Possibly the most proactive band in England, 'just so story' came from a nightmare suffered by Paul Ryan in 2003 during an after work nap. He woke gasping for breath full of confusion at what had just happened? He felt like his phone had broken his slumber but there were no messages or missed calls? Once he composed himself he recalled flashes of aliens and he thought he'd died in his sleep?
A few days later Paul went to use his phone and discovered a new contact in his phone named 'circle' and discovered the phone number was simply just a '3'. It suddenly brought back memories of his nightmare and he realised he'd entered this in his sleep. Totally baffled by this Paul sought reactions from his friends regarding this scenario. No one could understand how he could have achieved this?
Paul had put the event to the back of his mind until 3 months later when he was in a traffic jam and saw someone had written the number 3 with a circle around it on a van. Again he recalled that nightmare and the phone number and decided it must mean something? Surely it was more than just a coincidence? So Paul set out to find out what meaning ''just so story'' had to anyone or anything or possibly everything in the world?
After surfing the net and asking everyone he knew, it was still a mystery what ''just so story'' was or if it had any significance? So Paul decided instead of looking for a meaning he'd let the meaning find him and music seemed the best way to achieve it. Paul set out to form the band 'just so story' incorporating some travelling and helping the community through fund raising. He started writing a new album 'Phases' and involved as many of the musicians he previously worked with as possible. After completing the album in 2005 it seemed the next logical thing to do was take the album on the road and show 'just so story' to the public.
Kevyn Williams had joined Paul towards the end of the album playing some lead guitar parts and wanted to continue his work on this new venture offering ideas conjured up from his eclectic influences. It was by chance or maybe fate that Paul bumped into Chris Laird in the same week that they completed the album and started to put the band together. Chris had lots of experience and energy to offer 'just so story' and had just split from a band so the timing was perfect!
Now 'just so story' was 3 strong but short of a full band so Kev assumed bass duties until reading festival 2005 when Kev and Paul were chatting with Sam Morris and realised Sam was the ideal person to play bass in 'just so story' (Kev had been borrowing Sam's bass guitar after all). Sam was originally an electric guitarist but had tried his hand on the bass and for some reason bought a bass guitar? Though up till this point was unsure why? It was all starting to fall into place.
Dale Davies was the last person to join 'just so story' providing beefy rhythm guitar parts to the band. The first time he captured the attention of the band was sat round a campfire at Glastonbury when he started playing 'just so story' songs from the album. Dale brought the power that had been missing along with his fresh ideas and sometimes seemingly obscure guitar parts.
'just so story' was now complete and the band were moving away from the softer material from the 'Phases' album creating their own sound which was put into their first EP 'Secrets' in 2006. For the next year the band performed across England making new friends and building a fan base off the back of 'Secrets' and found themselves writing material that took the music up a gear. This is what prompted a return to the studio and the release of their first single 'Succession Of Obsessions' due out on 10th Dec 2007.
Along the way 'just so story' have created successful annual events in Leamington for charity, namely Leam 'n' Aid and Party on the Pond as well as a charity Christmas party. So far the funds raised by these events exceed £7000 and plans are being made for more events in the future. They also introduced and continue to run weekly and monthly live music nights in Birmingham, Coventry and Leaminton Spa. This is all part of their theory that you shouldn't sit around waiting for gigs or a music scene, just create your own and make is successful…
