Dash & Will are an Australian

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with a DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and s ...

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

duo formed in 2005, from

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Career history

Dash (Charlotte "Charlie" Thorpe) and Will (Josie De Sousa-Reay) first met in early 1999, at age nine. The pair both started grade four on the same day at the same new school, Preshil: The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School. Their original relationship was bitter, as Josie recalls the two had "hated each other for quite a few years". At age twelve, they began performing together and in year nine (age fourteen), Charlie and Josie were awarded a small financial grant to record a professional demo of their original songs.http://videohits.ten.com.au/artists-dash-and-will.htm The following year, in 2005, Josie's dad was talking to the father of one of the girl's classmates, Barry Palmer a Melbourne-based producer and former guitarist with

Hunters & Collectors Hunters & Collectors are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, formed in 1981. Fronted by founding member, singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, the band's other mainstays are John Archer on bass guitar and Doug Falconer on drums an ...

and Deadstar. Not long after, Palmer contacted the girls and asked if they would come into the studio for a chat and live performance. He then signed the duo to his music production company, Gigantically Small, and they would eventually sign to

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. Mercury Records released ...

through

Universal Music Australia Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd. (UMA) is the largest Australian music corporation. It is a division of the Universal Music Group. Universal Music Australia's corporate headquarters are located in Sydney, Australia. Labels Universal Music ...

. Dash and Will headlined the 2008 Rock the Schools tour across

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

in May, as well as supporting

Ben Lee Benjamin Michael Lee (born 11 September 1978) is an Australian musician and actor. Lee began his career as a musician at the age of 14 with the Sydney band Noise Addict, but he focused on his solo career when the band broke up in 1995. He app ...

Matt Costa Matthew Albert Costa (born June 16, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter from Huntington Beach, California, United States. He has 13 independent releases: 7 self-recorded EPs, 6 complete LPs, 4 of which are released via Brushfire Records. H ...

and Faker's Nathan Hudson. Their first single, "Pick You Up", was released in May 2008, and second single "Fighting Over Nothing" was released in October 2008. Dash and Will supported British indie rockers

The Kooks The Kooks () are an English indie rock band formed in 2004 in Brighton. The current lineup consists of Luke Pritchard on vocals and guitar, and Hugh Harris on bass, guitar, and synthesiser. Their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s Br ...

on their Australian tour in August and September 2008 as well as

The Futureheads The Futureheads are an English post-punk band from Sunderland, formed in 2000. The band consists of Ross Millard (vocals and guitar), David "Jaff" Craig (vocals and bass guitar) and brothers Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar) and Dave Hyde (drums) ...

End of Fashion End of Fashion are an Australian pop rock band from Perth, Western Australia. The group gained mainstream attention with its 2005 single " O Yeah", which was voted into eighth position of the Hottest 100 poll, compiled by Australian youth radio ...

and

Van She Van She were an electropop band formed in early 2002 in Sydney, Australia, with Matt Van Schie (pronounced Van Ski) on bass guitar/vocals, Tomek Archer on drum kit, drums/music sequencer, sequencer, Michael Di Francesco on synthesizer, synth/gu ...

. They were also on the bill to play the long-running summer festivals

Homebake Homebake was an annual Australian rock festival, featuring an all-Australian lineup (with the occasional artist from New Zealand). The festival was first held on 3 January 1996 at Belongil Fields in Byron Bay, on the far north coast of New Sou ...

and

Falls Festival Falls Music & Arts Festival (commonly known as Falls) is a multi-day music festival held annually in Byron Bay (New South Wales) and Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia over the New Year's Eve and January period. The festival hosts contem ...

, also playing on The Other Stage at Southbound in 2009. In September 2008, the duo's version of

The Easybeats The Easybeats were an Australian Rock music, rock band which formed in Sydney in late 1964. They are best known for their 1966 hit single "Friday on My Mind", which is regarded as the first Australian rock song to achieve international success ...

' "Somethin' Wrong" was released on ''Easy Fever'', a compilation of The Easybeats' classic songs performed by Australian and New Zealand artists. Dash & Will once again supported

on their second tour of Australia in January 2009, as well as supporting another UK band

The Ting Tings The Ting Tings are an English indie pop duo formed in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2007. The band consists of Katie White (vocals, guitar, bass drums, bass guitar, cowbells) and Jules De Martino (drums, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, ...

. The duo found exposure through appearances on numerous Australian television programs, including children show ''

Saturday Disney ''Saturday Disney'' is a long-running Australian children's television program which aired on the Seven Network in Australia for over 26 years, with the first episode going to air on 27 January 1990. The show was a television block which aire ...

'' and music quiz shows ''

RocKwiz ''RocKwiz'' is an Australian television live music trivia quiz show, focused on rock music and featuring different guest artist musicians who perform live in each episode. The show was co-created by Brian Nankervis, Peter Bain-Hogg, and Ken C ...

'' and ' Spicks and Specks'. They also hosted four episodes of a music based show for kids, ''The Go Show'', on the Foxtel channel

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

. They released their debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, '' Up in Something'', in August 2009. In May 2011, Dash and Will also supported

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

on his 'My World' tour in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Charted singles

References

External links

Dash & Will Official WebsiteDash & Will Myspace Bellaboo Interview Rave Magazine Review The Scene Interview Mercury Records website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dash And Will Australian pop music groups Australian musical duos Musical groups established in 2005 Rock music duos Musical groups disestablished in 2011 2005 establishments in Australia 2011 disestablishments in Australia