aaamusic | On 08, Jun 2011

Lead singer of White Arrows, Mickey Schiff was born blind. At the age of 11 after years of gradual eye exercises and otherworldly determination, he regained his sight. Someone who has experienced and achieved this is undoubtedly going to be profoundly effected and perhaps understandably, an HND in Business Studies was not ever going to be an option for Schiff when he came to select his subject for university: he chose Ritualistic Shamanism.

In the summer of 2008, fresh out of NYU armed with his degree, Los Angeles native Mickey Schiff began White Arrows. Fusing his studies with a drum machine and the looming, immediate presence of a booming NYC club scene; White Arrows was intended less as a group than a social document, detailing the experience of the young, ambitious, fucked-up, beautiful children of a new cosmopolitan America – all coastal culture and no middle. Schiff’s own remarkable history meant that there could be no other reasoning behind the band. It didn’t take long before Schiff began seeing White Arrows tagged across the lower east side and tattooed on the arms of friends and acquaintances.

Schiff moved back to Los Angeles where in 2010 White Arrows began its life as a performing unit. The line-up features Steven Vernet (guitar and percussion), Rob Banks (guitar) and Mickey Schiff, as well as younger brother Henry Schiff (drums) and half-brother, John Paul Caballero (bass).

The ep is the band’s first release in the UK and will herald their forthcoming debut album later in the year. The eponymous ep is the prologue to the White Arrows story, they are demos exposed, a work in progress. It is five original tracks and two remixes by RAC (Remix Artist Collective) and KKS (Kevin Seaton). RAC are currently producing the debut long player and whilst the ep offers a glimpse into what can be expected from the California five piece it is the album that really showcases their fusion of hip hop drum samples, analogue synths and heavyweight melodic hooks.

White Arrows own “brilliant new” remix of Alexander Ebert’s (Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes) track Truth has just featured on NME.com

White Arrows will be touring the UK in August and play Sasquatch Festival (WA) USA on 30th May 2011