Formed in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, Utah Saints comprises Jez Willis (b. 14 August 1963, Brampton, Cumbria, England; ex-Cassandra Complex) and Tim Garbutt (b. 6 January 1969, London, England; also a DJ at the Bliss club in Leeds). Both were formerly members of MDMA, who practised an unlikely and unappetizing hybrid of electro-gothic dance music. They released five 12-inch singles on their own Ecstatic Product label, the band name taken from the chemical description for the "Ecstasy" drug, though they initially claimed never to have actually used it. However, both were more than familiar with developments in the club scene. After MDMA Willis drifted into DJing, specializing in 70s disco evenings (Garbutt had already performed widely in such a role from the late 80s onwards). Together they established their name at their own "Mile High Club" nights at The Gallery in Leeds; these were such a success that corresponding events also transferred to York and then London. They then returned to recording, taking the Utah Saints name from the Nicolas Cage movie, Raising Arizona (it had previously been employed on a MDMA b-side). The duo's move to house music, using samples and a driving backbeat, proved much more successful than the efforts of their former incarnation.
After acclimatizing to the charts with 1991's UK Top 10 hit "What Can You Do For Me" (featuring a Eurythmics sample), they produced the Top 5 hit "Something Good". This was built around a Kate Bush sample (the line "I just know that something good is going to happen") from "Cloudbusting", but it had other strengths too. As Willis elaborated: "We're trying to get a bit of rock 'n' roll into rave." They later backed Neneh Cherry on a version of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" for the Putting Our House In Order campaign for the homeless in 1993, one of several acts to release the song. Their own follow-up was the Top 10 hit "Believe In Me", this time featuring a sample of Philip Oakey of the Human League singing "Love Action". Other steals, meanwhile, are less obvious, and include heavy metal Satanists Slayer and industrial funk band Front 242. Utah Saints sold over a quarter of a million copies in the USA (where it was released first) in addition to its UK success. This was compounded by international touring with a wide range of bands. In just two weeks in 1993 they supported East 17, Take That and U2 at Wembley Stadium, then joined Moby and the Prodigy in Europe before returning to Leeds to support the Mission and Sisters Of Mercy.
Their first release in over a year, "Ohio", arrived in August 1995. This utilized a Jocelyn Brown sample (her 1984 hit "Somebody Else's Guy"), but a projected album was never released due to a dispute with their record label. Despite this, their playful instincts continue to offer an accessible bridge between rock audiences and the house movement, although their work ethic remains almost non-existent. Garbutt's busy DJing schedule took in a stint at New York's The Tunnel, while Willis continued to tinker in the studio. Remixing work for Alabama 3, Nina Hagen, Simple Minds, Hawkwind and the Osmonds was followed, in January 2000, by a rare new Utah Saints track, "Love Song". Their second album, succinctly titled Two, followed in October. They have a flexible working arrangement that ties neither to each other and reduces the pressure of having to work on new material.
