Take a listen to Fleece's songsand you'd be forgiven for wondering why they didn't call themselves "ADHD" instead, such is their inability to stay within the confines of a single musical genre (they preferred the name "Fleece", plus there are already several bands out there called "ADHD"!).
The three members of this unique and unusual unit had wildly different upbringings in radically different countries - Wales, Holland and Ireland - and there are two decades between the youngest and oldest, reason enough to explain the variety of influences in their music.
Take Marleen, the baby of the band, for instance. She grew up in a Dutch household where classical music reigned supreme, to the point where she didn't hear the Beatles until she was in her late teens. She's since more than made up for this by absorbing a wide range of musical styles and is prepared to have a go at any and all of them in her home recording studio. Being a multi-instrumentalist is an added bonus as she brings bass, keyboards, accordion and sweet vocals to the party. She's also threatening to brush up her clarinet skills for future recordings. Can't wait.
Then there's Declan, the middle-man in terms of age. Being born and bred in a small rural village in the wild and windswept northwest of Ireland wouldn't normally spring to mind as the ideal start to a career as Rock God Guitarist, but Declan seems to have managed it. Have a listen to "Proof" for...well...proof of this fact. His blistering solo (play it loud) will leave you drooling for more.
To finish up, there's Brent, the band's elder statesman, drummer, lead vocalist and resident Welshman. Having obtained his musical education during the heyday of rock - i.e. the Seventies - he has massively eclectic tastes and is unafraid to display them.
Treat yourselves to the Fleece experience - everything from contemporary Country Rock to 80s Synthpop via smooth Latin Jazz and Pure/Power Pop and everything in between. Songs of love, despair and misery...but in a good way.
The Very Lovely Tom Robinson played "The Banks Have Stolen Christmas" on Christmas Eve 2012 on his "Introducing" show on BBC Radio 6.:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/?broadcastbadge
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/images/badges/broadcastbadge.png
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/img/programmes/pid/b0089jhs/6music_badge_introducing_02.png
http://www.bbc.co.uk/6musicintroducing/
"If She Won't Love Me" features on the soundtrack to an independent British movie, "Into Solitude", which was released in 2012:
http://vimeo.com/50550572
