It was an August day in 1998 that the “project” began.

Singer/Guitarist Dean Young had just walked away from his band of some 5 years in Rotorua for the bright lights, big city of Auckland with one singular vision.

“I wanted to set up a small studio and create this ‘band’ the idea being, I would write and record everything myself and eventually a live band would grow out of it.” says Young.
So with guitar, drum machine and Roland 8 track digital workstation in hand, ‘breathingunderwater’ was born.

Two E.P's and once critically acclaimed album later, in 2006 Young ran into old friend Jerome Buckleigh at the New Zealand Music Awards and started to put into motion ideas that the two had shared months and years earlier on similar meetings. From there the live band grew around the nucleus of Young [guitar/vocals] and Buckleigh, [guitar] later joined by Matt Burling [bass/vocals] and Luke Hale. [drums]

But a year before the live line-up was to take shape, 2006’s “R[evolve]” marked a turning point in the project's history.

“R[evolve] was very much me just feeling out a new way of recording, [with Pro Tools] it was also the end of breathingunderwater as I had known it and the start of something new. In more ways than one.“

It was an American emo band with the name “breathing underwater” who prompted Young to change the band’s moniker.

“I could have fought it, but I just felt like, ‘shit – can I be bothered?’ Changing the name was I guess a way for me to shed some skin and start anew, especially with the live thing coming into play, it just felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Although 3rd guitarist/Keyboardist Adam Vink left the band early on to persue the formation of his own project, the nucleus of Young Buckleigh, Burling and Hale remain. And together, hit the live scene in March of 2008 under the name This Theory Of Static to an overwhelmingly positive response from audiences across the North Island.

Having well and truly road tested the material, in September 2008, the foursome signed with Wellington label Creepshow Productions who will release the band's new album in January 2009. An album some 20 months in the making, and the first to utilise musicians other than Young himself.

That album is called “Electricity.”

From the get go, the spacey electronica-infused intro of “Set The Controls” sets the scene for what follows – a hours worth of superbly crafted soaring alt-rock.

From the epic “Seven is Exploding” the somber yet powerful “In Absentia” the dark brooding stomp of “Resurrection Song” and the monolithic “Planets Align” the album explores themes of self awareness, deceit and conspiracy, relationships and loss.

So why “Electricity”?

“At a deeper level we are at our core, energy systems interacting with each other and our environment.” It is how we interact with, and react to each other that I find fascinating.”

This Theory of Static – The new album: Electricity is out now though Creepshow Productions. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.