This band is a really big deal (they just opened for The Who 3 times this summer in the UK! Young kids…they rock like new school Led Zeppelin.. they are destined for stardom! ROSE HILL DRIVE w/ special guest GOSLING @ NIETZSCHES 248 Allen St. Buffalo | Doors 9pm / 18+ to enter | WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 6
“They bring so much raw power to the stage that it is hard to remember that they are still a young band that has so much creative evolution ahead of them. With hair flying and the volume turned up to 11, their live show is not to be missed.” — Pete Townshend of The Who
Article iRose Hill Drivei By Joe Doherty: When the power-trio unofficially vanished from the rock stratosphere at the threshold of the 1980s, brothers Daniel (guitar), 20, and Jake Sproul (bass/vocals), 22, of Rose Hill Drive were nothing more than a mere gleam in their fatheris eye.
Its recently released self-titled debut (Megaforce/SCI Fidelity), no doubt bears the mark of this sacred ornament of rock and roll. On the album, the trioorounded out by drummer Nate Barnesobinds tight melodic arrangements and ear-splitting sonic force, proving it fit inheritors of Cream’s mantle.
Daniel, speaking during a phone interview, says the songs found on the disc came about very organically. The brothers start each session sitting down quietly, each bringing a lucid creative thought to the table. Jake will hatch up a melody and a simple bass-line and marry that with lyrics. Other times, like on the albumis centerpiece, iCool Cody,i Daniel dreams up a guitar riff and the pair builds from there.
iThat started off pure musically,i he says. iI came up with the riff and sort of this idea for a ghost songono lyrics, no melody, anything. The riff was just in my head.i
Although Jake remains the groupis paramount wordsmith, Daniel composed the lyrics to the last portion the discis acoustic medley, iItis Simple.i It is his otherworldly guitar work that has drawn the attention of music fans nationwide, however.
iWhen we jam, he colors in whatis happening at that time and usually ends up taking it into a completely different direction,i Jake told me during an interview for Artvoice in May. iI mean, I can do that with my bass playing too, but itis mostly Daniel. He just pushes it to different levels.i
Like biblical scribes enamored by a muse, the gene-sharing duo writes naturally and without a specific focus of genre. The blustering bass and drum interplay fixed beneath Danielis throwback tone and penchant for soloingoblended with a uniform group ability to inflate each songis middle portion straight into the heavens of psychedelic blues-fusionocall up the ghosts of Led Zeppelin’s past. (iHeis just so f@*#ing good,i adds Daniel of his guitar idol Jimmy Page)
iWhat comes out is just what we know,i he says. iItis what we grew up with. Itis funny because thereis all these retro-rock bands coming out and itis so easy just to be thrown into that category. Weive been doing this since we were kids so thatis just what we know. So were not trying to go for that, but the fact that it comes outoI dig it.i
iGuitar playing is spirituali
Since coming together as students at a Boulder, Colorado high school, Rose Hill Drive has assembled quite a resume. In 2004, the band opened up a string of live dates for Van Halen and, just this July, voyaged across the Atlantic to play with The Whooand for a whopping 30,000 concert-goersoat Londonis Hyde Park Calling Festival.
So what advice does rock legend Eddie Van Halen have to offer to a budding guitarist?
iWell, the dude was pretty f@*#ed up when we were talking to him,i Daniel admits, laughing. iRegardless, he had some pretty cool stuff to say. He said guitar playing is spiritual and itis not something to take for granted as far as thinking youire the s@#* and youire good. He said when you start thinking itis you making all this fantastic music it becomes a problem. Your ego gets in the way.i
A message of love
Rose Hill Drive may not write songs with a premeditated focus of musical components, but certain thematic elements can certainly be found in its prose. And as the already fiery socio-political climate rises, artists often inject not-so-tongue-in-cheek overtones in their songwriting. (See Neil Young’s iLetis Impeach the Presidenti off his latest, Living With War) Daniel says lyrical textures abound on the record, but it is fairly politics-free.
The group simply wants to tell a story.
iWe wanted it to tell a story without actually telling a story,i he says. iYou know when you listen to an album and donit skip around from song to song because itis a complete work? Thatis what we were going for.i
He hesitates for a moment. iI canit compare it to the best, but Abbey Road isnit a concept album, but it tells a story musically. When you listen to the whole thing itis a masterpiece. Obviously weire not even close to that caliber, but thatis what weire shooting for.
iIid actually call it more of a message. What weire trying to get across is a message of love and a message of awareness of how things are changing.i