We formed in the Winter of 2004 with the current line up except for Mike Smith on bass instead of Edd Hammill and Kyle Johns on keyboards. Kyle was a wayward type, we'd met him on the internet in a chat room dedicated to fans of Proust, Borges and certain other writers interested in memory, time and labyrinthine aesthetics. He was living in Wakefield at the time but was prepared to travel to practises. The band burst into life the moment he joined. He was a hell of a character, abrupt and rude sometimes but warm and caring at others. He was brimming with wacky ideas and had a vicious sense of humour. I believe it was he who suggested the name Nine More Lies, but my memory of the time is sketchy, as if I am planning it and it is about to happen. In April of that year, after just 4 months working on material together and prior to our first ever gig, Kyle suddenly vanished. He was uncontactable by phone. We tried to trace him through people with the same surname in Wakefield and the surrounding area, but didn't have any luck. We tried the old chat rooms but nobody seemed to remember him. We thought about filing a missing persons report, but decided against it. We knew he had personal problems of some kind. We assumed he simply didn't want to speak to us. He was secretive and we always felt that there was a lot about him we didn't understand. After talking at length about Kyle, we wrote The Sleepwalker in an afternoon, a spontaneous expression of who we imagined him to be, drifting in and out of various states of existence. As time went on, he became less and less real to us. Unreality had become a member of the band. Last week, we received a letter with an indeterminate postmark. It was signed from Kyle and smelt like fish and chips. This is what it said (full of spelling errors that I've corrected)... "Dear Nine More Lies (always liked the name - keep it you bastards!) I've been following your progress on the internet over the last year or so. It looks like you're beginning to fulfil your potential - or the potential that I blessed you with. The new tracks sound like my dreams would sound if dreams had sound. Sounds about right...just like I planned it. You may be wondering where I am (although I've not seen any mention of me on any of your sites!) or you may not care. Anyway, I just thought I'd let you know that I'm doing alright now after a pretty awful year. The reason I went missing is that I was inside for a crime I didn't commit. I don't want to go into the details as it's still all quite painful. Sorry for any problems I caused in my absence and sorry for not being in touch sooner. I've no real excuses. I've received a full pardon and am now a free man. Thank God. Anyway, this is really just to wish you the best of luck with the band. I've been praying for you (in my own way) and imagining the day I get to join you on stage in some distant land, once an once only, where we shall remain frozen in ourselves for all time. I don't want you to get in touch with me right now. I'm going to go abroad for a while to try and put things behind me. I need to try and forget a lot of things so that I can remember the future. When I return, I expect you to have a major record deal (or I will be forced to destroy you all) and I want my fair cut. I may send a postcard...or you may never hear from me again...or you may hear from me and forget you did. Good luck fellas, God speed and whatever you do, don't look down.... Kyle." Now you can imagine we were quite shocked to receive this. It took a few days for it to sink in. But then something else hit me when I was re-reading the letter, hoping to find some hidden clues or anything to calm my nerves. Something wasn't quite right. I unlocked the cellar and rummaged through our old band stuff: old flyers, setlists, newspaper clippings and so on. I eventually found what I was looking for. a crumpled piece of paper with some notes on it - potential lyrics for one of our earliest songs. The lyrics were written by Kyle. I lifted the letter to my eyes again. The handwriting was different. The letter ISN'T from Kyle...