North band Everything Everything praised by Zane Lowe

May 19 2009 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

MOST up-and-coming bands would be pleased with so much as a brief mention from top Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe.

But North East outfit Everything Everything were in dreamland when he revealed on air that he had joined online networking site Twitter just to sing their praises.

Lowe, who is from New Zealand, said his jaw “dropped to the floor” when he heard the band’s latest single Photoshop Handsome for the first time.

He also heaped praise on the music video for the track, which was mostly produced by the band themselves on a shoestring budget.

Three of the four members of Everything Everything were schooled at Hexham’s Queen Elizabeth High School and are now in their mid-20s.

Songwriter and lead singer Jonathan Higgs is from Gilsland, on the Northumberland-Cumbria border while guitarist Alex Niven and drummer Michael Spearman are from Newbrough, near Hexham. The quartet is completed by Jeremy Pritchard, who Jonathan met when studying music in Manchester. Speaking on his show, Lowe said: “This (the song) is incredible. I woke up yesterday morning and I turned on MTV2, checking out what videos were on.

“A video came on by this band called Everything Everything. They have this new song called Photoshop Handsome – it went with the video as well. My jaw just dropped to the floor.

“I have been toying with the idea of going on Twitter for some time ... this really was the turning point for me, the one thing that made me want to do it. This (Photoshop Handsome) was the first thing I wrote about and put a link up to. This is one of the freshest things I have heard in a long time.”