Steve Ashby and Chris Hallmark grew up in Moseley, Birmingham, and have been playing music together since their schooldays. Early ventures included a church choir and appearances as an acoustic duo at parties, coffee shops and youth activities across the city. They were founder members of the a cappella supergroup (their description, not anyone else’s) The Jellymonsters, whose magnum opus was a self-titled album recorded at the BBC studios in Pebble Mill. A brief attempt at a proper music career was made with the foundation of indie band Black Moonshine, followed by a decade of The Beach Bums, a Beach Boys covers band that played across the Midlands, ironically mostly in the pouring rain.
More recently, although not having officially fallen out, they temporarily went their separate ways. Steve featured as lead guitarist for Birmingham groups including Tayz and the Drollz and On The Raggedy Edge, while Chris moved to bass as a founder member of long-running rock and metal covers band Run For Cover.
Marta Moreira grew up on the island of Madeira and, after realising she needed to actually hit a ball to follow in Cristiano Ronaldo’s footsteps, she decided to dedicate her free time to her real passion, music. After showing her talent in the female musical group of the University of Madeira, Tuna D’Elas, she was invited to join a new gospel choir, Ceufonia, where she became known for her harmonizing skills. Soon after, she joined several bands as backing vocalist and had her five minutes of fame on national Portuguese TV by singing and (mainly) smiling behind someone’s back. Years later, she replaced the Madeira wine with English Breakfast Tea and, determined to find her space in Birmingham’s music scene, she featured in reggae & ska band Jahbasy, funk band Citybreak, and jazz & bossa nova band The Liquid Blue Collective (not all at the same time). In a stroke of bad luck, she joined On The Raggedy Edge and met Steve.
Distant Strings was born in 2024 with the idea of developing acoustic arrangements of well-known rock songs, played with energy and featuring tight three-part harmonies. Their natural environment appears to be pubs, bars, beer gardens and coffee shops, a fact that does not shock those who know them well. Cake shops that do live music and serve beer would be the dream.
