Little Matador

Fronted by Snow Patrol guitarist Nathan Connolly, the quintet marry melody and muscle with a healthy respect for noise. Little Matador is about trusting your instincts and having the confidence to act upon your convictions. People might have perceptions of who I am, based on what they know about Snow Patrol, but this is the first time that people will hear exactly where I'm coming from.”In order to realise his vision, Nathan set about assembling a select team of collaborators, drawing upon musician friends who shared his love for visceral, committed rock ‘n’ roll. In Dublin he sought out drummer Paul ‘Binzer’ Brennan and bassist Gavin Fox, a crack rhythm section whose collective CVs incorporate stints in Idlewild, The Frames, Bell XI, Turn and Concerto For Constantine. Portland, Oregon’s Troy Stewart, a member of Tired Pony and The Windsor Player, was recruited on guitar, and the line-up was completed with the addition of LaFaro guitarist Dave Magee, formerly Nathan’s sidekick in his very first band, Belfast alternative rockers F.U.E.L. In 2012, the new-found union entered a Dublin rehearsal studio for the first time.Their self-titled debut album, set for release by Fiction Records in early 2014, is an aggressive, sassy, incendiary collection dissecting love, loss, rejection, redemption, death and re-birth. Recorded with producer Sam Bell in Metropolis Studios in London in 2013, Little Matador, the quintet’s 11 track debut album is an urgent, impassioned and undeniably thrilling snapshot of a band getting high on volume, fuzz, adrenaline and a shared passion for heart-stopping, breath-robbing rock ‘n’ roll. By turns vengeful, desperate, venomous and exhilarating, it’s both a raw and open-hearted documentation of a traumatic period in Nathan’s personal life and a rousing, empowering call-to-arms for dreamers and schemers endlessly questing for new horizons Little Matador's self-titled debut album is due for release by Fiction Records in early 2014.