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A friendship between two high
school students in 1998, materialized into a
story of a band that left its mark on the
Maltese dance culture. Mark Grima and Matthew
Agius, had both been studying classical music,
and their musical knowledge encouraged them to
set up a home studio and record their ideas on
tape. By the year 2000 at the age of 18, they
succeed to attract the attention of top club DJs
with a number of demos, and in the same year
they received an award for 'Best New Talent' at
the Club DJ awards. 2001 saw their first hit on
the air waves with the song 'Closer' which was
then followed with other releases such as
'Evening Falls' featuring Enya’s angelic voice.
.:2002:.
In 2002 U-Bahn released their
debut album ‘Freedom’ - a collection of songs
including hits like 'Rocket
High', 'You Are Mine', 'The Only Way' and
'Closer'. With the success of these tracks came
along a large number of requests to perform live
in clubs, parties, award nights and also at a
baroque theatre – the Manoel Theatre. Their
performances, upshot in an attraction to
clubbing enthusiasts who enjoyed live music and
placed U-Bahn along side top international
names.
.:2003 - 2004:.
During 2003 - 2004 Matthew and
Mark started off their solo career reaching out
different styles of dance music. This helped
them experiment with new fresh sounds and
styles. In 2004 Mark worked together with DJ
Ruby on the award winning remix 'Love
Me or Hate Me - Ira Losco'. The end of 2004,
Matthew and Mark returned back on stage for a
massive one hour show for 04/05 NYE concert
titled 'U-Bahn LIVE Classics Edition' alongside
Jan Johnston and other international names
entertaining 3000 clubbers in Gozo.
.:2005 - 2006:.
In 2005 U-Bahn were joined by a
new member Keith, who accompanied the band
during live performances and was the voice
behind the hit single 'Prove Yourself'. 2006 saw
another collaboration with DJ Ruby, this time
'Accident Prone - Ira Losco'. Mark also made his
way with 'Sway'
on the 'Pure Malta' compilation released on the
Holland based record label Fektive. U-Bahn ended
2006 with a surprise remix of 'Sampei', the
original popular manga cartoon melody. This
track broke local Maltese records hitting the
number 1 position in local Top 40 radio charts.
.:2007 - 2008:.
Following the success of 'Sampei'
, Matthew and Mark toured clubs and headlined
major festivals. Summer 2007 saw the release of
'Dirty
Electro' which was influenced by the
underground sound that took Europe by storm -
electronic sounds with rhythmic drum beats all
wrapped up with a fat bassline. 2008 was a
relatively quite year for U-Bahn as they
upgraded their studio.
.:2009 - 2010:.
While Matthew moved off to
Ireland DJing at top clubs like The Academy and
Andrews Lane Theatre, Mark got back in the
studio. During summer U-Bahn released 'Beautiful
Eyes', a song which took the band back to its
roots - melodic sequences and enchanting vocals.
'Beautiful Eyes' made over 12 weeks in the
charts, reached stations in Russia and hit
number 4 in the Top 40. Following this success
was a new remix for Ira Losco’s song “Something
to Talk About' included in the Mixed Beats
compilation and radio released in February 2010.
.:Live setup and production:.
Described as the island’s
foremost live dance act, U-Bahn's large LIVE
equipment setup varies from: sequencers,
samplers, synthesizers and several FX modules
all in total full control. Infact for U-Bahn
working in the studio is one thing, but going
fully live without using any pre-recorded tracks
is truly a challenge. U-Bahn are constantly
working on new material, from House to
Progressive, breaks and chill out tracks. |