Trav3ller

Traveller are Gerry Sheridan (lead vocals, guitar and keyboard) Brian Socha (Bass) and Simon Usher (Drums, Vocals and Piano)

Lead singer Gerry Sheridan has a storyteller style of writing, sharing tales of happiness, hurt and life’s struggles. Writing from the heart, his soul wrenching voice has become a blend of many influences citing Kelly Jones (Steriophonics) Michael Stipe (R.E.M) and Thome York (Radiohead) as some of his main influences. He started writing songs in his early teens and begun playing keyboard for a college band called Little house and Daze before then going onto focus more on writing his own material with his band Midnight Swimmer. They built up a reputable following on the Scottish gig circuit before going their separate ways in 2005. This however was just the beginning and he continued writing songs and performing in venues throughout the country as a solo musician until he met up with Simon (Drums) in 2014 at a party and after a few drinks and some late-night songs, they decided to collaborate on writing music together.

Simon had already had previous industry success with his old band Suburbia who coincidently were supported by Gerry’s band Midnight Swimmer at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club a few years previous. Suburbia’s lead vocalist was Ainslie Henderson (BAFTA Award winner and Fame Academy Finalist). They were signed to a small independent label who were based in LA called City of Angels. They were the house band for a weekly BBC television show in London called Hype that was aired on BBC Choice for eighteen months with presenter Rick Adams. They travelled to New York for the BBC to film a Christmas episode and whilst out there, they met and worked briefly on one of their tracks called “Half” with renowned producer Tony Visconte. They then travelled to Los Angeles as part of a Demo arrangement deal for Capitol Records under Bill Silva Management and performed at an exclusive industry showcase gig in the famous Viper Rooms Venue on Sunset Boulevard. They released a track via EA games called “Always” for FIFA 2004 football game which was produced by Joe Barresi. The bands label unfortunately went bankrupt and not long afterwards in 2002, they decided to go their separate ways, but they are still very close friends to this day. Simon then went onto performing with The Last September whose front man Pete Deane was one of the guitarists for Suburbia. He recorded drums for their album Volcano which was released independently. The band went onto support Nell Bryden throughout the Scottish leg of her UK tour in 2014. More recently Simon has recorded drums as a guest for Blue Rose Code and their latest EP release called Sunday featuring Robert Vincent on vocals.

It was time to form a band and so Simon got in touch with his old friend Brian Socha who coincidently knew Gerry having studied together at Edinburgh’s music college. Brian has had a wealth of musical experience throughout his life and when he was only sixteen years old, he performed on Tommy Vance’s Radio One Show with a band called Widow Rose. He has since performed as a session musician for various artists and he was a full-time member of Scottish band Hobotalk who were Mercury Music Prise nominees in 2000 with their debut album “Beauty in Madness”. He also played bass as part of the soundtrack compilation for Grand Theft Auto that was released back in 1997.
Traveller was formed in January 2016 and they released their debut EP called “All this time” featuring Martin Yves on guitar in August of that year having spent only five days in the studio to capture their unique tightly driven and melodic sound. Their EP received positive reviews from several music publication’s including Flavour Mag and Essentially Pop who said; Title track ‘All This Time’, is a polished and beautiful track which further emphasises the band’s considerable abilities. It’s familiar but in a warm, comfortable way, and the perfect opener to the rest of the EP. It was aired on the radio to a worldwide audience in over 68 countries with America and Germany generating the greatest number of streams, helping to build on the bands increasing reputation. The band also had top ten hits on college and internet radio and “Till the storm” is the most streamed track on their SoundCloud page with over 134 k streams.

The band have recently finished producing and recording a series of fourteen new tracks with multi-instrumentalist and producer Angus Lyon (Yusuf Islam, Paul McCartney, Bobby McFerrin, Blue Rose Code, Craig Armstrong, Blazing Fiddles to name but a few incredible people that Angus has worked with in the past) at Grans House Recording Studio in Scotland. These forthcoming releases enhance the bands Americana route which they have taken forward with tracks such as Old Stories, Feel’s like yesterday and Get running clearly cutting that Americana edge. They show diversity and a softer approach with a personal touch and life changing events in tracks such as Us and Home - two songs that cry out for hope and love from one another. All tracks feature Iain Sloan on guitar who is also one of the UK’s finest Pedal Steel guitar players. Iain has performed with multiple artists including Blue Rose Code, Peter Bruntnell, My Darling Clementine, Louise Connell, Norrie McCulloch, Yola Carter and his own band The Wyntown Marshals. Also featuring on some of the tracks is Archie Macfarlane on accordion who is also a well-respected musician on the Scottish Ceilidh circuit.

With their combined experience to date and diverse influences ranging from R.E.M, Crowded House, Bruce Springsteen, The Stereophonics, Pink Floyd, U2 and Radio Head to more recent artists such as Jack Savoretti and Keith Urban, this Americana, contemporary country style blend of toe tapping acoustic rock with a bit of cinematic flare in between seems like the perfect collaboration.