Halfway To New York are ready to take the British indie rock scene by storm with their debut single ‘Out Of Time’, released on November 14th.
The five-piece represent a new generation of indie rockers with a fresh serving of home-grown talent that’s impossible to ignore. Their music has a common thread throughout – strong melodies with honest lyrics.
Halfway To New York (HTNY) are a collaboration of five friends, each a highly-skilled musician and supreme achiever in their own right. Here's how the band lays out:
Ross O’Reilly – Guitarist & co-writer, who previously worked with the likes of James Morrison, Kele le Roc, Austin Drage, Zoe Tyler and The Overtones.
Sam Burkey – Lead vocals and co-writer. Sam’s enviable vocal performance CV began at the age of 8 and spans the West End, movie soundtracks and even performances in front of Diana, Princess of Wales. Sam’s also been a backing vocalist for Goldfrapp and Keith Urban.
Scott de Jongh – Guitars. Played for singers including Kyla la Grange, and has supported live performances for artists such as Blame Coco and Alex Greenwald.
Martin Griffith – Drums. Too many drumming achievements to list them all, but highlights include professional theatre work for a number of hit shows, plus live and recording work with The Rileys across 4 singles and 2 EPs. Gigging with the band included a UK tour incorporating dates at The Boardwalk in Sheffield, and the O2 Academy's in Birmingham, Oxford and Islington, and headlining Shepherds Bush Empire and The Borderline.
Daniel Mount – Bass. Daniel has worked with and played for Sonny J, helping him to create his first album and hit single 'Can't Stop Moving'. Shortly after, Daniel also played for X Factor finalist Ben Mills.
With a string of packed out live performances under their belt, the band are quickly gaining critical acclaim as a cross between The Doves and Snow Patrol, with a dash of Stereophonics thrown in for good measure.
Ahead of their debut release, HTNY have been hand-picked as a Live Nation featured artist, where their music will be exposed to over 15 million music fans through We7, SubTV and the Ticket Master/Live Nation database and e-newsletter consumers.
Debut single ‘Out of Time’ is penned and produced by band members Sam Burkey and Ross O'Reilly and mixed by Simon Gogerly, Grammy award winner for U2's 'How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'.
Sam says: “We came up with ‘Out of Time’ on the very first day of writing the album. We wrote it in a few hours and once we found the chorus the rest kind of wrote itself. The premise of the song is that some things in life end for no reason and you don't always have to go searching for answers as to why - there isn't always someone to blame.”
The unusual name came about quite literally Halfway To New York. Disheartened by his lack of initial musical success in the UK, lead singer Sam packed his bags and headed to New York to clear his head. His trip was brief as he rapidly realised that he’d made a huge mistake. Sam hot footed his way back to London to give his music career another shot, pulled the band together and named it in memory of that fleeting trip across the pond.
Debut single ‘Out Of Time’ is released on 14th November. Check out our exclusive video of an acoustic performance below.