New Zealand's top rock band of 2000, Zed was formed in 1996 while Nathan King, Ben Campbell, and Adrian Palmer were still attending Christchurch's Cashmere High School. Influenced by their parents' old Beatles records and adding their generation's Crowded House, Supergrass, Blur, and Radiohead, they started getting together in each other's bedrooms to practice the kind of hook-laden pop music they were listening to. Campbell's father liked what he heard and decided to send demos to a family friend, kiwi rock music icon, Ray Columbus. Also impressed by those bedroom sessions, Columbus signed on as Zed's manager, encouraged them to start writing original material, and secured them a publishing deal. The band also started playing in public and, still with an average age of 16, drove to Auckland for their first recording session. Zed's first two singles (which they self-produced) went Top 20 and the band were nominated for the most promising group award at the New Zealand Music Awards in 1998 . In July, 1999, Zed formalized their record company relationship and signed to Universal Music in New Zealand. In May 2000, the band migrated north again to Auckland's Revolver Studios to lay down the tracks for their debut album. They had added guitarist Andy Lynch to the lineup for live work. Lynch had helped the band record and mix both of their earlier singles. Once recording sessions for what became the Silencer album began, the band liked the direction the London-born Lynch was taking their music with his different influences and made him an official member. "Silence," with re-recorded versions of their first three singles, debuted at number one on release and went on to sell double platinum in New Zealand. ~ Ed Nimmervoll, Rovi

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