Band Page

Circle3 used to have a band, but sadly now has departed. Paul Van Ryan is now taking the musical reighns of the project, but here's the biography of how the band came, rocked out and left.

Updated Dec 20th 2008 from *

Paul Ryan - Vocals/Guitar

Kevyn Williams - Lead Guitar

Chris Laird - Drums

Sam Morris - Bass

Dale Davies - Rhythm Guitar

The album ‘Phases’ was recorded before the live band was set in place in the middle of 2005. Musicians came and went until the right people fell into place. There are some part time musicians who make guest appearances at various shows, making every live set unique to the next.

Paul Ryan writes the tunes, play’s acoustic guitar and sings. “We love playing live, I love playing live. Don’t care how many people are watching, I love it. We all get on, we have the same direction and goals which makes the chemistry just right.”

Kevyn Williams plays lead guitar and was the 2nd full time member to join the band. “Paul was a mutual friend of a friend and started hanging out with us, he ran the open mic night in town and was always playing tunes, one night round my place we just started jamming and it’s not stopped. I met him just in time to play on the album (Earth exit) and play live as much as we can at open mic nights. I think the band is lovely!”

Next full time member was Chris Laird on drums, this forced Kev onto bass if we had no stand in, but it all seemed to work fine. “I’ve known Paul for ages as we we’re both in bands a few years back and share some of the same friends. He gave me a copy of the album and said that if I like it then I can be in the band, I really liked the songs, had a few practices and now we kick ass. It’s a really fun band to be in, and make the most of everything we do”

Sam Morris was next in line, normally a guitarist, he changed to bass to fill the gap that was missing. “We were at Reading Festival this year (2005) and were just chatting about music and stuff, Paul and Kev said they needed a bassist and asked if I’d try it out. I’ve never played bass before so have kept it simple until I get more confident, this is my first band too so it’s all new to me. Enjoying every minute of it so far”

Dale Davies was the last full time addition to the band. Some of the songs lacked a bit of beef needed and Dale filled them shoes perfectly. “I’ve not played guitar long but Paul caught me playing one of his songs, then after a while he asked me to try out beefing up the loud bits” He then became an official member on the last day of recording the “secret” EP.

Other guest musicians, add-on’s or accessorise as they’re known come in the shape of Richard Norris who play’s bass, key’s and piano on the album and has been a music partner for a number of years. Paul say’s “Rich is one of the greatest guy’s on this planet, with the greatest ear for music and borderline genius. We met at my first ever open mic night and want him to be involved in everything I do. If he’s ever free for a gig, he’ll be there and I hope to work with him on many more projects to come”

Lewis Smith is our back up bassist, he was nearly full time but just didn’t have enough time to commit to the band what with his other band Kingtide and work commitments. He has always been there when needed and has done loads for the website too.

Meg Lloyd will now and again make vocal appearances at gigs, such a beautiful voice which seems to compliments Paul’s voice to a tee. ‘Stubborn’ never sounds anywhere near as good if she’s not on it.

“Sam, Becky and Sarah nearly made me cry. The horns section was just the greatest thing I’ve ever heard live and I wish they were more local to play at every gig” say’s Paul. When asked to do an acoustic set for a band night, Paul felt like going all out as the album had just been finished and this was time to celebrate. “Paul was asked to do an unplugged set” say’s Kev “And wanted to do something different, so went on the hunt to find as many random musicians as possible. We found the horns section, gave them the music and had only a couple of practices to get it all straight. At the show, it started off looking as if it was just me and Paul, but then you hear the bongo’s, then the bass, then this horns section appear from the banister and this almost full band are playing, we even got a garage MC (Suggs) to rap over a tune too, was totally unexpected”

The band will keep on going until it’s time for Paul to go on his travels “I’m not sure when that will be, the band seem to get great responses every time we play and this whole project is about testing fate. I had that dream for a reason and I’ll know when I know when to call it a day for the band….”

*

So after a couple of years gigging and making a name for themselves, the band became more of a democracy when planning events and writing music. This worked OK for a while but things seemed to slow right down to the point of nothing being planned until all 5 of us had agreed on certain decisions, and with diverse influences between us, it took a long time sometimes.

Dale was the first to get itchy feet and decided to leave the band as wasn't going in a direction he was happy with. This looked to be the end of the band as Dale had contributed so much to all the new material and giving us more of the raw sound we were after. The band asked him to stay, but failed to keep him on.

Paul picked up his electric for the first time in 5 years and worked out Dales parts and gave it a good try out at the first practice without Dale. For some reason, it worked, and worked really well and decided to carry on as a 4 piece.

Gigs went really well, new material was going really well too,  but Chris and Kev were still having issues with confusions between the band Circle 3 and the Project Circle3 so Paul decided that the band changes thier name and he can carry on woth the project and the band becomes a new venture. All agree and Just So Story becomes the new name.

Still running as a democracy, decisions are still taking ages to make, a lot of differences of opinions with writing, deadlines are not being met which leads to Pauls frustration and decides to carry on with his solo stuff whilse the band slowly get on with things.

Although Just So Story's new material was really exciting and powerful, Paul just wasn't feeling happy with the progress the band were making in comparisson to his solo stuff and after having a proper think about his musical direction, decided that he wanted to move to a city and prioritse his life differently.

Leeds was the city of choice, it was a hard decision to make and even harder to tell the band as things were sounding better than ever in rehearsals. It wasn't going to be the end of the band as Paul planned to come down every fortnight and make sure the band were efficient with the time. He just wanted to be doing more with music than the band could offer.

The rest of the band didn't see it from Pauls point of view and there was a sense of negativity with the decision so this lead to the bands split. Althought there was a massive amount of talent and great writing within the band, the determination and commitment wasn't high enough to see it all through.

So Dale is now working on a new music venture with Wiggy of Kingtide. Chris, Kev and Sam are now working in the studio recording new ideas and Paul is now promoting his debut album with many a gig across the UK.