Mysterious projects come and go. Others have traction right out of the gate. Get your board game boys and girls, life is rigged after all.
With little to go on other than the FBI Most Wanted poster, and a penchant for making darkly themed music videos, do we run into the bad known as 17ded. Having a new self-titled EP out and trying to make plans for the project to go live is progressing quite well with the band, and now it doesn’t leave much free time for Holiday (vocals) and Hudson (programming, keys, guitars) do much else.
However, we at the National Rock Review Northern Command Center managed to track down these modern-day musical outlaws and get the scoop on things. Their style of play is already getting a fair amount of attention and as the band’s progression continues, it’s a safe bet that their notoriety will only continue to rise as well. So, come with us children, as we make Holiday and Hudson answer a few inquiries before they move on to the next safe house.
After you spin the rigged wheel of life, head to our Facebook or Twitter feeds and let us hear your thoughts on this interesting endeavor at industrial arena rock. And if you like what you see, we’ll do our best to get that new video up for your enjoyment as soon as it hits our inbox.
NRR: Thanks for taking some time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for National Rock Review. What’s been going on with 17ded, so far in 2016?
17ded: Thanks for checking out the project. We have been working on a new single and video that will be released most likely late summer. Did our first successful national flash drive hunt. Which is an interactive scavenger type hunt with our new fans. Finding new ways to interact and planning the next flash drive hunt.
NRR: Let me start off by asking about the new EP. What’s the background on the CD and what can fans look forward to listening to it for the first time?
Hudson: It started off where we’re experimenting with songs and I looked at the singer (Holiday) and asked him if he was okay. ‘Cause his lyrics sounded like he was about to go postal. We want to bring a breath of fresh air to the stuffy industrial catacombs.
Holiday: Making sense of all the chaos in my head. All the filth and dirtiness cleansing is very satisfying.
NRR: Give me the history on the band. How’d you first get together and who all is in the band?
17ded: The project itself is still very new. Even now we it is still evolving. We knew each other and worked on other projects together in the past. Teamed up with Abe Robinson of Blind 7 Photography to help with visual aspect of the project. Always trying to cultivate new inspiring people that want to give this vision life.
NRR: What’s the story with what you guys did with the zip drives earlier this year that you mentioned just a minute ago?
17ded: Since this project is not a “live” one (as of yet), we were trying to figure out ways to interact with fans. It was amazing. The fans were into it big time and we will be doing it again. Scavenger hunt style. Address, picture, and instructions. Routing went all the way from Florida to California with about 25 flash drive drops. Each flash drive had a coded word, and those flash drive holders get first dibs on new material and and interactive questions with us.
NRR: You definitely seem to have a pretty loyal fan base already going, but for those that haven’t heard your music before, describe for me how you see yourselves sonically?
17ded: Collectively our personal musical tastes show through our project. We enjoy everything from the heaviest to the lightest. Many textures. We have been referring to 17ded as “Industrial Arena Rock”. Working on the arenas, (laughing)!
NRR: You a few videos out already and they are fairly intriguing visually. Do you go into them with a firm idea of how you want the end product to be and is it easier to do the videos then say writing the songs in the first place?
17ded: We have sit downs and discussions of what we are visioning from the song and what is available to us. We discuss different ways to execute and how we will execute. Abe Robinson helps out with the vision and filming. As we are all co producing and directing we all communicate with each other and it’s very non stressful. We all enjoy each other and working with one another. Nailed out each one of those videos in a day due to good planning, walk throughs and many horrible pencil drawings from story boards. The next video we have four days of shooting, [so] the production value and story line have been amped up.
NRR: You were out in a small tour at the end of March. Any plans to hit the road again on perhaps a more ambitious schedule?
17ded: We are talking with a couple different management companies and booking agents to find the right tour to pair this up with once it gets to the live aspect of the project.
NRR: Has there a moment, yet in the band, or with any band in the past, that you can’t help but still feel a tad bit embarrassed about, a situation that makes you laugh about despite yourself, or just still makes you shake your head in disbelief? A Spinal Tap moment if you will, that you’d be willing to share with me?
Holiday: Blanking on lyrics live, (laughing)!
Hudson: My hair getting caught in my headstock of the guitar and having to play the rest of the song with my hair attached.
NRR: Is the ambience of a band’s image more important then the actual material they create in the place we are in the music industry, or do you still have to be able to walk the walk before fans will buy into the concept being created by the band(s)?
Holiday: 17ded is not your standard “rock band.” The driving force behind it is the visuals and interactivity.
Hudson: I feel it depends on the genre and how much you care about the product of a project. How deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go? That type of deal.
NRR: Just out of curiosity, did you do everything for the EP yourselves or were there some people (label, etc) helping along the way?
17ded: All us, no label. What you hear is what we wrote.
NRR: I’ll hand over the slightly obscured by fog National Rock Review microphone, don’t mind the faint smell of tequila on it, is there anything you’d like to plug or mention before we come to grips that the Game of Life really is rigged?
Hudson: I woke up that morning with that image in my head and was amused. With the constant conspiring government officials and everything with our systems in play there is a plan for all of us. Whether we like it or not. [We’ll] send a link to the new video when it’s out.