Indica Ritual

Indica Ritual are a New Wave pop band from Liverpool. They formed in 2004 as a three piece punk band whilst at college together on the Wirral. The original members of Indica Ritual were Andrew Hunt (guitar/vocals), Marcel Deer(bass guitar) and Michael Ferguson(drums).

For a while they enjoyed a small local following centred around very busy gigs at the ESWA social club in Birkenhead. DIY nights such as Revolver and Horrorshow featured local acts such as Indica Ritual, The Romanovs with other more well known bands such as Tramp Attack, The Romanovs would later become The Little Flames and later The Rascals.

The band then went on a long hiatus, caused by a combination of laziness and other MusicAL commitments. Andrew also played drums in a psych-rock band called The Kaimeras who at the time played quite lot in Liverpool, and this took up most of his free time.

The band was kick started again in 2005 by the addition of a second guitar and synth player in the form of Andrew's brother, Nick or "Stick", also of The Kaimeras. The band initially integrated a second guitar and low synth into their existing songs to bulk up their sound, but soon grew tired of the punk pop music they had started with and realised the possibilities other INSTRUMENTS opened up. This is really the point were Indica Ritual started playing the kind of music they play now, and started being slightly more focused on music making. Their original style of music was largely forgotten and replaced with an electro influenced wonky pop style.

Original bass player Marcel Deer left the band in summer 2006 and Paul Barrow of fellow new wavers Cup, took care of low end duties for a while. A full time replacement was found in the shape of George Maund whom Andrew had met at University on a music course. George played in a number of bands, including [...] The Bed (a cool sonic youthy/fugazi esque 4 piece) and in Tom Cartledge's live band. Indica were now playing their first proper shows in liverpool. Indica was strongly associated with the wirral scene represented by the Valhalla Club night at the Zanzibar, this was a night run by a band called The Laze and offered smaller bands an opporuntiy to play to a packed club and "rock fans".Later the band became associated with the Korova club in liverpool and played there alot, including two memorable new years eve parties (2006/7 2007/8)

It was around this time that Andrew also started playing the avant garde group aPAtT, this was and continues to be a great influence musically and ethically in terms of DIY spirit on Indica Ritual. The Kaimeras were no more, replaced with STEALgandhi a doom/grindcore influenced heavy rock band in which Andrew still played drums. STEALgandhi split up in June of 2007.

In the summer of 2006 Indica Ritual recorded their first proper EP "four blockheads go pop!", they recored, mixed and mastered this material with the help of Mike Heath from Cup in their practise room and released it on their label BuzzBuzz?Bang! The artwork for this release was done by Simon Turner of the band Married To the Sea. Their label had released music by The Kaimeras and their later heavier incarnation STEALgandhi and put out two compilations featuring music from the german art rocker Kulant, StigNoiseSoundSystem, ASDAfan, aPAtT, Cup, Rhubarb, and Brighton's Little Trophy.

In October 2006, Indica Ritual were invited to play a week long festival in Vendome, France called Rockoplus alongside acts such as Calexico and Grizzly Bear. The group travel to and from the festival with their equipment on public transport with friend Tom Gorton of Cup. The group played 4 shows in France. Tom played on two songs in the bands set each night. These were songs written by Andrew and Tom for their electro project The Financial Times (some Financial Times material was released by BuzzBuzz?Bang!). It was during this times that Tom was asked to join as a full time indica member on 2nd keys.

Following on in the spirit of progression, on return to England the band (minus Michael due to uni commitments) prepared a special set of electronic minimalistic music for a show in Liverpool, put on by local promoter Meshuggy. Also playing at the show were French bands, Le singe blac and Gatechien. This forced the band to create something new and integrate more synths and computers into their music, as well as introducting elements of math rock guitar and eno-esque musique concrete. The 20 min long piece entitled "Jublag" is still held by the band as a musical creative high point.

The band continued to play lots of shows in liverpool, and also to develop colourful stage wear to compliment their non serious-serious slant of perfomance. Their music has more in common with bands such as DEVO, XTC and english band Cardiacs, and 2007 saw Indica attempt to make proper progressive pop music.

2007 saw the band play shows with the likes of Foals, Grabba Grabba Tape, Polysics, Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Dirty Projectors, Robots in Disguise, That [...] Tank, HEALTH, and release a single on BuzzBuzz?Bang! a double A side of "TradeShow" and "Looking For Derick". The artwork for this release was done by Shaun Bass of Neon Skullz graphic design and was step forward to packaging for the band with a non conventional fold up Mono Chrome sleeve in plastic sealable bag. 200 of these were made, a few still remain. A single release party in The Famous gastro pub The Ship & Mitre was mentionable due to its art deco surroundings and sweatiness. Stick also started playing trumpet in Stig Noise Sound System. Time spent touring with aPAtT and Stig meant occasionally Indica Ritual had to take a brief break, but they played fairly constantly around liverpool, with a few dates round the UK.

Andrew and Stick were also involved with putting on gig nights in Liverpool and releasing poetry zines under the BuzzBuzz?Bang! moniker. Acts that have played at BuzzBuzz?Bang! club nights included: USAisamonster, Bakelite, Safetyword, Cowtown, Destructo Swarmbots, Action Beat, asbos, HEALTH, eye hai, Cup, Blue Demon, aPAtT, StigNoiseSoundsystem, Anigman, Andre Reflex, Chickenhawk, Mammon, STEALgandhi, apple cannon, [...] The Bed, Quack Quack, Pit er Pat, Fulborn Teversham, Dads. They released 4 issues of poetry with the help of Jenny Greene and Tom Gorton also.