'Tessellation seek support'
In her own mind, Tessa Maxwell (Guitarist) has been reliant on social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube to gain public support and opinion for a number of years. Now being signed to Universal Music, with a studio based down in London, it has branched out a whole new career path for the two young Leicester girls who call themselves Tessellation. "Rather than going out of your way to find a record label that will sign you, publicize your band on sites such as Twitter, create a fan base, get yourself trending, and they will come running to you. At least, that's what happened to us."The two 18 year old girls, well known on the streets of Leicester for busking since the age of 14, seeked support away from the locals to see if anyone their own age took a liking to them. Within 24 hours of them posting their first YouTube video, with a cover of Gabrielle Aplin's song 'Home', they gained over 20,000 views, 1,500 subscribers and 7,850 likes. With the positive vibe they gained from an effortless action, it spurred them on to create another video, this time, only 30 seconds long, asking their subscribers to follow them on a Twitter account they set up that day. Due to another huge response from not only UK citizens but European, the girls created many more videos for their YouTube channel, and linked it with their Twitter account.
The lead vocalist Bailey Warren wasn't as keen as her band mate Tessa to create accounts online, as she didn't like the idea of bad representation many artists gain from what they post to the world. "My fear is that what you post is never erased. I enjoy performing on the streets to the locals, seeing their faces lighten up on a miserable day, it's what I love about music, it has its own characteristics. I don't believe for one second you can do that sitting behind a screen." After realising that it wasn't just the folks of their home town who liked their music, Tessellation set up a Facebook Page and a Vine account, which developed their fan base incredibly. With fan girls globally then associating themselves with the band as a tribe 'Tessellators', leading the two girls to regular trending status on Twitter, increasing their follower count massively to 350,000.
In August 2013 with the support of their fans, Tessellation were emailed by Gabrielle Aplin's manager, asking them if they would support her on her 'Coming Home' Tour. With no hesitation they replied that same day, resulting in them playing at her shows across the Midlands. "The crowd were magnificent, I can only hope that there will be more of this to come in the very near future. Its what we love doing, but it was on such a larger scale to our usual spot in the street." - Tessa Maxwell.
With an uplifting response from the crowd, and a local fans' recording of their performance, from their show at Leicester's O2 Academy, which was posted online, the girls were followed on Twitter by artists such as Lewis Watson (a good friend of Aplin's, who was at the show himself) and the global big hitter Ed Sheeran who both took a liking to the sound of the originals the girls were hitting out on stage.
The girls were approached in London after a gig following their tour with Aplin, by the manager of Universal Music, London. Who after talking to the girls backstage, offered them a record deal, providing they work hard and stay individual. This was a fantastic opportunity "We wouldn't have done this, without the support from our locals, and our social network fan bases on Twitter, Facebook, Vine and YouTube." - Bailey Warren
After being signed, the girls haven't left the studio, creating an album which they hope to be released in May of 2014, called 'The Unborn' which included originals they wrote themselves when growing up together - 'Strings', 'City Living' and 'Once Upon a Dream'. They tweeted "Thanks for all the support, its been a short and sweet journey alone, at last we've been signed!!!" After releasing the news to their fans, they followed it up the next day with an announcement, to which they told their fans that they were going on their own tour, called ................................... tour. Their fans once again responded in significant doses, and every single show was sold out with in a week.
Band Profile (To feature on the double paged spread)
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