The D'Urbervilles
The D'Urbervilles began in the Toronto suburb of Oshawa, Ontario as a means for childhood friends and underagers Tim Bruton (guitar, synth) and John O’Regan (vocals, guitar, synth) to see rock shows at local bars. Equipped with little more than a borrowed amplifier, an Echo and the Bunnymen cover, and a band name lifted from a 19th century English novel on their high school reading list, these enterprising young men played a few gigs and liked performing enough to keep the band together even after they had reached the legal drinking age. After a few months they had left town for arts school at the University of Guelph, Ontario, where they met future band member Kyle Donnelly (bass) and began to immerse themselves in a vibrant independent music scene that produced acts like Constantines, Gentleman Reg, and Royal City.
The core group found a practice space in the attic of a local thrift store where they were free to hone their craft on vintage gear until the wee hours most school nights. Weekends were spent performing, and without the means to pay for a vehicle, The D'Urbs often arrived minutes before showtime with their gear trailing behind in plastic red wagons.
After a year, the band had cobbled together enough money to record a self-titled EP. The five-song disc earned the group showcases at Pop Montreal and Toronto's North by Northeast. Touring invites soon arrived from respected Canadian acts such as You Say Party! We Say Die! And Malajube as word began to spread about a new band whose name no one could spell or pronounce (it's capital D-apostrophe-capital-U-r-b-e-r-villes) and their frenetic but engaging live shows.
Although it was common to see the band performing with a different drummer on each tour, they managed to lay down tracks for their full length debut in a cavernous warehouse on Toronto's east end in 2007.
Their finished collection of sensitive yet street-tough songs is titled
"We Are The Hunters" and was released to critical acclaim within Canada on Toronto indie label Out Of This Spark in February 2008.
Since adding drummer Greg Santilly following the album release, The D'Urbervilles have not only further refined their raw yet heartfelt brand of carefully measured exuberance, but finally got themselves a van and hit the road for real. Whether playing pizza joints in northern British Columbia, opening for Montreal's Handsome Furs and Land Of Talk, or selling out venues in their new home base of Toronto, The D'Urbs are well on the way to proving themselves a consistently cohesive crew.
Keep an eye out for The D'Urbervilles in 2009 when they unveil a new collection of casually devastating pop songs at South By Southwest showcases and venues across Canada and the United States.
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