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last updated 3 June, 2008

For a couple of years Evelyn and Jamie were writing songs for their own

amusement when, in 2000, they were asked to write and record the music for a

production of Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ and for the soundtrack for a short, locally

made horror film called ‘The Vawn’.

They recorded these tracks at The Goat Shed, which is Andy’s studio – that was how they met him – and they all had such a great time doing those projects that they decided to continue working together.

Now I know you are now wondering, which came first, the band or the song by the same name? Well, the answer is the song, written while they were inventing names for the band. Other candidates at the time included Marmalade Airport, the Electric Toothbrush and Orange Moon, what a different world it might have been had they chosen one of those!

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In 2003 they released the eponymous Mermaid Kiss album, developing their unique collaborative approach to writing and recording, with Evelyn and Jamie writing while recording demo versions of tracks before they were transferred to the Goat Shed for final treatment. At that point they were strictly a studio band – Andy, Evelyn and Jamie did everything on that album – played all the instruments, did the engineering, mixing, mastering – even the artwork. 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. In 2006 an ep of songs called Salt on Skin was released with Kate Belcher and Kate Emerson joining Evelyn in performing lead vocals. They were also joined by Nigel Hooton on lead guitar.

In June 2007 the band released an album called 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.

The band continues to write and record music, and the offers to play live still come in, so who knows what may appear in the coming months...