Seize

The origins of Seize date back to 1997 when Sandrine Gouriou and Steven Young collaborated to form the project ‘Seize The Day’, with the duo going on to produce their debut E.P ‘Blades’. A year later, and now simply going by the name ‘Seize’, the project went from strength to strength. Following their debut gig in London in 2000, the pair went on to perform across the country to tremendous critical acclaim. Seize was officially born. It wasn’t long before the duo’s second single, ‘Victim’, was released on 12” white label, featuring a club orientated remix that proved highly successful in Ibiza . Spurred on by their initial success, 2001 saw Seize release their first album ‘Lunacy’. The album won outstanding reviews across the world music press, drawing comparisons to the likes of ‘Massive Attack’ and ‘Portishead’. In order to expand the scope of their live performances, Seize recruited bass guitarist Rosie Harris in 2002, and by now the group were heading towards a more breakbeat and trance direction. With the help of producer Mark O’Grady, the band also gained a reputation as talented remixers, with the Seize version of The Nursery’s ‘Caprice’ proving extremely popular. It wasn’t long however before Seize were back on the road and with new material, touring in 2003 across the UK and Europe to promote their forthcoming album ‘The Other Side of Your Mind’, and to great acclaim. Amongst others, Radio One and Future Music picked up on the new album and both made Seize a ‘featured artist’. This success led to the band being signed by Belgian label ‘Alfa Matrix’ in 2003. ‘The Other Side of Your Mind’ was released in November of that year, reaching number 8 in the German Alternative Charts. After the album release, Seize enjoyed many successful shows including the Wave Gotik Treffen festival in Leipzig . The success of 2004 also paved the way for Sandrine, Steven and Rosie to spend most of 2005 touring with Steve Strange as a backing band for Visage, playing to crowds of 10,000 people. The following year saw the return of Seize on the tour circuit, this time with the addition of drummer Sean Suleman. Highlights included supporting Apoptygma Berzerk on their UK tour, playing the Swedish Alternative Music Awards and being asked to support Front 242 at one of their two sell out 25th anniversary shows in Brussels. Despite losing Sean to Mesh, the last twelve months have been hectic and productive, culminating in the release of their latest album‘Constant Fight’, which was completed toward the end of 2008, and hit stores in Europe in June 2009: it currently has a limited release in the UK. ‘Constant Fight’ sees the band pushing the envelope in terms of both writing and production, merging electronics and traditional instruments perfectly to create a more accessible hook laden mainstream electronica sound, The album is without question a career highlight and sees the band realizing their enormous potential. The lead single ‘Who’s Your Teacher’ is a massive departure from the breakbeat / drum and bass roots that Seize are well known for. Coming on like a throbbing new wave funk monster – think Chic brawling with Kraftwerk and Blondie - the accompanying video features iSandi laying down the law, dressed as a school teacher (calm down boys!!). Belgium drummer Michel Radermecker and guitarist / multi instrumentalist Paul Jeffrey have now joined the ranks to finally give Seize the settled line up they’d been searching for, and with new management sorted, live shows penciled in for Spring 2010 and a full re-release of 'Constant Fight' imminent, it finally looks like Seize are heading for the stars…catch them before they go supernova. Seize was also a late 70's early 80's punk band from the UK in the late who had a single called 'Why?' Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.