Social Malfunction
In April 2001, something strange happened. A group of college students who happened to be able to play musical instruments hired a practice room at Startrak Studios, Stoke-on-Trent, and decided to play various notes on their musical instruments, at the same time as each other, to some sort of rhythm. This concept may not be all that strange, but the resulting sound certainly was.
Initially the nameless 3 member band consisted of Chris Barlow (Saxophone/Vocals), Baz Devlia (Guitar/Vocals) and Matt Hilton (bass). In June of that year, Stacey Booth (Drums) joined, bringing the all-important element of timing to the music. Soon after this the group wrote a song called "Social Malfunction". This song, although not the best song in the world, had quite a nice sounding title which was adopted as the name for the band. A second guitarist, Mark Wilshaw, was brought in to add depth to the sound, and it was with this line-up that the first demo "Why?" was recorded, and endorsed by the Millennium Volunteers initiative.
By 2002, the role of bassist was taken over by one Andy Cunningham, and May 22nd that year saw their first gig at the Full Moon, Newcastle under Lyme. Other bands on the bill were Pornographic Monkey (now Centrifuge) and Size 5. The band went on to play a number of gigs that year at venues including The Talbot Hotel, Stoke-on-Trent, and Wolverhampton's Little civic, but "artistic" differences meant that by the end of the year, Mark and Andy had left the family of Malfunction.
Most of 2003 was spent trying to discover the right people to replace the two musicians, and eventually a comfortable line-up was found, that still exists today, with Oli "Turkey" Cooke on guitar and John "JK" Kearns on Bass.
2004 was a busy year. 4 Demo tracks, "Shave America", "The Country Song", "Self-Inflict, Disrupt, Conform" and "Googly-Eyes Wiggly-Pop" were recorded, and the group hit the live circuit once more with a string of gigs in the North Staffordshire area, with bands including After the Last Sky, Zero Cipher, Pseudo Japanese, and Minus One, to name a few.
In 2005 Gaz Bennett was introduced as the sixth to bring something extra to the music, playing a variety of instruments from the Didgeridoo, to some pieces off plastic tubing. SM's members were getting on a bit, and so started to get grown-up type commitments. This meant that the band had to step back from the live scene and spend what little spare time they had keeping the music alive in the practice room and writing a few more ditties, which will be unearthed in good time.
Which brings us to the present and, indeed, the future. In short, no one knows what to expect from Social Malfunction, not even the band themselves. The music has never sat still. It has evolved from the original concept song, "Bernie", to the extraordinary combination of styles and themes that are apparent in songs such as "The Country Song"; so we will never know what will come from the sextet, until it actually happens.
The Music
Composing songs with intricacy, detaching from the often abused verse / chorus / verse / chorus / outro, more akin to stories, each composition conveys a message, deepened by thought. With pounding distorted riffs, soothing harmonies and mind tricking concepts, every aspect of Social Malfunction defies regularity, defies Society.
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