Minnaars

Minnaars are an English indie rock group with math rock, math pop and electronica elements. The band forms in early 2008 after Neil Shaun Humphrey leaves Tired Irie, a band linked to Try Harder Records. Humphrey brings in Gavin Thorpe, Daniel Faulkner, singer Adam Pickering and drummer Ben Cropley.

Formation and early activity

Minnaars play their first show supporting Cats and Cats and Cats in Leicester. At that gig, Tom Woodhead of ¡Forward, Russia! approaches the band with a view to recording and producing them, and he goes on to play a central role in their development.

The band records its first EP, Minnaars, in April 2008 at Giant Wafer in the valleys of Llandrindod Wells, Wales. The recording takes a week and Woodhead produces it alone. Because of a dispute with an independent distributor, the recordings appear on the band’s websites in early February 2009 rather than through the planned release.

Releases and later work

In spring 2009 the band returns to Wales to record new material, again with Woodhead as producer. These recordings, together with the material from Minnaars, are later licensed for release in Japan and mainland Europe under the title Of Our Delirious Former Loving Hours, a title taken from a line in Paul Verlaine’s poem “Birds in the night”.

Minnaars perform on the BBC Introducing Stage at the 2009 Reading and Leeds Festivals and then tour Europe with Gallops. Their track “Are lovers” receives radio and television play on BBC Radio 1 and Xfm, and the band is also mentioned positively in the national press by Mathew Horne.

By September 2010 the group works with Strata Music Group and announces an EP titled Ideal & Error, scheduled to align with a European tour. The members later split to work on other musical projects.