A shop supervisor from Wrexham is taking her first steps on the road to rock stardom as member of a band hailed as one of the hottest prospects in Wales.
Recording a new album, supporting the former Mercury prize-winner Badly Drawn Boy and a festival appearance on the Croatian coast are all on the horizon for Carrie Anderson.
Carrie, who works for high street favourite Jane Norman at the Eagles Meadow Shopping Centre is the only female member of Shy And The Fight which was formed a year ago but has already been tipped for success by industry insiders.
Last month they recorded a special session for Adam Walton’s BBC Radio Wales programme, renowned for finding new and exciting Welsh music, and now the band has been asked to support Badly Drawn Boy at a special one off gig in Chester.
For Carrie, 30, from Newbridge, Wrexham, it is a remarkable and entirely unexpected new journey away from the fashion retail career she was happily pursuing with Jane Norman.
It was her boyfriend and lead singer, Tom Hyndman, who gathered his friends together to form Shy And The Fight and it was only Carrie who had no experience of being in a band before.
She said: “I got roped in because Tom found my violin and he realised I could play an instrument. I had been in choirs and orchestras before but never a band.
“Tom recorded a couple of tracks he had written but he really wanted to build on it rather than just leave it at him and a guitar. He wanted to create a band sound around the music he had written.”
Carrie’s own career in fashion, as a senior supervisor for Jane Norman, helps her when she is thinking about the image for the band.
She said: “I follow fashion quite closely and I take that element of my work to the band and when we are doing promo pictures or going to gigs, I do think about our image a lot.”
Describing that image, she said: “I think it is like our music, we don’t want to go for something which is too overdone or forced.
“We are just everyday people, regular people so we don’t want to dress in anything too fancy. Generally we are in something relaxed and comfortable just like when we are recording our music. We don’t want to overproduce anything, we want it to have a natural feel to it.”
Carrie, who also plays the glockenspiel and melodica for the band and helps with the harmonies, said the suggestion to join the six-strong group was quite a shock at first but said the band has become a much-loved part of her life.
She said: “It has actually been surprisingly natural how it has all progressed for me. When Tom first mentioned it, I was a bit taken aback because I had not played for 15 years and I was pretty certain I had forgotten how to play.
“But it had been something that I had really enjoyed and I suppose I thought it was something I could enjoy again.”
Following on from their recording experience with BBC Radio Wales, the group are now using some of their industry contacts to go about recording their very first album which they hope to complete by the autumn.
Entirely self-funded, the group have saved money from their many gig appearances across the North West and the selling of some of their merchandise to pay for the 10-track album.
Carrie said: “We have got so many new things that we want to get out there to people and I think an album will allow us to do that.
“We released our own EP last year but this time round, I like to think it will be more official and get it looking more like something you would pick up in a shop, not what we have made in the kitchen at home which we seriously did last time. We had a little production line going with cutters and stickers and everything.”
Before the launch of their album, the band has been asked back to play for the second time at a three-day coastal Croatian music festival called Stop Making Sense which features acts from across the musical spectrum.
Carrie said: “Last year, we played on the Sunday evening when there was a beautiful sunset coming down over the sea and it felt really special. We are really pleased to be asked back again.”
The band, whose members also include Tom Wootton, from Rossett, Chris Done and Jackson Almond, who live in Chester and Michael Deponio from Ellesmere Port, has also been approached by fashion chain Jack Wills which has bought the rights for a year to use one of their tracks, How To Stop An Imploding Man, for video promotions in store.
Despite the excitement of this year’s musical milestones, Carrie is relaxed about the 12 months ahead and she believes the band’s laid back attitude and eclectic mix of pop and folk music are the secret to their success so far.
She said: “We are all very passionate about what we are doing but we are laid back at the same time and on stage I think people can see we are having a bit of a laugh, that we are having fun and I think they like that.
“I remember one gig where the sound was absolutely awful, the PA system was just too small so Tom told us to unplug our instruments and we just went into the middle of the dance floor and started jamming. Everyone started joining in and laughing, one girl picked up a tambourine we had with us you should have seen the smile on her face, she looked like she was having a great time.”
“If we could be a successful touring and festival band that would be amazing. It would be nice to be a band and not do three jobs and be in a band,” she laughed.
“I would love to go on Jools Holland. That would be the ultimate goal for the minute.”
To describe their music, Carrie uses the words of a fan who once told her: “If you like stamping your feet and clapping your hands, you will like Shy And The Fight and I think that is the best way to describe us.”
To find out more about the band and where they will next be appearing, go to www.shyandthefight.net
