It's been a long journey ...

mufti started life as a song writing partnership between Gill & Spike. We’d both been involved in music since forever – each with stints in various pro situations (Gill was a stage actress, Spike a session guitarist). Between us we’ve passed through a mad array of bands over the years - some cool, some crap, some fun, some you just kinda pass through. And then the two of us hooked up in a covers band a few years ago (covers band, I hear you ask ...? Yep, nuff said ...) where we discovered that we both loved dancey, souly, funky-ish big grooves, lots of acid jazz, big phat clubby anthems, especially songs with loads of heart & great big melodies. And then one night (were we drunk ...? Yes, probably ...) we fessed up we’d each squirreled away loads of ideas over the years that we didn’t know what to do with. So we did the “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” thing and frankly we've never looked back ...

Over the years we tried many times to get a live band together - almost succeeding but never quite, always disatisfied with someone or something. So we carried on writing - got some stuff published, got an EP out, did demo's, did more demo's, and auditioned musician after musician after musician ... Our 2011 line-up featured Mr Chris Walker on drums and The Mighty Revo on bass (also maker of possibly the finest mugs of tea in England). But then Chris hit all kinds of personal issues (bad times for him) and he split after the summer gigs (unfortunate timing cos we had to pull out of a bunch of dates ... but c'est la vie) Anyway, as he'd been triggering samples for the live set (always a slightly contentious way of doing things, to be honest) it's given us the opportunity to think again about how things work best for us and whether we were really nailing the mufti sound live. So a new line-up is shaping up (see what I did there ...?) - as announced on the home-page, after some months of auditioning we now have the massive talent of Mr Matt Dean now on drums (so good, so funky and such a lovely geezer). And right now we're also talking to several percussionists and keyboard players to complete the new mufti ready for gigging again in 2012.

There's also lots of studio action going on as we're re-recording a lot of the songs (and v-e-r-y tasty they're sounding too), plus quite a bit of new material emerging, possible new management, and, to boot, real interest from an independent label who specialise in dancey-stylee moozik. So all in all, we're pupating from the crysalis that was 2011 into a butterfly of much funkier proportions for 2012. (Just read that sentance back ... the hangover's worse than I feared ...!)

So how to describe the mufti sound? Well, big, busy 'n grooving – layers of rhythm, lots of loops & stuff, multiple harmonies and not being shy of playing our hearts out and songs that take the listener on a journey. One producer described it as "acid jazz goes clubbing" and a journalist once quipped "it's the collision between electronic dance music and rock, played by some seriously funky geezers". Nice. For us there are three things that basically drive everything we do: (1) a really strong groove, (2) lots of catchy hooks & great big tunes, and (3) real life stories - behind every song there’s a true story about what it is to be alive and to feel, to be mashed up with hurt or brimming over with desire.

So if you've read this far, then ta muchly and we hope you enjoy the songs. Why not come join us on the rest of the mufti journey ... onwards ... hurrah ...!!!