Maxïmo Park are a British alternative rock band, formed in 2000. They are signed to Warp Records. The band consists of Paul Smith (vocals), Duncan Lloyd (guitar), Archis Tiku (bass guitar), Lukas Wooller (keyboard) and Tom English (drums). The band have released five studio albums: A Certain Trigger (2005); Our Earthly Pleasures (2007), Quicken the Heart (2009), The National Health (2012) and Too Much Information (2014). The first two albums went gold in the UK and their debut was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

History

Formation and early releases (2000–2003)

The band was created by guitarist Duncan Lloyd and is named after Máximo Gómez Park (also known as Domino Park), located in Little Havana, Miami . Initially, the four founding members played several small shows including Manchester's 'In the City', which showcases unsigned bands in the UK. In 2003, the band decided they wanted a frontman as the original singers, Archis and Duncan, wanted to focus on writing the songs. The then-girlfriend of the drummer Tom English noticed his friend Paul Smith singing along to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". When Smith was found, the band did not know if he could sing: "When he first joined we didn't know if he could; just that he was a lunatic jumping around in a suit, it felt like the last piece of the jigsaw". With Smith joining the band gave him demos of their songs and from then on started writing as unit.