The Qemists

Tags: Drum and bass , electronic , ninja tune

The Qemists are a drum and bass group from Brighton, United Kingdom signed to Ninja Tune indie record label based in London. The band consists of Dan Arnold, Leon Harris and Liam Black.

The Qemists were originally the drummer, bassist and guitarist in a rock band where they spent a lot of time touring UK and Europe as well as spending a lot of time in the studio. During this time in the rock band in the late 1990s, they acquired an interest in drum and bass and some of the group's early efforts started to get airplay. For many years they were performing in the rock band as their day job whilst producing and DJing drum and bass at night, and this conflict of interests lead to the fusion of the two styles to form The Qemists sound that is known today. They had previously worked as live sound engineers for Basement Jaxx, Kano and Lady Sovereign.

Their debut release on Ninja Tune was a remix of Coldcut's "Everything Is Under Control" which was supported by Zane Lowe, Coldcut and Pendulum.

Their first single "Stompbox" appeared on the movie soundtrack, and in the movie "Jumper". Some singles of the band appeared in many video games. Stompbox appeared in MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Need for Speed: Undercover and Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Lost Weekend appeared in Colin McRae: Dirt 2, Forza Motorsport 3, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge and Need for Speed: Shift. The year 2009 also saw the release of their debut album "Join The Q" on the Ninja Tune label.

In 2009, they supported Enter Shikari on their World Tour, and underwent their own headlining UK Tour.

With the bands origins in heavy rock music and their fusion of rock and drum and bass they are often compared to mainstream drum and bass act Pendulum, with both artists having similar musical history and styles. 'Read more on Last.fm'. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.