The Phantom Pains

Biography

Andy Bull is an Australian alt-pop/piano rock singer-songwriter, based in Sydney, New South Wales. He is best known for the single "Dog," from his 2010 Phantom Pains EP, a duet with former Australian Idol contestant Lisa Mitchell, as well as his prolific Australian touring. Bull began performing in and around Sydney in the early 2000s, eventually getting the attention of producer Tony Buchen in 2004. Buchen, having worked with other successful acts such as Blue King Brown, Macromantics and The...

Andy Bull is an Australian alt-pop/piano rock singer-songwriter, based in Sydney, New South Wales. He is best known for the single "Dog," from his 2010 Phantom Pains EP, a duet with former Australian Idol contestant Lisa Mitchell, as well as his prolific Australian touring.

Bull began performing in and around Sydney in the early 2000s, eventually getting the attention of producer Tony Buchen in 2004. Buchen, having worked with other successful acts such as Blue King Brown, Macromantics and The Whitlams, felt that Bull's style of music required different approach to recording, and the two experimented with older recording techniques such as analogue.

Wanting to develop Bull's talent further, but still nurture his individual style, they then travelled together to New York City, where they produced and mixed songs for Bull's debut album at the Electric Lady Studios. Bull signed to Island Records, a part of Universal Music Australia, in 2007. In 2007, Bull supported Joss Stone on her Australian tour and, in 2008, increased in popularity by being played regularly by the radio station Triple J.

Bull's debut single was released in August 2008. Entitled "Small Town Girl", it was taken from his debut album We're Too Young. In 2008, Bull toured with Garage to V winners, Little Red. His first headlining national tour commenced in late 2008. A music video was also made for "Young Man," the second single from the album. Bull would continue to tour extensively in support of the album throughout the rest of 2008 and 2009, notably joining Tim Finn's national tour as an opening act, performing solo as opposed to with his six-piece band. He also opened for a MySpace secret show in Sydney featuring U.K. neo-soul singer Duffy in that same year.

In May 2009, Bull toured in support of Lisa Mitchell's Australian tour, prior to the July release of her Platinum selling debut album "Wonder". During the tour, Bull performed his support set solo. For her own set, Mitchell was to play guitar, accompanied by bass player Jan Bangma and drummer Robert Vasey. Before the second show of the tour, however, Mitchell's hand was cut in an accident. Due to Mitchell's injury, she was unable to play guitar and so Bull stepped in, learning the set on piano in lieu of the guitar parts. Bull played in the band for the remainder of that tour, fomenting Bull and Mitchell's friendship, which would lead to their collaboration on Bull's song "Dog" the following year.

In September of 2009, Bull released "We're Too Young", the recording of which had been completed the previous year with producer Tony Buchen. The album enjoyed a good critical reception, including a 4/5 star review in Rolling Stone Magazine. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.