Matt Cardle

Matthew "Matt" Sheridan Cardle (born 15 April 1983) is an English pop rock recording artist and songwriter. Cardle was born in Southampton, England and grew up in Halstead, Essex, England. Cardle has been involved in music since his early teens and has been a member of two different bands; Darwyn and Seven Summers, with whom he experienced limited success. Cardle rose to fame after winning the seventh series of The X Factor, and received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music and later signed a deal with Columbia Records.

Following Cardle's victory on The X Factor, the winner's single and his debut single, "When We Collide", was released. The track was made available to purchase on 12 December 2010, shortly after the show had ended. On 19 December 2010, the track debuted at number-one on the UK Singles Chart as well as Irish Singles Chart. The track also became the second biggest-selling single of 2010 with 815,000 copies sold within two weeks. In June 2012 it had sold 1 million copies, the fourth single by an X Factor contestant to have done so.

Darwyn (band)

Darwyn was an alternative rock and acoustic band from Essex. The band featured Matt Cardle as the lead singer and acoustic guitar player. Matt Cardle went on to become the winner of the seventh series of The X Factor The other Darwyn members were; Ali McMillan on drums and percussion and Richard Grace on piano. The band members met at Lights Music Action and formed Darwyn in 2005.

Career

2005: Formation

The band, who described themselves as acoustic rock, recorded the 11 track album When You Wake in 2006, which included the tracks "Violet" and "When You Wake". They were subsequently awarded an Arts Council England grant which they used to record the follow up EP Little Sunlight in 2007 which included the track "Junior". The band played at many festivals including Stortford Music Festival and Brownstock Festival and regularly played at the venue and recording studio Highbarn in Essex.

Cardle and McMillan also played as a two piece under the name Darwyn playing acoustic cover versions of popular songs in venues in and around the Suffolk area and videos of them playing together have gained many views on YouTube.