Review Fix chats with Five Hundredth Year frontman John Pampreen, who discusses the band’s origin, goals and new EP, “A Rose From Ashes.†With a sound that will remind many of Five Finger Death Punch, they’re a rocking’ quartet with substance behind the high-powered tunes.
Review Fix: How did the band get together?
John Pampreen: The band started early in the Summer of 2013 when I got together with drummer Zach Hanus. Our goal was to create a blend of radio-friendly hard rock and metal. Soon they began seeking additional members and rhythm guitarist Jimmers (Jonathan Immers) was brought on board in the Fall. With the addition of bassist Brenda Bennett in the Winter, we started recording the some of the early songs for the album. The current lineup was completed with the addition of lead guitarist Ben Moss and Keyboardist Mike Heil in the Summer of 2014 and with that, Five Hundredth Year was born.
Review Fix: What makes this album special for you?
Pampreen: We poured our heart and soul into this album, it was a culmination of 2 years worth of hard work. Despite all of that we had a lot of fun working with each other to put it together. Another thing worth mentioning is that a very talented guitar player and musician Patrick Daenzer that we worked with on writing a few of the songs of the early songs for the album passed away during the process of completing it. Pat was a good friend of ours and we all miss him very much, some of his guitar work and vocals can be heard on the recording for our song “Breaking Point”. When we listen to that track it reminds us of all the fun times we had writing music and playing shows with him.
Review Fix: What song on this album do you think is more indicative of your style? What’s the creative journey behind it?
Pampreen: “Blame” was the final song we recorded for this album and it was written with input from all of the current members of the band. It is one of the more dynamic songs on the album with a lot of electronic instrumentation, clean and screamed vocals and clean/distorted guitars. We wrote this song with the help of our producer B.J. Perry of I Prevail and The Product. We went in originally to lay down the scratch instrumentation and finish writing the music. Over the next month, we worked hard to get all of the lyrics and vocal melodies finished before we went back into the studio to finish tracking. The theme of the song is about being addicted to something that is negatively impacting your life whether it’s drugs, alcohol, a relationship, etc. We personally believe that the song conveys a strong message that almost anyone can relate to and we are very proud of that.
Review Fix: How is this band different?
Pampreen: We try to push the envelope a bit in terms of maintaining a sound accessible enough for the average rock music listener, but yet still be heavy enough to please fans of modern metal. We also have a lot to work with in terms of instrumentation because of the fact that we have 6 members, 3 of which are vocalists. We believe that anyone who listens to our music will find it familiar, yet unique.
Review Fix: Where do you think you’d be without music? Why?
Pampreen: We’d all have a lot more money, less musical equipment, and unfulfilling jobs haha. In all seriousness though we can’t imagine life without music, there is no doubt we’d all be involved in the industry in some way or another. We all love music way too much not to have it be a major part of our lives.
Review Fix: What inspired “Breaking Point”? How was it written?
Pampreen: “Breaking Point” was written for anyone who has ever been bullied or pushed around until they just couldn’t take it anymore. Jimmers, the rhythm guitarist was lying awake in bed one night and the melody for the intro guitar riff popped into his head, he immediately picked up his guitar and recorded it. Zach and Jimmers worked together to write the remaining sections of the song. John and Brenda wrote the vocal melodies and lyrics.
Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?
Pampreen: We want to use it to help get our names out there on both a regional and national scale. So far we have gained quite a bit of recognition from the release. Our “Pop Goes Punk” cover of Tove Lo’s Talking Body was picked up by iHeartRadio and played all over the U.S. on their affiliate stations. Our song Blame has gotten us a lot of local airplay on stations such as 89X The Only New Rock Alternative and 101.1 The WRIF. It also helped get us selected to play “Chill on the Hill” a large music festival in the Metro Detroit area with the likes of Bear Tooth, We Came as Romans, Thousand Foot Krutch, Weezer, Panic at the Disco, Coheed and Cambria, Cage the Elephant, and more. We hope to keep up this positive momentum and continue to get our music out there for people to enjoy.
Review Fix: Bottom Line, why should someone listen to this album?
Pampreen: If you’re a fan of modern hard rock acts such as Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, or Five Finger Death Punch you will without a doubt find at least one track on the album that you will want to add to your music collection.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Pampreen: This Summer we have been busy playing festivals all throughout our home state of Michigan, but we want to start seriously working on the framework for a new album in the near future. In the meantime, we will continue to play shows around the Midwest to support the release of “A Rose from Ashes”.
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