Setting the Scene
Gosh, where do I start? Well, before I launch into our entire history please allow me to briefly summarise who/what we actually are and what we do. We are a two piece band consisting of me (Alice) on guitar/vocals and Tabby on drums. Our sound and live act are pretty unique and certainly hard to categorise. Our music is full of contrast ~ crazy but calm, witty but dark, hilarious but melancholy, full of laughable quirks but also bursting with tears… The only consistencies are a true, honest passion existing throughout amongst which every detail bears relevance. Nothing is fictional in what I sing and what we do, but at the same time, it all seems like a fairytale really. Directing you to the MP3 player at the bottom of this page is probably the most effective method of description and we also have a 'Band Time Line' page for those of you who'd like to view an easily scannable page that shows what we've achieved to date. Well, for those of you who wish to plough ahead with the detailed version, here goes...
......The Beatles, a 'White Rabbit' (?)
Well, my name actually is ‘Alice Rock’ – quite a blessing really as thinking of band names is always a mare! Music began for me at the age of 6 when I was lucky enough to be sent to piano lessons. By the time I was 13 a growing obsession with The Beatles had lead me to the guitar…. they somehow gave me the sense of identity that I’d previously been lacking. I was gripped by their every sound, so, feeling switched on, I proceeded to save my paper round wages for God knows how long until I could make that special purchase - yes…. my first guitar. I rapidly taught myself to play, perfecting many a Beatles song/riff in the process and made music the center of my increasingly focused little world. I also attempted to teach myself to sing!! Singing was something I had always been told I wasn’t able to do particularly well but I thought I’d try anyway, just to annoy my brother if nothing else. By the age of 15 I was playing and performing in bands as a lead guitarist. Being a teenage girl playing lead guitar was pretty cool as there weren’t (and still aren’t) many of us around. I have always wondered why this is (?). People would generally assume that I was going to be useless, especially all those long haired alpha males that appear to breed like rabbits in most music shops. This annoyed me a little but also gave me endless determination. As my teens progressed I taught myself to play the bass guitar, drums, synthesizer and also how to make home recordings using my computer. I was in numerous bands over the next 7 years and also produced a large number of home recordings.
Finding Wonderland
Despite being a multi-instrumentalist at a pretty young age, I never felt able to write my own songs, mainly because I struggled lyrically – well this is what I had been made to believe anyway. I also had no confidence in my singing, I thought my voice was pretty rubbish... "It’s too harsh sounding and annoying" I always used to tell myself!! This all changed when a difficult (crazy, bizarre? err, ridiculous!) situation switched my creative switch from off to on (my lyrics say it all!). Cathartic song writing became involuntary as I used my lyrics and a somewhat crazy guitar style to express my anger, exorcise the demon and help myself move forward. I progressively wrote and recorded songs as my state of mind evolved – the end result was ‘Finding Wonderland’, a conceptual album that weaves the emotional tale of a journey towards happiness after a fall with ‘Wonderland’ being the final destination i.e. happiness. Luckily for me, the sheer craziness of the situation I’d been exposed to provided me with vast amounts of cheeky lyrical ammunition and certainly prevented me from ‘getting the violins out’ (wallowing sucks!!). I saw the funny side and relished in the humorous songs that followed – laughter is always the best form of medicine (and punishment!).
A punky, bubblegummy singing voice seemed to naturally form as I wrote and recorded Finding Wonderland alone in my bedroom (my poor housemate!)…. Ridiculous amounts of multi-tracking sent me virtually insane as I sat for night upon night, piecing little files together to create the incredibly rich, full band sound that became a momentous, 12 track concept album. Quite how I achieved this with my limited, shoddy set up, I’ll never know. Part way through the
recording process I set out to establish myself as a solo artist by playing live as often as possible... I had very little self belief in the first instance, mainly due to the ‘pre-Wonderland’ nightmare. I remember having to literally force myself to sing in front of people, I used to secretly drink absinthe in the toilets before going on stage as I was literally terrified… but as time passed, I felt like I’d embarked on what was becoming an amazing musical/emotional journey, I felt increasingly empowered. I played all over the place, appeared on radio shows and was written about in magazines, always bemusing people with my strange punky acoustic guitar style, silly clothes – oh, and my songs of course.
Summer 2006 was drawing to a close and so was the recording of Finding Wonderland and then… as if by magic, everything changed when I played a gig in a little known Nottingham venue only to stumble across a wonderful creature who told me he went by the name of ‘Tabby’ (?). There was a certain something about him, a twinkle in his eye that both endeared and inspired me. Alice Rock quickly evolved into ALICE ROCK as ‘Alice and Tabby’ took to the music scene as a quirky two piece poppy/punky/gothy (something-y) band… the emotional emphasis changed as we started to wear matching stripy jumpers and took to recording ridiculous music videos in the woods – the connection was amazing, as was the giggling. It was clear we’d always remain a two piece band – nothing and no-one else was needed… the happy ending that every fairytale needs had been found, as had Wonderland.
Yesterday’s Makeup
Phew, well Finding Wonderland was done and dusted by the end of 2006… We set up our own independent record label ‘Rock Records UK’ and distributed the album with success but it became immediately evident that a new album was needed to represent what had become our distinctive two piece ‘bass-less’ sound. So there I was (we were!) planning to record a second album to be known as ‘Yesterday’s Makeup’. The album was to contain reworks of several Finding Wonderland classics. I wanted to do this as I felt the need to start from scratch with the appearance of Tabby – I wanted to record an album that contained the tracks we’d spent so long perfecting together when we first met. Yesterday’s Makeup is therefore a ‘semi-sequel’ to Finding Wonderland as although the two albums share some vital tracks, Yesterday’s Makeup is a concept album in it’s own right, containing new tracks that cause the
sentiment to go beyond Wonderland to a place I am now very glad to be. Similarly to Finding Wonderland, Yesterday’s Makeup was recorded in my (our) bedroom studio. Recording the two piece sound was a real challenge that took six months in total. The ridiculousness of it all can be seen in our video diary if you fancy a laugh.
And wow – here we are, back at pretty much the present day... having two albums and a UK tour firmly under our belt and after having built an overwhelming local support we decided to make a bold move and relocate to London with the aim of reaching a larger audience with out music. With the ever-growing brand of Rock Records UK going strong, self sufficiency still remains paramount - we are the band that does everything ourselves... as we slowly go bananas taking ALL our own photos on self timer and recording ALL our videos ourselves with only a tripod and occasional help from various members of the Rock family, you can safely say we are having the time of our lives. All egos are lost as we laugh at ourselves all the way....
We really hope you enjoy our music and all that comes with it.
Available Here
Gosh, where do I start? Well, before I launch into our entire history please allow me to briefly summarise who/what we actually are and what we do. We are a two piece band consisting of me (Alice) on guitar/vocals and Tabby on drums. Our sound and live act are pretty unique and certainly hard to categorise. Our music is full of contrast ~ crazy but calm, witty but dark, hilarious but melancholy, full of laughable quirks but also bursting with tears… The only consistencies are a true, honest passion existing throughout amongst which every detail bears relevance. Nothing is fictional in what I sing and what we do, but at the same time, it all seems like a fairytale really. Directing you to the MP3 player at the bottom of this page is probably the most effective method of description and we also have a 
Despite being a multi-instrumentalist at a pretty young age, I never felt able to write my own songs, mainly because I struggled lyrically – well this is what I had been made to believe anyway. I also had no confidence in my singing, I thought my voice was pretty rubbish... "It’s too harsh sounding and annoying" I always used to tell myself!! This all changed when a difficult (crazy, bizarre? err, ridiculous!) situation switched my creative switch from off to on (my lyrics say it all!). Cathartic song writing became involuntary as I used my lyrics and a somewhat crazy guitar style to express my anger, exorcise the demon and help myself move forward. I progressively wrote and recorded songs as my state of mind evolved – the end result was ‘Finding Wonderland’, a conceptual album that weaves the emotional tale of a journey towards happiness after a fall with ‘Wonderland’ being the final destination i.e. happiness. Luckily for me, the sheer craziness of the situation I’d been exposed to provided me with vast amounts of cheeky lyrical ammunition and certainly prevented me from ‘getting the violins out’ (wallowing sucks!!). I saw the funny side and relished in the humorous songs that followed – laughter is always the best form of medicine (and punishment!).
recording process I set out to establish myself as a solo artist by playing live as often as possible... I had very little self belief in the first instance, mainly due to the ‘pre-Wonderland’ nightmare. I remember having to literally force myself to sing in front of people, I used to secretly drink absinthe in the toilets before going on stage as I was literally terrified… but as time passed, I felt like I’d embarked on what was becoming an amazing musical/emotional journey, I felt increasingly empowered. I played all over the place, appeared on radio shows and was written about in magazines, always bemusing people with my strange punky acoustic guitar style, silly clothes – oh, and my songs of course.
Summer 2006 was drawing to a close and so was the recording of Finding Wonderland and then… as if by magic, everything changed when I played a gig in a little known Nottingham venue only to stumble across a wonderful creature who told me he went by the name of ‘Tabby’ (?). There was a certain something about him, a twinkle in his eye that both endeared and inspired me. Alice Rock quickly evolved into ALICE ROCK as ‘Alice and Tabby’ took to the music scene as a quirky two piece poppy/punky/gothy (something-y) band… the emotional emphasis changed as we started to wear matching stripy jumpers and took to recording ridiculous music videos in the woods – the connection was amazing, as was the giggling. It was clear we’d always remain a two piece band – nothing and no-one else was needed… the happy ending that every fairytale needs had been found, as had Wonderland.
Phew, well Finding Wonderland was done and dusted by the end of 2006… We set up our own independent record label ‘Rock Records UK’ and distributed the album with success but it became immediately evident that a new album was needed to represent what had become our distinctive two piece ‘bass-less’ sound. So there I was (we were!) planning to record a second album to be known as ‘Yesterday’s Makeup’. The album was to contain reworks of several Finding Wonderland classics. I wanted to do this as I felt the need to start from scratch with the appearance of Tabby – I wanted to record an album that contained the tracks we’d spent so long perfecting together when we first met. Yesterday’s Makeup is therefore a ‘semi-sequel’ to Finding Wonderland as although the two albums share some vital tracks, Yesterday’s Makeup is a concept album in it’s own right, containing new tracks that cause the
sentiment to go beyond Wonderland to a place I am now very glad to be. Similarly to Finding Wonderland, Yesterday’s Makeup was recorded in my (our) bedroom studio. Recording the two piece sound was a real challenge that took six months in total. The ridiculousness of it all can be seen in our video diary if you fancy a laugh.
