Embrace biography
''For the U.S. punk band, see Embrace (U.S. band).
Embrace are an English rock band from Brighouse and Bradford in West Yorkshire. To date they have released five studio albums, one singles album and one b-sides compilation. The band consist of brothers singer Danny McNamara and guitarist Richard McNamara, bassist Steve Firth, keyboardist Mickey Dale, and drummer Mike Heaton. The group's most recent studio album, ''This New Day'', was released on March 27, 2006.
Band history
After building a following through their EP releases, their debut album ''The Good Will Out'' went to number 1 in the British charts on 14th June 1998. However, the sales for their subsequent releases, ''Drawn from Memory'' (2000) and ''If You've Never Been'' (2001) were disappointing by comparison and the band were dropped by Hut Records in 2002, amid confusion as Virgin Records (Hut's parent company) were taken over by EMI. Around this time frontman Danny McNamara became tabloid fodder due to a rumoured relationship with 90's pop diva Gina G. McNamara was also in a brief relationship with journalist Jayne Thompson.
They were signed by Andy McDonald to his Independiente Records label and produced a successful comeback album ''Out of Nothing'', which reached number 1 in the UK in 2004. The 'comeback' single that preceded this album was ''Gravity'', which had been written by Coldplay's Chris Martin and given to the band as Martin felt it sounded more like Embrace than Coldplay. Danny McNamara and Chris Martin had become firm friends after Coldplay had supported Embrace back in 2000 in Blackpool. The single was an instant hit, charting in at number 7. Coldplay have since re-recorded ''Gravity'' as a b-side for their single ''Talk''.
The band's fifth studio album, ''This New Day'' was released on the 27th March, with the single ''Nature's Law'' being released the week before (and entering the Official UK Singles Chart at number 2). The album has been seen as a 'fresh start' by the band, with a new songwriting process in place, seeing the whole band contributing to the songs, not just the old writing partnership the McNamara brothers had previously enjoyed. Indeed, Danny McNamara commented that "As kids we grew up listening to bands like Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen and U2, bands who've always used this technique, but it's something we'd never tried before. It's been an incredibly inspiring experience and really feels like a whole new start for us"[Link 1]. This new technique certainly saw the band at its most productive, recording 24 songs in just nine days.[Link 2]
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