Darwyn were an

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

and acoustic band from

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

. The band featured

Matt Cardle Matthew Sheridan Cardle (born 15 April 1983) is an English pop singer and actor. He was born in Southampton and grew up in Halstead, Essex. Cardle has been involved in music since his early teens and has been a member of two different bands; ...

as the lead singer and acoustic guitar player. The other Darwyn members were Ali McMillan on drums and percussion and Richard Grace on piano. The band members met at Lights Music Action and formed Darwyn in 2005.

Career

2005: Formation

The band, who described themselves as acoustic rock, recorded the 11 track album ''When You Wake'' in 2006, which included the tracks "Violet" and "When You Wake". They were subsequently awarded an

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

grant which they used to record the follow-up EP ''Little Sunlight'' in 2007 which included the track "Junior". The band played at many festivals including Stortford Music Festival and Brownstock Festival and regularly played at the venue and recording studio Highbarn in

. Cardle and McMillan also played as a two piece under the name Darwyn playing acoustic cover versions of popular songs in venues in and around the Suffolk area and videos of them playing together have gained many views on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

2006: ''When You Wake''

Darwyn released their Studio album ''When You Wake'' in 2006.

2007-08: ''Little Sunlight''

In 2007 Darwyn released their second album ''Little Sunlight''.

2009-10: Split up

In 2010, the band split and Cardle joined a new band called Seven Summers.

Discography

Studio albums

References

External links

Darwyn on Myspace

Ali McMillan -

LMA 2016 : Llama to the Core
Lights Music Action {{DEFAULTSORT:Darwyn (Band) English musical trios English rock music groups Musical groups from Essex Musical groups established in 2005