And So I Watch You From Afar

And So I Watch You From Afar are a four-piece instrumental rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland. The band consists of Rory Friers and Tony Wright on guitars, Johnny Adger on bass and Chris Wee on drums.

The band was formed in late 2005 and released their debut mini-album This Is Our Machine and Nothing Can Stop It in early 2007. This was followed by a collaboration EP entitled Tonight The City Burns, released in October 2007, that featured vocals from Cahir O'Doherty of Fighting With Wire and Jetplane Landing and Johnny Black of LaFaro. By the time they came to recording their debut full length album the band had toured the UK as well as in support of High On Fire, Crippled Black Phoenix, 65daysofstatic and Yourcodenameis:milo and would go on to tour with the likes of Clutch, Oceansize, Envy, Trash Talk and Them Crooked Vultures. They had also, by this time, been getting noticed by UK and European media.

In 2009, ASIWYFA played 170 gigs in Europe. From tours in the UK to opening Pukkelpop festival in Belgium in front of 4500 people to Novarock festival in Austria, gigs in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Their hometown Belfast shows range from the 1,500 capacity headline Christmas homecoming gig in the Ulster Hall to a basement party. Their self-titled debut album was released in April 2009. It was named the 6th best album of 2009 by Rock Sound.^[1]

In 2010, they played EuroSonic Festival and were nominated for both Ireland's Choice Music Prize and the XFM New Music Album of the Year for 2009 in the UK, and played South By South West (SXSW) festival in Texas.

Touring in 2010 brought the band to the US with Japanese band Envy, to festivals such as Lowlands, Pukkelpop, Electric Picnic, Oxegen and Sonisphere and to a total of 17 countries in Europe. As well as festival shows and the band's own shows, they have also toured as the main support band to Them Crooked Vultures.

In 2011 the band won Best EP at the Digital Socket Awards in Dublin.^[2]

And So I Watch You From Afar - self titled