Alan Soupman is a British musician from Shoreditch, London. His music is mostly industrial.
History[]
Early career (2003-2005)[]
Alan first started playing bass around 2003, and formed a short lived band, East London Line. The band played Razorlight-style indie rock music. They released an EP independently in 2004 before then breaking up. Alan formed a solo project playing Gary Numan style industrial rock and darkwave. By 2005 he caught the attention of an unsuccessful Shoreditch based independent record label East London Records who released a one off single Farewell Shoreditch Station, which was intended to be comical and about the closure of the local Shoreditch tube station, and the horrors that commuters would have getting to work by cramming onto a bus to Liverpool Street station and missing their train due to being unable to find the correct problem, being late for work then getting fired. The label then re-released the East London Line EP but then disappeared by 2006. In 2005 Alan played at Shoreditch station a few days before it closed. In 2007, Alan and Mike from East London Line stated why the band broke up:
"We broke up because around 2004, just after the release of our EP, our drummer was stabbed near Shadwell DLR station. We couldn't just simply get over, find a new drummer and resume, we missed him too much and still do. He was our best friend. His death opened our eyes to how dark London was, and completely changed our musical influences. The optimistic lyrics we used to have good inspiration for had simply left. We spent months getting drunk in the local pubs, trying to forget about his death but it wouldn't leave us. We thought returning to music would help us, but we couldn't write music together, because firstly, we couldn't agree on a sound we both liked, Alan wanted dark keyboards and I wanted loud guitars, and secondly, we didn't want to shock our fans too much by jumping from soft happy indie into dark, depressing music that reminds people about the parts of London that make people want to move far away from here. Reforming East London Line just simply wouldn't work".
Darkness of Our Culture (2005-2007)[]
In 2005 Alan's more serious songs about the darkness of East London were noticed by American industrial label Metropolis Records. In 2006 his first serious single Fear was released. Later in 2006 his debut album Darkness of Our Culture was released. His first single Farewell Shoreditch Station was not included on the album due to its lack of seriousness and not fitting into the theme of the album. A tour across the UK and USA took place from 2006 to 2007.
Isolation (2007-2009)[]
In 2007, just after the tour of Darkness of Our Culture, Alan released his second studio album, Isolation. The song Forced Upon Me was released as a single half way through 2008 backed with Farewell Shoreditch Station. A tour from 2007 to 2009 across Europe took place, where Alan played several festivals, including Iceland Airwaves in Iceland, Taubertal, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Germany.
Historisch (2009-2012)[]
Main article: Historisch
In 2009, after Alan had finished touring, he formed side project Historisch releasing Krieg Eins in 2010 and Zwei: Langer in 2012.
The Third Edition (2012-present)[]
In 2012, Alan returned to his solo project, releasing The Third Edition in 2012 under Deutsche Amerika.
Discography[]
With East London Line[]
- East London Line EP (2004)
As Alan Soupman[]
- Farewell Shoreditch Station (Single) (2005)
- Fear (Single) (2006)
- Darkness of Our Culture (2006)
- Isolation (2007)
- Forced Upon Me (Single) (2008)
- The Third Edition (2012)
With Historisch[]
- Krieg Eins (2010)
- Zwei: Langer (2012)