Having spent three years living in London, singer/bassist Nicholas Schaser left his UK-based Brit pop band, Jack Maggs, in 2009 and returned to Minneapolis. Within a few weeks, impromptu sessions began taking place with the lineup that would soon become The Arms Akimbo. With brother, Ian Schaser on drums and longtime friend Chris Dillon playing guitar, by the summer of 2009, the group was in full swing. Their presence on the local circuit was immediate, playing weekends at top venues with The Alarmists, Joey Ryan and the Inks, Communist Daughter, The Idle Hands, and others. Their debut EP, “You Want To”, released in December 2009, was an instant success. Totaling just over eight minutes in length, the songs drew heaps of local praise, thanks in large part to heavy rotation on 89.3 The Current including an in-studio session and 4 straight weeks on its Weekly Chart Show. Soon, the boys were playing sold out shows throughout the Twin Cities and gracing the pages of the Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, and numerous local music papers. Even the likes of Phoenix have been a part of The Arms Akimbo’s live audience. With “You Want To” also grabbing national attention from Largehearted Boy, KEXP, The WILD Honey Pie and others, the band returned to the studio to record their first full-length album. The self-titled LP, produced by Eric Lovold (The Alarmists), is due for release in the fall of 2010. The band draws its influences from both the British indie scene of the past few decades as well as present-day American indie groups. Their sound oscillates from The Jam and Elvis Costello to The Strokes and The Libertines, with a handful of stops in-between. This sound, mixed with their mutual proclivity for Motown, gives The Arms Akimbo a melodic edginess that harkens back to a long musical tradition while, at the same time, strongly esonates with contemporary audiences.