Area 11 were an English rock band from Nottingham, England. The band consisted of four members: Thomas "Sparkles*" Clarke, Alex Parvis, Jonathan Kogan and Leo Taylor. To date, they have released a number of singles and EPs, and three studio albums.
The band's sound is heavy with minimal synthesizers and electronic effects that they call modern rock, however in their earlier records, Area 11's sound commonly blended heavy metal guitar riffs with a wider more prominent range of synthesizers and electronic effects, which they sometimes referred to as gaijin rock. Meaning "foreigner rock" in Japanese, this is a title that also relates to the band's musical origins when their style was notably influenced by anime and J-rock.
Biography Area 11 consisted of Tom Clarke, Alex Parvis, Jonathan Kogan, and Leo Taylor. They formed on 8 October 2010 in Nottingham during what was described by band frontman Sparkles* as a "disastrous jam session". Founding members Sparkles*, Luke, and Alex then discovered their shared love of anime whilst watching Code Geass episode 22 "Blood Stained Euphy", from which they wrote their first song, "Euphemia."
The name "Area 11" is a reference to the anime Code Geass, as Japan is referred to as Area 11 in the series, with its citizens referred to as Elevens, a name which has come to collectively describe Area 11 fans. In fact, some of Area 11's songs are based on various anime, including Code Geass, Death Note, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Naruto, Elfen Lied, Bakuman, Fullmetal Alchemist due to the band's strong fondness of the genre at the time of recording their earlier records. Towards the end of recording their debut album, All the Lights in the Sky, the band decided that they had done all they wanted in terms of writing songs about anime, and stopped writing songs about the animation genre, wanting to explore original new ideas and concepts.
The band has been commissioned to produce music for companies such as YouTube broadcasting group The Yogscast and Namco Bandai Games. Significantly for Namco Bandai Games, they produced "GO!! Fighting Action Power" as the credits theme for their Bravoman web-series on ShiftyLook, and later "Wonder Wars" as the theme song for the Wonder Momo anime series.
On 1 October 2024, the band announced on their Patreon page that work had begun on a new record following "a little break" - telling fans that any updates on the project would be posted to the same page. In this time, they recorded "over 20" demos intended to be included on the record, but felt that their efforts were inadequate - stating, "we pushed on, but increasingly started feeling very lost in the process" in a later post on the same Patreon page.
The band would eventually announce on 10 January 2026 that, following a meeting a couple of weeks prior, they had decided to go on an "official hiatus" - citing their lack of passion, members' involvement in other projects, and the fact that they had all moved to different cities as the main factors for their decision. In the same announcement, they stated that they were not ruling out the possibility of a reunion in the future, but expressed the members' desire to focus on personal projects, saying "we didn’t want to put out a bunch of lacklustre music we didn’t love just to continue the band".
Musical style The band's sound consists mostly of heavy guitars (including 7-stringed guitars) but also makes subtle use of synthesisers, orchestral sections and electronic effects. In contrast, many songs contain acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitars and emotional piano melodies.
In their earlier records, Area 11's sound commonly blended rock and metal styles of guitar with aspects of Japanese music including J-pop, this sound they referred to by the tongue-in-cheek name, gaijin rock as "gaijin" in Japanese means "foreigner", "a fusion of pop-punk, metal, prog, and glam fortified by a major obsession with anime, video games, and Japanese comics."
Members Current members
Tom 'Sparkles*' Clarke – lead vocals, keyboards (2010–present) Alex 'Parv' Parvis – guitar, backing vocals (2010–present) Jonathan 'Kogie' Kogan – bass, saxophone, backing vocals (2011–present) Leo Taylor – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2010–present)
Past members Luke Owens – guitar, backing vocals (2010–2012) Tim Yearsley – bass (2010–2011)
Timeline
Discography Studio albums Title Album details Peak chart positionsUKUKRockUKIndieUKBreakUSHeatUSIndie All the Lights in the SkyReleased: 31 January 2013 Label: Smihilism Records Format: CD, Digital download 75 10 10 2 11 42 Modern SynthesisReleased: 1 July 2016 Label: Smihilism Records (Cooking Vinyl) Format: CD, Digital download, LP 27 2 9 — — — SinglarityReleased: 18 December 2020 Label: Smihilism Records Format: CD, Digital download — — — — — — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
Live albums Title Album details Everybody Gets a Piece Tour Released: 24 March 2019 Label: Smihilism Records Format: Digital download
Extended plays Title EP details Blackline Released: 3 September 2011 Label: Breaking the Boredom Format: CD, Digital download Underline Released: 2 November 2014 Label: Smihilism Records Format: CD, Digital download Let It Resonate Released: 9 December 2016 Label: Smihilism Records Format: CD, Digital download Cassandra Rising Released: 31 January 2019 Label: Smihilism Records Format: CD, Digital download Cover Girls Released: 30 September 2019 Label: Smihilism Records Format: Digital download Not That Christmassy UK Christmas Number Ones Released: 25 December 2019 Label: Smihilism Records Format: Digital download Fan Subs Released: 25 April 2020 Label: Smihilism Records Format: Digital download Flannel EP Released: 30 April 2020 Label: Smihilism Records Format: Digital download
Singles Title Year Peak chart positions AlbumUKUKIndieUKBreak "Dota 2 Beta Key"2011 — — —align="center" "Knightmare/Frame"2012 — — — All the Lights in the Sky "Minecraft Christmas (feat. Yogscast)" 69 — —align="center" "Shi No Barado"(featuring Beckii Cruel)2013115121 All the Lights in the Sky "GO!! Fighting Action Power" — —12align="center" "Heaven-Piercing Giga Drill" — — — All the Lights in the Sky "Homunculus"2014 — — —align="center" rowspan="2" "Override [B]"2015 — — — "Versus" — — — Modern Synthesis "Watchmaker"2016 — — — "The Contract" — — — "Processor"2017 — — — "All Your Friends / New Magiks"2018 — — — Singlarity "Everybody Gets a Piece" — — — "Curtain Fall" — — — "Tear Up"2019 — — — "ØCULIST" — — — "Kaleidoscope" — — — "Fortune Faded" — — —align="center" "Desaturate" — — —Singlarity "4 Become 3"2020 — — —align="center" "(Break) In Case Of..." — — —Singlarity "Dancing on the Head of a Pin" — — — "Singularity" — — — "Plug in Baby" — — —align="center" rowspan=3 "Every You Every Me" — — — "Floating World" — — — "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.
External links Area 11 on Twitter Tom Clarke (Sparkles*) on Twitter Alex Parvis (Parv) on Twitter Jonathan Kogan (Kogie) on Twitter Leo Taylor on Twitter
References