Expatriate

Originally from Sydney, Australia, EXPATRIATE released their debut album ‘IN THE MIDST OF THIS’ in Australia and New Zealand in 2006 which catapulted the band into the limelight to huge critical acclaim. The album was nominated for an ARIA Award (Australia’s BRITS) for ‘Best New Album’ and received great support from the influential national alternative radio station Triple J. Subsequently the band toured Australia with Powderfinger, Silverchair, The Presets and Wolfmother as well as appearing at The Big Day Out and Splendour In The Grass festivals.

Expatriate have lived up to their name over the last few years, absconding to live in chilly Berlin whilst their career trajectory in Europe took off. Following their ARIA nominated 2007 release “In The Midst of This” in Australia, the four-piece relocated to Germany and signed to [PIAS] International.

A massive touring campaign ensued, including playing Europe’s largest rock festivals such as Arras (France), Hard Rock Calling (London), iDays (Italy), Sziget (Hungary), Nova Rock (Austria), Werchter (Belgium) and Rockwave (Greece) as well as German mega festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park. “It was quite a highlight in that we got to play just about every major festival in Europe. It's such an amazing scene to be part of,” says frontman Ben King.
The year was spectacularly rounded off with a 26 arena date tour across 7 countries as main support to PLACEBO, rounding up the year with sold out headline shows in Switzerland, France, Germany, UK and Greece. “It took our breath away - getting to see all those places the way we did and getting to play in front of so many people night after night. Doing an in-store acoustic performance in Helsinki, and having it packed full of people was pretty surreal to us. Playing our own headline show in Paris at the end of 2009 and having over 300 people show up selling it out was such a buzz - it was dreams coming true. A band from the bottom of the world doing it like we did at the top of it.”

Then after a short summer European festival run in 2010, the band headed to the famous Monnow Valley Studios in the Welsh town of Monmouth in the UK (adding their names to the guestbook along the likes of Oasis, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Queen) to embark on the long awaited recording of their 2nd studio album ‘Hyper/Hearts’, working with producer Andy Savours (PNAU, The Killers), before returning to Berlin, putting the final touches to and completing the album in their home studio.

A truly international band, Expatriate now return to Australia with ‘Miracle Mile’ the first single from the forthcoming album due out in early 2012.