Rigby Fawkes
Rigby Fawkes is an alternative rock band from Little Rock, Arkansas. The band is composed of Ed Cheek (bass guitar, vocals, trumpet), Kyle Heflin (guitar and effects), Daniel Moody (guitar, keyboards, vocals), and Jordan Ryan (drums). The band is best known for their multifarious sound and mature song writing style.[1]
Rigby Fawkes was born on March 2, 2005. Ed and Jordan had been best friends since they were eight years old and had been members in a variety of unsuccessful bands. The two also performed in Catholic High School for Boys' marching, concert, and jazz bands. Kyle and Daniel had been best friends since they were in the 8th grade. Both had written a plethora of music together but needed a bassist and drummer to complete their line up. The two pairs of best friends were brought together by fate and a mutual friend.
Rigby Fawkes was not the original name of the group, however. Several name ideas were tossed around including Jordan's Death Camp for Kittens, PUSH audio, Aero Apollo, and Bugatalaphobia. The band In the summer of 2005, Redefined released their first 6 song demo entitled "Audio Anachronism Vol. 2." The band performed several shows in 2005 and 2006 in support of their release, but they weren't satisfied with the direction of their sound. They scrapped every song from their demo and started writing new material. With new material also came a new name. Daniel and Kyle approached the rest of the band with the name idea of "Rigby" from the Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby." Ed and Jordan liked it, but felt that something needed to be placed after it. The two had just read T. S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men" in class. The epigraph of this poem alludes to 17th century revolutionary named Guy Fawkes. They took the last name "Fawkes" and put it after Rigby, forming the band name "Rigby Fawkes."
In 2006, the band released their first full-length album entitled "A Penny for the Old Guy." This album immediately became a local favorite, and many were stunned to find out that it had been written by some kids who were only 17 and 18 years old. The songs "34" "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Kremlin" immediately became crowd favorites and are the only songs that remain in the Rigby Fawkes live show set list from that album.
Throughout the rest of 2006 and early into 2007, Rigby Fawkes were hard at work on a follow up to "A Penny for the Old Guy." However, the band and its fans were met with some very bad news: Daniel would be moving out to Los Angeles, California to pursue a solo career with his brother Ben. The band played a final farewell show at Riverfest 2007. They released all of the material they had been working on as "Your Head is Completely Gone" for free online. The album received over 700 downloads in its first two weeks.
Each of the band went their separate ways during 2007 and 2008. Jordan worked diligently on both of his degrees in Psychology and Spanish at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Ed and Kyle moved up to Fayetteville, Arkansas to attend the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. And of course, Daniel moved to Los Angeles to work on his solo album. The band played a "reunion show" in June 2008. The rest of 2008 saw no activity from Rigby Fawkes, despite numerous show offers from local venues.
In early 2009, the band decided that they would get back together at the beginning of the summer indefinitely to perform shows and to write a new EP. Currently, the band is hard at work on their new EP and expect it to be released mid to late August 2009.