The Miserable Rich

From: Brighton

Influences: Colin Blunstone’s Say You Don’t Mind and the Balanescu Quartet’s Kraftwerk covers album.

Profile: The Miserable Rich story dates back to 2007, when cellist Will Calderbank, violinist Mike Siddell and vocalist James de Malplaquet met while playing with former Download stars Shoreline.

The trio started working on a collection of James’s songs, slowly piecing together their debut album Twelve Ways To Count with the help of members of The Willkommen Collective – home to permanent double bassist Rhys Lovell and guitarist/pianist Ricky Pritchard.

Released in 2008, their debut was selected as album of the day on BBC Radio 6 Music and described as “heartbreakingly beautiful” by the NME.

The follow-up, Of Flight And Fury, earned them sessions on BBC Radio 4’s Loose Ends and Mark Lamarr’s BBC Radio 2 show, and a gig scoring The Girl Is Mime, starring future Hobbit Martin Freeman, as part of the international 48-Hour Film Project.

For their third and current album, Miss You In The Days, The Miserable Rich decamped to Norfolk’s Blickling Hall for a month, adding a drummer to the recordings of songs about sex, death and possession.

The album, which was funded through a Pledge Campaign, was released on Halloween 2011, with a special show at the stately home.

As part of the crowd-funding campaign the band has recorded a special version of Kylie Minogue’s All The Lovers, splicing in elements of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which will probably be released as part of a covers and Frankfurt-recorded live album next year.

Under Glass from Miss You In The Days (right click on the track to download, left click to stream)

Website: themiserablerich.com

YouTube: youtube.com/themiserablerich

Facebook: facebook.com/themiserablerich