Big Strides: "Small town, Big Strides"

Big Strides is the sound of Marcus O'Neill's off-kilter lyrics, blues guitar jangle and wailing harmonica, Lewis Kirk's low down funky drums and Tom Pi's fat jazz double bass.

Releasing their debut album on their own label, they have toured the UK, supported Alabama 3, Horace Andy and Damien Rice, twice sold out London's Ronnie Scott's and attracted serious attention in the US, with 300,000 downloads of their jazz-punk anthem "Suicidal".

Together with producer Dan Swift, who recently worked on albums by Snow Patrol and Aqualung, they recorded and mixed "Small Town, Big Strides" in only 8 days, creating a sound which sets them miles apart from the current conveyor belt of Coldplay and White Stripes clones. They are breaking new ground with their unique lo-fi, high-tempo tunes, mixing funk-laden beats with quirky, intelligent songwriting.

Think G-love, Jon Spencer, Soul Coughing, Beck on a good day, Cake, The Stray Cats and early Chili Peppers... then forget them all because with Big Strides there are no comparisons.