Stateless

Stateless were formed in 2003 by singer-songwriter Chris James, who enlisted band members Kidkanevil (programming, samplers, turntables), Rod Buchanan-Dunlop (keys, FX), James Sturdy (drums) and John Taylor (bass) to bring his compositions to life. In true rock-fairytale style, their first demo, “Prism # 1,” was picked up and playlisted by Radio 1, leading to a record deal with Sony. The band were quickly shipped off to the famous Rockfield studios in Wales to record their eponymous debut album with producer Jim Abbiss (U.N.K.L.E., Arctic Monkeys). When Sony merged with BMG, though, the band found themselves in limbo and chose to move to respected Berlin label !K7, who released the album internationally in July 2007. The record met with acclaim from across the board, hailed by everyone from Mojo ("A visionary debut " ****) to DJ ("one of the albums of the year" ****1/2).
Stateless toured the album all over Europe with new band members Justin Percival (bass/vocals), and Dave Levin (drums), coming to the attention of legendary producer DJ Shadow, who enlisted Chris to sing on two songs on his album, “The Outsider.” This was followed by a huge world tour with over 80 shows in 20 countries.
With the new album, “Matilda,” James decided to adopt a different approach with classic songwriting and story telling twisted by Kidkanevil, who pushes his beats and programming to a new level. With the help of producer Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Prodigy) this battle between classic songwriting and electronic programming and production takes the album into a whole new territory, with Taylor helping to develop the more electronic aesthetic of the album.
The band met Damian Taylor backstage at a Bjork gig on her Volta Tour. Soon after James sent him some of the new Stateless demos, which he loved, and soon they began working on the album. The process was complex. The band recorded their parts either at home or in a recording studio in Hackney, London. Then they would send all the parts to Taylor in Vancouver, who would start applying his production techniques. Towards the end of 2009 James flew out to Vancouver to record in Taylor’s studio in the forest on the Sunshine Coast, it was here that the pair did the final production work on the album.
Of the guest artists, first came Shara Worden, of My Brightest Diamond. The band first met her when they both played on a TV show in Manchester in 2007 called City Centre Social on Channel M. They recognised musical like-minds and kept in touch and James wrote a duet called ‘I'm On Fire’ with Shara in mind. He flew over to record the song in her living room in Brooklyn, as live and spontaneous as could be, James wanting to get back to the old school style of having singers in the room together, singing live together, capturing a moment. Next came the world-renowned contemporary-classical string group, the Balanescu Quartet, who have worked with everyone from David Byrne and Michael Nyman to Hecotr Zazou. James wrote the string arrangements with Gillian Wood, and the group performed them on four songs for the new album.