News Exciting new artists come to the Mapex fold

Posted 16th Sep 11

We here at Mapex HQ are delighted to announce two new additions in the Mapex family, James May of cross over dance/ dub-step group Tek One and Stephen Gilchrist, drummer with indie legend Graham Coxon. 

We met James at this year's Camden Crawl festival. Witnessing him beat the living daylights from the Mapex house kit had our attention caught, the Tek One team then roused the crowd to breaking point so we knew we have to get these guys on side. 

We are at a bit of a loss to describe the Tek One sound so let's let the guys give you the background:  

"We make music out of circuit bent childrens toys, broken keyboards, short-circuited toy amps, anything with AA batteries and a low bitrate that was built in Taiwan and designed to amuse a young child for 30 seconds. We keep them alive, and to thank us they produce alieatoric noises."

James as a player is all about energy, ensuring every performance is delivered with conviction, soul and passion. To watch he is a player we see so much commitment in it's hard not become engrossed in the show weather you love the music or not. James applies this to each project he works with, this currently includes pop/ punk stylista's The Dead Formats and forward thinking Hardcore band Hospitals. 

Tek One are hitting the road this autumn so check out www.facebook.com/Tekoneuk for a live date near you.

Stephen Gilchrist was out on tour with the Lightning Seeds in early 2011 when, after using a Mapex kit supplied by the tour agent, was soon converted to the Saturn series shells, much to our delight! We spoke to Stephen soon after and equipped him with a custom touring set consisting of Saturn shells, Black Panther snare and Mapex hardware.

Heavy touring with Graham Coxon has taken up much of Stephen's schedule of late but he is also incredibly involved in education, running his own week long music course called 'Summer Rocks' which caters for students aged 14-19 and run with tutors who are all active in the professional music world offering first hand career tips and advice.

Stephen has toured and recorded with Charlotte Hatherley, Cardiacs & Cathy Davey. He also writes and records under the name stuffy with his band stuffy/the fuses. stuffy/the fuses second album, Angels Are Ace, was recorded by Steve Albini.