Steve Hewitt

Steven James Hewitt (born 22 March 1971) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and record producer.

He is the frontman of his own band, Love Amongst Ruin.

Hewitt began his career in the North West of England, playing with his brother Nick in Misadventure, before leaving in 1988 to join The Mystic Deckchairs.

Two of The Mystic Deckchairs' tracks, "For The Day" and "Keep Your Head On", appeared on the 1989 compilation LP Drunk released by Emergency Records.

Hewitt joined fellow local musician Tim Burgess in Electric Crayons, prior to Burgess joining The Charlatans in 1989.

Hewitt also joined Breed at the age of 17 and linked up with the band for a German tour after spying an advert placed by the band in Affleck's Palace.

Following the completion of the tour, Hewitt joined The Boo Radleys on a temporary basis and played on the band's 1990 debut album, Ichabod and I.

Hewitt rejoined Breed in 1991 and played on the albums Grin in 1991 and Violet Sentimental in 1993.

Hewitt met Brian Molko in 1991 through his then-girlfriend and was invited to drum on demos for Molko's band Placebo, though Hewitt was unable to join the band due to his commitments to Breed.

Hewitt is best known for his tenure as the drummer for Placebo between September 1996 and October 2007.

He plays drums and guitar left-handed.

Hewitt was born in Northwich, Cheshire, England and attended Weaverham High School.

Despite a support slot on Nick Cave's Let Love In tour, Breed found commercial success elusive and following a disastrous gig at the Bull & Gate in London in 1996, the band split.

While in Breed, Hewitt also played for house act K-Klass.

The need for money during these years saw Hewitt take on session work in London, recording jingles and appearing on releases by Baby June and Sharkboy.

The band earned a record deal with drummer Robert Schultzberg, who played on the trio's 1996 debut album.

In the autumn of 1996, tensions between Schultzberg, Molko and bassist Stefan Olsdal led to Schultzberg's departure from the band.

Breed's breakup around the same time allowed Hewitt to accept the invitation to join Placebo permanently.

Hewitt appeared in the video for the band's 1997 "Nancy Boy" single with his face blurred out, because he was still under contract to a different record label.

After completing touring for Placebo, the band wrote and recorded their second album, Without You I'm Nothing, released in October 1998.

The first official Placebo release to feature Hewitt was the "Pure Morning" single, released in August 1998.

Hewitt drummed and contributed to the songwriting on subsequent albums Black Market Music (2000), Sleeping with Ghosts (2003) and Meds (2006) with the band.

On 6 December 2004, Breed reformed for a one-off gig at Lock 17 in Camden Lock Market, London.

On 1 October 2007, after the completion of the tour supporting Meds, it was announced via the official Placebo website that Hewitt had parted company with Placebo due to "personal and musical differences".

He was replaced in 2008 by Steve Forrest, the band's first right-handed drummer.

Feeling "betrayed" after leaving Placebo and faced with a decision "to go to the pub or the studio", Hewitt returned to his home studio and began creating "a new band, a new album and a new sound".

He contributed drums, guitars, piano and lead vocals to the album and enlisted Jon Thorne and Donald Ross Skinner as collaborators.

Steve's brother Nick Hewitt recorded additional guitars and Hewitt felt that he had captured his best ever drum sound on the album.

The band was named Love Amongst Ruin in late 2009 and Hewitt assuming frontman duties.

Hewitt has a daughter and had a second child in early 2010.

His elder daughter Emily performed backing vocals on Love Song, the final track on Love Amongst Ruin's 2010 debut album.

Hewitt was inspired to become a drummer after watching Phil Taylor performing "Ace of Spades" with Motörhead on Top of the Pops.

He "hassled" his parents to get him a drum kit and when they did, he taught himself to play.

Hewitt also acknowledges drummers Phil Rudd (AC/DC) and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) as influences.

Hewitt was musically active at school, drumming and putting on performances.

He lists some of his influences as The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Radiohead and Can.

He recalled that his family "loved music" and driving on caravan holidays in the car would be punctuated by the sounds of Bee Gees, Elton John, ELO and The Beatles.

Hewitt worked as a picture framer before leaving school and upon leaving school he began training to be a race car engineer.

He progressed to be offered an opportunity to continue his training with Williams and worked on the team's pit crew.

He also worked as a sign writer until deciding to pursue music full-time.