Memphis

Memphis is a Canadian indie pop duo from Vancouver, active from 2002. The group consists of Torquil Campbell and Chris Dumont.

Formation and background

The duo forms in 2002 after Campbell and Dumont, who know each other for years, begin making music together. Dumont, originally from North Carolina, meets Campbell in New York City in the early 1990s. Before Memphis, the two play together with Campbell’s childhood friends Chris Seligman, James Shaw and Adam Marvy in a band called Luxe. Campbell and Seligman later form Stars, while Shaw goes on to form Metric with Emily Haines. After Stars begins to find success, Campbell invites Dumont to Vancouver and Memphis takes shape there.

Recordings

Memphis releases its first EP, A Good Day Sailing, on Le Grand Magistery in 2002. The duo records its first full-length album, I Dreamed We Fell Apart, over the summers of 2003 and 2004; it appears in 2004 on Paper Bag Records. A third release, A Little Place In The Wilderness, is produced by Dumont and issued through Good Fences and EMI. It is associated with an August 2006 release.

Related projects

The name Memphis is also used for other acts, including James Kirk’s band after leaving Orange Juice, which releases the single “You Supply the Roses” on Swamplands in 1985, and a young pop-rock group from Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic that wins the Pro-rock 2008 competition.