Background
Westaway was born and raised in Northamptonshire and attended Rugby School where he met future bandmate Dan Haigh.
Westaway was born and raised in Northamptonshire and attended Rugby School where he met future bandmate Dan Haigh.
While he was at university he attended a party in 2003 with mutual friend Omar Abidi and the two met Charlie Simpson.
He said that the first guitar he ever bought was "A £20 Spanish guitar I got when I was eight and starting guitar lessons. When I got into it more it was an Ibanez RX, which was a good low-end guitar. I’d play my Nirvana covers on that."
The three then agreed to get together and jam.
They played the Rage Against The Machine song Killing in the Name on repeat and after several jams, agreed to start playing shows.
Alex then dropped out of university and moved in with Charlie so they could write songs together. During the early years of However when Charlie left Busted in January 2005. had their first official United Kingdom tour and released their first European Parliament They Liked You Better When You Were Dead in February 2005. have since had a successful career and have since released three albums.
Grand Unification, One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours and Be Human. announced a hiatus in 2010, but reformed in 2015 and have announced the release of their new studio album, Behind The Devil"s Back. His lighter, falsetto and tenor style vocals in are usually used to contrast Simpson"s deeper voice and screams to give a more versatile range.
Alex only sings solo on a few songs such as "Shinji Ikari", "We Left The Tracks of Fire", "Drown", "More Human Than Human" and sings as part of a duet in songs such as "Dark Star", "Tonight We Burn", "Amethyst", "Cross Out All The Stars", "Speak Up", "lieutenant"s Blood Is Black", "I Am The Message", "Paint Your Target", "Hazy Eyes","Gracious" and their cover of "Hurt".
During the hiatus Charlie Simpson has released a solo album which debuted at number 6 on the UK Album Charts and Alex and Dan Haigh have completed the score for Grzegorz Jonkajtys short film The 3rd Letter along with Audrey Riley. The film has picked up several awards from various film festivals across the world. Westaway"s most commonly used guitars are:
Fender Telecaster American Standard customized with single active Electromyography pickups.
Fender Stratocaster American Standard
Gibson SG New Century
Gibson SG Special with Electromyography pickups
Amps:
Peavey 5150
VHT Pitbull head
Pedals:
Boss Technology Union-2
Boss TR-2
MXR Smart-Gate
Boss Recreation Vehicle-5
Boss Doctor of Divinity-7.
Charlie was still an active member of the successful popular-rock band Busted whose sound differed greatly from "son Alex and Dan have also directed a film they have been working on for several years called "In God We Trust" which they have released a trailer for and also features all the members of First Rate (at Lloyd's) and Dan have also started a new musical side-project called "Gunship".