Who the hell are PUSHthePULLdoor then?

Jai

Back in the day, when it was a bit risky to walk down the street wearing eyeliner and have lots of dyed hair poking out in all sorts of directions, without being the butt of a good pee-take or worse (yep, worse stuff happened) Jai had been front man in a few bands, namely Carnival In Rio, The Confession, American English and a couple of other spin-offs. It was a great escape, and he was heavily influenced by The Chameleons, Then Jerico, The The, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, (hang on, were they ALL named twice in the 80s?) Depeche Mode, and Pink Floyd to name but a few. Jai's music taste is ecclectic - apart from a dislike of country and western, so he has a mostly open mind these days... His singing 'style' is one of impersonation with a twist, so every song sounds close to the original style without being a carbon copy; "we'd all be bored stiff if we just reproduced exactly other bands' songs – we love adding our own sound to a track, and we all really enjoy the creative process that takes us there – sometimes it's a long one, others not, but the end result is what counts. That's not to say that we won't change things if we find a better way of getting something across – it keeps us on our toes!"

Leo – it's not all about the bass, you know!

Doug – magic fingers all the way! 

PUSHthePULLdoor were formed partly from the original line up of another band, the short-lived, but awesome Half Yellow Sun. Matt, Simon and Jai were members. Happy days indeed.

PUSHthePULLdoor's premis was, and is, to play well-known tracks with the odd twist, and to play them well. Says Jai: "Audience participation is a staple part of the performance, and engaging the crowd only works when everyone in the venue is captivated by the energy of the music – hence our fastidious choices of tracks... it's great when it happens, we are all part of the show together, the energy is shared and it becomes a completely immersive experience for both band and audience – there's a definite lack of 'them and us' – they become part of the band, and we love it!"