Project H - Reviewed and Interviewed

Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 November 2009 12:31 Written by Jemini Monday, 23 November 2009 00:00

With the vocals of a pop star like Justin Timberlake and the hard-rocking metal edge of a band like Creed, Project H beautifully molds these elements together to create a unique sound. They may not have a unique look like some bands go after, but who needs a look when you sound as great these guys do? When you see them live and listen to their debut album New Era, you will understand. For now, here is a track-by-track guide to New Era followed by some very interesting information about the band’s background that is a must read.

New Era is jump-started to life with the hard-rocking, catchy song, “Down”. A recent interview with Aristides “Artie” Rincon, it found that the influences on this song came from a band called Quicksand from New York, New York, another band with Creed influences.

“Breaking Free” is a head swaying, hard-rocking song was originally given the temporary title “New Era” when it was just the instrumentals. Once the lyrics were written for it, the title was changed to “Breaking Free”. With killer vocals, amazing guitar work, and masterful drums, this song is worth pressing the play button on several times.

“The Other Side of Hope” came about unintentionally and without a lot of thought. The band members were “noodling around” while recording one day and the chorus to this song caught lead singer Trey Graham’s attention. Several replays later, the lyrics emerged from a fictitious story in Graham’s head. The result is this rock ballad. Listen carefully to the chorus on this song for you will hear some elements that sound like Creed as well.

“Same for You” – While this is a good song, it’s not one of the better ones on this album, especially when you get to track 5.
“You and I” – Enter track five, “You and I”. Destined to take the world by storm, this catchy Creed influenced rock ballad took shape when Archer and Graham were writing the song’s lyrics. This song is a tribute to the friends and family that have supported the band through Raman noodles, being late on paying bills, and letting them sleep on couches after a show. Accompanying this song is a music video that was shot over a period of a couple of days on a roof top in Miami, Florida. You can view this music video on the band’s MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/projecthband).

“No More Waiting” – With Graham’s pipes and the softer guitar riffs, this rock ballad continues to show more of the pop side of Project H.

“Make a Change” – This harder rock/metal track contains an attention-getting introduction followed by catchy lyrics. Graham pushes his voice a bit at the beginning of each chorus and towards the end of the prechorus. Overall, “Make a Change” is a good song, just not one of my favorites.

“1:23” – This song seems to drift along like a fairytale with pretty vocals and softer riffs kind of like “More More Waiting”. Then the band prepares the listener for the climax of the song with a soft acoustic bridge, drums, and Graham slowly building up his voice to repeat this section with tasteful emotional shouting (as opposed to screaming).

“Climb On” – Catchy lyrics, wonderful harmonies, and attention-getting guitar riffs has placed this song in the favorite category. You will find yourself singing along and swaying your head to this song every time you listen to it.

“The Hush (Silence Overcome)” – Done in true Project H fashion, this song is another crowd favorite with its catchy lyrics, head-banging guitars, killer vocals, and masterful drums. This is another great single off of this album.

“Once Beautiful” – The album comes to a conclusion with this beautiful rock ballad. Between Graham’s amazing pipes on this song, the keyboards, and the masterful guitar work, “Once Beautiful” ranks on the favorite list with “Down” and “You and I”.
Behind the Music of Project H

The RenegadeRadio.net Street Team recently sat down with Project H in a series of two interviews (the first with lead singer Trey Graham and the second with Aristides “Artie” Rincon) to get a little more background about the band, its members, and the music they create. Below are paraphrased highlights from these two interviews. To view the full transcripts, see Jemini’s blog on the Renegade Network.

A. Rincon, R. Rincon, and Archer were part of a Houston-based band called Gone Blind that started probably in either 1993 or 1994 and was more of a hardcore metal band with punkish roots and emo-scream-o vocals. After much touring, Gone Blind was picked up by Roadrunner Records. Through the record company, they were able to tour with Creed, Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith, Sevendust, and Nickelback. Kiki, their good friend and manager at the time was friends with the band members of Creed. After introducing the two bands to each other, Creed invited Gone Blind to open for them on their next tour. The band members were never Creed fans because they were in more of a hardcore scene. Nonetheless, Gone Blind became very good friends with and fans of Creed. After Creed broke up, Gone Blind was let go from Roadrunner Records. As a result, the record company never released their album. Since Creed broke up and Gone Blind no longer had a record label, Scott Stapp, Kiki, and Gone Blind joined forces and ended up producing Stapp’s solo record The Great Divide as well as touring with Stapp for the next three years.

After the tour, A. Rincon and Archer were supposed to go back and do a second record with the former Creed front man. In doing so, they would risk breaking up the band, so they decided to leave and produce their own record instead. Eventually Gone Blind did break up and Archer, R. Rincon, and A. Rincon ended up forming Project H. In the midst of all of this, A. Rincon had written songs and generated ideas for Stapp’s second record that he ended up using certain parts of for the Project H songs “The Other Side of Hope”, “You and I”, and “No More Waiting”.

So, how does Trey Graham fit into all of this? Before Project H, Graham was once the lead singer for a pop rock band called Beautiful You and then later on Nothing More. While working with Beautiful You, Graham moved to Los Angeles with the rest of his band mates. The first night while he was in LA, he met up with a college buddy of his that ended up being in a band called Evanescence. At the time, his buddy ended up writing “Because of You” with Kelly Clarkson and eventually started dating. The first day Graham moved out to LA, his buddy introduces him to Clarkson. The two instantly became great friends. By the end of the first night in LA, Clarkson asked Graham if he would like to sing backup for her next tour. When the tour with Clarkson ended, Graham decided that LA life was too much for him, so he moved back to Texas and became the lead singer for Nothing More. After providing his vocals on the albums Waiting on Rain and Save You, Save Me, Graham parted ways with Nothing More.

Eventually, the four musicians all ended up in Houston and getting introduced to each other through A. Rincon and R. Rincon’s cousin who was a reporter for Fox News in Houston. After getting introduced and forming a band, they immediately started writing new songs and recording their debut album New Era in February 2008 and releasing it in November of that year with the old bass player/background vocalist.

In August 2009, the old bass player left the band for a stripper two days before they were scheduled to play a show in San Antonio, TX. Not wanting to cancel the show, the remaining members decided to go ahead and play anyway. By the end of the set, everyone in the crowd was going “Bass player? Who needs a bass player?” Despite the positive reaction from the crowd, the band knew they needed to fill in the gaps. After that gig, the band cut back on shows while they focused on finding a new bass player and writing new material. In their search, they stumbled across an experienced bass player, Joel Bailey who once played with Sixpence None the Richer.

With Bailey now a part of this talented and experienced lineup, the band is finally complete and sounding better than ever. Project H is currently working on 18 brand new songs, 12 of which they would like to record. Five of the new song titles are “Icarus”, “Black Widow”, “Shadow”, “Pawn”, and “Push Me”. All five of these songs are a lot harder sounding than what you hear on New Era. To hear the new songs, you will have to attend one of their live shows which are currently few and far between due to day jobs and getting things lined up for the recording process. In the mean time, keep an eye on the band’s MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/projecthband) and tune into RenegadeRadio.net for the latest updates.

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Comments (7) Add Comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Do they actually pay you to write this s$#& Jemini?
written by Aiden, February 17, 2010

For some time I came to renegaderadio.net to find intelligent articles about bands and to get an insite on something new to come that we may not have heard of, but then I come across an article about a band so bad that I couldn't even believe my own eyes! Did you even listen to the music before you wrote this article or did you just take their words and type then in to save time? If my job was on the line and I had to write an article about a band, I would make sure they were worth writing about before I fabricated a story! Masterful drums, head-banging guitars, killer vocals, unique sound? Are you kidding me here? None of those were true of their sound! I went over to their band page to see more like you suggested and I have to say, I do not agree with you about "who needs a look when you sound as great these guys do?" You didn't even write in proper English! Don't you have an editor? Even if your music is good you need a look nowadays to get noticed because there is so much competition! First of, their music is bad and if the music is bad...you need a look! These guys have neither! I also saw that they don't even have a bass player now, I guess that guy realized they were bad and quit too! I have to admit, I don't blame the first bass player for leaving...and who even knows if why he left is true, the rest of the story was such a scam! I don't care why he left, he knew what was good for him...with a band this bad, I would've run off with a bearded lady circus midget to get my name as far away as possible from this horrendous excuse for a band! If anyone knows what's good for them, I would find out who the first bass player was and find out what he is doing now because he definitely had the right idea!

just one more thing....
written by Aiden, February 17, 2010

I have to add...after thinking about it a little bit more, the coolest part of the story was the guy running off with a stripper! Now that's rock & roll, not pansy music that will never make it to the stores!

True origins of 'Gone Blind'
written by Fact Finder, February 18, 2010

Gone Blind was actually a band started in Sugarland, Texas (a suburb of Houston)in 1991 by a guy named Allen de la Cruz who had moved back to Texas from the San Fransico Bay area and found Artie Rincon and a another talented guitar player named Mike Pollard who were high school buddies. He also found Robert Price (bassist) and Joe Paul (vocalist), after a coulpe of years playing a different mix of pop, hard rock and striaght up rock and roll the band split up after Artie, Mike and Joe Paul decided that Hard core metal was the music that they wanted to play. Allen and Rob, who wanted to stick with a variety of sounds to attract a wider range of listeners, let Artie continue on with the band Allen had originally formed. 'Gone Blind' the band name came about when Allen de la Cruz and the other members where brainstorming and came up with a name that coincided with the belief that color and race were something that they hoped their fans would become blind to, as well as hoping that a variety of sounds would break the barrier of only a certain group of people listening to their music.Now that is the true story of how 'Gone Blind' was started.

Thank you for the Constructive Criticism Aiden
written by Jemini, April 28, 2010

This "shit" is not a fabricated story. I conducted two different interviews with the band, one with the lead singer Trey Graham, and the other with Aristides "Artie" Rincon, lead guitar player to collect the information on the band. As far as the album review, I have listened to their music countless times and LOVE IT! The review is simply my opinion of the album, take it or leave it. You left it which is fine with me. Disagree with me all you want. If you don't like what I write, DON'T READ IT!

For the record, no I do not get paid to write these articles.

for the record - none of us get paid
written by iceberg, April 29, 2010

we do this because we love it. there just isn't any $$$ in basic internet radio these days, so that isn't our goal at this time. i'd hate to add up the cost of what i've spent on this project so far but it's something i wanted to do that turned into what *we* wanted to do and along the way many passionate people have joined in. we're not going to have people agree with us on everything we say and do. let's be real first, mad second.

i'm glad you took the time to read it and comment. we take all feedback to heart but we *try* not to take it personal. no real need to cause i don't know 95% of the people who come through here, but i'm damn sure glad they came by to check us out. i'm even glad people take the time to comment, even if a strong critique of our writing and choice of what we write about.

we chose to stand up and try to do more. we'll take the good and bad that goes with that and keep on trying cause we honestly love what we're doing.

berg

aiden? r u jonathan or his stripper gf?
written by jagged, June 11, 2010

It's one thing to disagree w the review. But either u have a lot of time on your hands to be writing a dissertation about a band u casually came across, or you are jonathan, the "bass player" who left the band for a stripper who worked at the men's club, or you are the stripper herself. It's the truth and had he ran off w a brain surgeon, they would have said so. So why get so bent out of shape about a harmless review, and the revelation of truth that many already know about? And no, I'm not in the band. But I do know them.

Well Said Jagged :D
written by Jemini, June 11, 2010

Who knows why they got bent out of shape. It is very interesting that of all the articles that have been posted on Renegade thus far, this one has received the highest number of hits and the most comments. How? We have no idea. Agree or disagree about this article, the main thing is that people are finding it, reading it, and actually leaving a comment.

Write comment

Breadcrumbs

Project H - Reviewed and Interviewed