Mermaid Kiss is an ever-changing musical ensemble dedicated to producing their own unique brand of music, defying catagorisation.
Evelyn Downing and Jamie Field met over 10 years ago and began writing songs for their own amusement. Involvement in a production of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and a short, locally made horror film called ‘The Vawn’ threw them into Andrew Garman’s studio, The Goat Shed, to record soundtracks, an experience they all enjoyed so much that they decided to continue working together.
The Mermaid Kiss Album appeared in 2003, created through the trio’s unique collaborative approach; Evelyn and Jamie writing and recording demo versions of tracks before transferring them to the Goat Shed for final treatment. At that point they were strictly a studio band but following the album's release requests to play live flooded in and the band put together a set of songs, supporting Karnataka and performing in a number of venues in 2004-5.
Following Evelyn's departure for university the search began for an alternative singer to work with. In 2006 an ep of songs called Salt on Skin was released with Kate Belcher and Kate Emerson joining Evelyn in performing lead vocals, and with Nigel Hooton also coming in on lead guitar.
In June 2007 the band released Etarlis, which they describe as a series of musical illustrations of the story by the same name, written by Jamie and Evelyn over the previous years and which had already provided the inspiration for a number of released tracks. As the scope and ambition of the music grew so too did the number of musicians involved, with Wendy Marks playing wind instruments in Andy's sweeping orchestral arrangements. You can read more about this album and the story at www.etarlis.com.
At this point Jamie and Evelyn decided to expand the line-up for some live concerts, and together with wind player Wendy Marks, who'd contributed to the Etarlis album, they were joined by Richard Northwood on bass, Pete West on guitars, Colin Henney on keys and Steve White on drums. It was this line-up that recorded the American Images project, resulting in a different sound but one that still has the same atmospheric songwriting at its heart. With the recording of that album nearing completion (only the mixing and mastering has to be completed), the band is looking toward their next project - a second album based on the Etarlis story, with new vocalist Maria Milewska.
For more information, publicity materials and availablitiy please contact music@mermaidkiss.co.uk
