January 2012 – present
Since I was a teenager, I have been a fan of the goth rock of the 80’s and early 90’s and a lot of the music I have created and played over the years has been influenced by that sound. However, it wasn’t until recent years that I had become aware of the more contemporary bands on the scene and how very much still alive it was. After watching a gig in late 2011 with some great bands on the bill, I decided that I’d like to form a new band of my own along with bassist Emma Hedley who had been playing for Leeds bands Action Directe and Quasimodo.

We recruited some other musicians and the project commenced in January 2012. Initially, it was a 5-piece consisting of Paul Brannan (vocals), Paul Stefan-Gill (guitar) and Phil Holroyd (drums) as well as myself and Emma on guitar and bass respectively. We’d decided on the name The Wraith and got cracking.

Initially, it was all very new and exciting and we quickly got a small handful of songs together. However, there was a major clash in personalities and the situation very quickly descended into madness. This resulted in Paul Brannan leaving in the March, shortly followed by Paul Stefan-Gill. The two Pauls later worked together briefly under the moniker The Wraith Within but aside from some snippets of demos posted online, the project disappeared into obscurity. Paul Brannan later launched his own page with some more complete versions.

The remaining 3 of us regrouped and gave the band a reboot with myself taking up vocal duties. In an effort to distance ourselves from the stresses of the preceding period, we decided to give the band the new name Dawn of Elysium.

Over the next 6 months, we created a short set of songs in time to play at a friend’s birthday party.

Just after this gig, we were joined by ex-Legion keyboard player Charles Shelley.

We continued for the next 3-4 months, playing a couple of gigs and recording an EP called Sense of Belonging. 2013 looked set to be a good year for the 4 of us. However, in the February, Phil decided to leave the band due to external commitments.

In the weeks leading up to our first gig of 2013, we took the decision to continue without live drums as a 3-piece.

We continued as a 3-piece for the next 5 and a half years, recording our first album and playing anywhere that would have us on.

In late 2018, it was felt that we might be best served by introducing some changes to the band in order to progress further. We had been considering adding a second guitarist into the mix for quite some time but never actively pursued it. We got chatting about it to friend of the band and long time gig attendee Tim Furze. He was the perfect man for the job and fitted in with ease. Throughout the first half of 2019 we played some of our best gigs yet and started travelling a bit further afield.

In the summer of 2019, we expanded our numbers further and invited Kaz Buxton (Suicide By Cop, Echofire) into the fold. This introduced a whole new dimension to the sound and material old and new was revamped.

See the website for more information.