitars, drums

Albums #1 Superguy

Additional Info Cool

Location Redditch, Worcestershire - United Kingdom

Copyright notice. All material on MP3.com is protected by copyright law and by international treaties. You may download this material and make reasonable number of copies of this material only for your own personal use. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or create derivative works of this material, unless authorized by the appropriate copyright owner(s).