PROJECT RENEGADE – band interview #projectrenegade

interview provided by ANGELS PR ******

PROJECT RENEGADE INTERVIEW

Hello guys and thank you for your time!

– Who are “PROJECT RENEGADE”? How the band took the form  that has today , and what inspired your name and your lyrical themes?

Hello and thank you for this interview! Let’s kick it! In 2014 Marianna and I (Ody) decided to step away from the romantic side of music (i.e. jamming with friends and having a good time) and create something different. Something more professional, something with a message, something that embodies our vision and we can call our own. So we formed Project Renegade. Today we are accompanied by Nick K. on guitar and Jay on bass. It took us a long time to find those guys as we went through countless people, but we are finally here with a consistent line up! The name refers to our early beginnings where we were only two people, so we were a “Project” and not a “band”, and “Renegade” refers to our opposition against rules, stereotypes, conformity, peer pressure and compromise. We noticed a lot of those patterns going on in our peers and we decided to oppose that way of life and that way of thinking. Lyrically we examine ideas, emotions, situations and problems that occur in today’s youth – especially people between the age of 18-30 – regarding the struggle to achieve your dreams in a society that makes said achievement an absolute nightmare for no reason.
– Which bands are the ones that inspire you and gave shape to your music?
Well, when we write music we stay away from the realm of “influence” because it tends to suck away the honesty in what you’re trying to say and do musically. With that said bands like Korn, Evanescence, Limp Bizkit, Lacuna Coil, Devin Townsend, Deftones ( just to name a few) have helped inspire us to pick up our instruments and create some noise while shaping up our younger selves and our musical upbringing. On the other hand we are pretty much an open channel when it comes to music, we listen to a lot of ethnic, hip-hop, tribal, funk, soul, rnb, pop and many other musical genres so yeah…The list goes on man!

– Recently you performed at Kiyv , Ukraine as special guests to EVANESCENCE! Tell us a few things about this experience! What’s your best memory from that night?

It was the highlight of our musical journey so far! Everything was amazing, the place was huge and the crowd was really warm and welcomed us with open arms! Above all it was an honor to play with one of our favorite bands ever and we were in awe as to how cool people they are! We talked to them backstage and it was beyond imagination how easy-going and down-to-earth they are! And they were really supportive towards us too! It was a magical night that we will cherish in our memories forever! Above all we are really happy that we got to play for a new audience and that they enjoyed the show. My favorite moment was while we were playing our song “Sylar”, everybody got their phones out and lit up the place! It was like floating in space and we were surrounded be stars!

– What you consider as the biggest key factor for a band nowadays in order to succeed in the music industry?
Honesty, consistency, hard work and communication. You need to be honest with your art, as sugarcoating things will get you nowhere. People think that fans are just consumers and will accept anything if it panders to their ego. Truth is fans are human beings that possess critical thought and can see through your transparency so you have to be honest with them. Don’t make any promises you can’t keep, don’t pander to them…be truthful and you’ll have a deep relationship with them, and that’s the best kind of artist-fan relationship you can ask for. Consistency is key because it’s the internet age, most of the people have developed a short attention span due to the phenomenon that is global networking. Therefore, you have to be in someone’s routine to create a following because the second your video is over they are going to click on 50 more in a day. Plus you don’t get to play in everyone’s city every week so a consistent internet presence is a major part of a band’s trajectory today. Hard work refers to the need of pulling back the curtain. The spectacle is over people! People are more interested in seeing how something is made and watching you work your butt of to achieve it rather than the end result. It’s crazy but it’s the reality we are living in. So is our need to show your work. I know a lot of bands that have lost many fans because they get complacent and are bored to keep their momentum. People can see through that and they will stop caring if you don’t give them something with soul, trial and quality. Lastly, communication is very important because up and coming bands base their success on getting their fans involved and making them feel like they are a part of the band. We will never know the feeling of “it just happened”. When you create a band you do it not only for you but for every fan that supports you. Therefore you have to have a communication with them, ask them for feedback, for ideas, do meet & greets. They are special people because they support your vision.

– We are a few days before the official release of your first Full length album “ORDER OF THE MINUS”! Tell us a few things about the concept behind it, the recording sessions and what your fans should expect from your debut!
ORDER OF THE MINUS Deals with the concept of loss as a common denominator between people. By accepting the fact that we all have lost something in our lives we accept the fact that we have at least one thing in common and maybe, we can slowly start building towards winning rather than losing, while focusing on the things that unite us rather than the things that divides us as humans. It’s a record about supporting our message of “unity through diversity” and it progressively dives into deeper and more serious forms of loss and their impact on ones life. From socio-political injustice to personal loss and suicide…we go through all of it man! It’s a record that paints a clear picture – in my opinion – of what are the struggles of today regarding the variable of loss and how young people especially come face to face with it on a daily basis…it gets pretty intense especially towards the end…I kind of find the last songs hard to listen to.

The making of this record was similar to giving birth to giant bricks. It wasn’t fun. It wasn’t hard but it was painstaking because in order to manifest our vision exactly like we wanted it we had to do literally everything by ourselves and that took quite a while because we wanted to make sure that we have everything right before we send it for mixing and mastering. Luckily for us an amazing professional and one of the most recognizable names in the industry today took our recordings and made the sonic aspect of the record reach the next level. I’m talking of course about Forrester Savell who has worked with Karnivool, Twelve foot Ninja, Dead Letter Circus, Sikth and I Am Giant …Just to name a few. Forrester is an amazing professional and quite the gentleman, I’m a big fan of his productions so I was ecstatic when he told us that he was on board. Contrary to our other collaborations, working with Forrester was easy going, efficient and rewarding! We owe him a lot and hopefully he’ll have us back for the next one!

– If you had the chance to play as a support to any band, which one would you choose right now and why?

Personally, Korn or Slipknot and while we opened for Evanescence I would open for that band again and again for the rest of my life! All 3 bands are at the top of the world right now and they are bands that are influencing people with similar messages like our own so we’d love to collaborate with bands and their fans that share the same values as us. We consider ourselves students of those bands so it would be great and humbling to open for our teachers!

– Where do you see Project Renegade in 5 Years from now?
In the hospital due to broken necks and broken backs! Hahaha! Either that or I would love to see my band on a lengthy tour with a great band where we get to play lots of different countries and expanding our family of Renegades! We are always working, trying to get better and figuring out how we can grow as a band so who knows maybe one day all this will pay off in some way that I never thought would happen just like it did with Evanescence and Bullet for my Valentine.

– Are there any plans for a live release show for “Order of the Minus?”
We are working on it, but for now we are dealing with a lengthy press run and approving artwork so once that’s done we’ll see what we are going to do show wise!

– What’s your plans for 2020?

Make a bunch of music videos, find some ways to get closer with our fans to provide them with updates and news on what we got going on and of course we are looking to play as much shows as we can in as many countries as possible. Our favorite thing is to play live so we are going to try our best to be as active as we can be in the next year!