Guitarist Stephen Harrison and drummer Aric Improta “knew it wasn’t going to be easy to start again from scratch, but that phrase became our ethos.”
After departing from Fever 333 in October 2022, the dynamic duo knew it was time to sonically explore corners of the alternative landscape they hadn’t reached. This time, without creative differences in their way. Luckily, House Of Protection—their new venture—found its sound on their first day of writing. The band combines the raw grit and uncensored ferocity fans from the past decade have come to expect from the artists, tinged with a humble and unique approach to modern rock. And the description of “unique” may sound cliche, but how else would you describe two traditionally hardcore artists newly inspired by Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, and Primus with a band name inspired by Massive Attack? I guess the adjective “rad as hell” would also do.
Of course, both are heavy music veterans in their own right. Harrison, who most recently was in Cancer Bats from 2022-2023, wore many hats in his early days with The Chariot. From 2009-2013, he performed bass, vocals, and guitar during his tenure. Improta still lends his talents to Night Verses, which he helped form all the way back in 2012. Needless to say, it’s no surprise that the two were welcomed back with open arms by fans. From their debut single, “It’s Supposed To Hurt,” to their ethereal track “Being One,” and all the way to their most recent drop, “Pulling Teeth” (featuring a music video so death-defying, it made their director sick!), House Of Protection offers refuge in the experimental.
Ahead of their debut EP, Galore, available today, September 13, via Red Bull Records, idobi Radio had the chance to catch up with Improta and Harrison, tackling everything from their work alongside producer Jordan Fish (formerly Bring Me The Horizon) to their time in India shooting their dream music video in the Well Of Death.
Let’s start at the beginning. “It’s Supposed To Hurt” was your debut track for the project. What made this stand out as the single to introduce House Of Protection to the world?
ARIC IMPROTA: That was our very first song we wrote the first day. And I think we were even kind of surprised by it because we didn’t really know what we were gonna sound like. Vocally, I mean even vibe-wise, we knew we wanted something fast, but we weren’t sure what direction it would take. And it was sort of this big relief to find out that we kind of figured out our sound within the first day of meeting up.
It just felt like the natural first choice, because again, we were discovering it in real-time. So, some of the lines in the verses were actually improvised lines from the very first approach to it.
How did Jordan Fish capture your style with his production?
STEPHEN HARRISON: So Jordan’s my best friend. We’ve been very close for years and I love him. And I think I also am a fan of his work. He’s an incredible producer and just like musical mind in general. So when this started, it was kind of like a no-brainer. When it comes to production, the dude is a genius. He does a good job at pulling wild sounds that we have in our heads that we don’t quite know how to sometimes verbalize.
IMPROTA: He does have great influences. So there are common ground influences where we can say, “Oh, we’re thinking this direction,” and he can connect with that. A lot of our stuff is very reactionary and Jordan is such a professional and he’s good at polishing chaotic ideas. So it’s been fun for us to figure each other out as collaborators.
You often bring up the notion of chaos and energy being an important part of your project. How do you channel these energies and bring them into House Of Protection writing sessions?
IMPROTA: Yeah, I feel like me and Steve, a lot of times we start with like a pace first. It’s like a really sort of primitive, like lean towards [asking], “What’s the audience going to feel like when we start this?” Because we spent five years on stage together, we know what we want to be able to bring to a live space. And then from that, it’s a lot of experimenting.
We get one riff and then all of a sudden we tell each other, “Where would this riff sound best?” And then, we start to get into like movies that we love and [asking if this] is this something that we want to listen to when we’re on a drive with our best friend or is this something that’s like supposed to be so raw that we don’t even care if there’s a chorus on it.
So, it’s it’s a lot of like like quick, impulsive, reactionary ideas and then like sometimes we’ll skate around or like drive to those parts and talk about it and like discuss what feels best.
A lot of your music videos demonstrate a return to big visual art—especially with “Pulling Teeth.” How did you and director Kevin Garcia generate these dynamic visuals?
HARRISON: Yeah, so the idea for [“Pulling Teeth”] I had for a long time, like over 10 years, for sure. Then this was finally a project that I was able to make [it] happen and Red Bull was on board.
We had been to India with FEVER 333 and we played at a festival out there. We met some really cool dudes that just ended up being homies—like they would comment on a bunch of [social media] stuff, showing a lot of love. And then I reached out to them and I was just like, “I’ve got this idea. Like how doable is it to get [into the Well Of Death]? Is it expensive?” I heard the number and I immediately said, “We can make this happen, like that number is not crazy!”
Getting there was a headache because there was a flood at the airport in Abu Dhabi, which was our layover. But driving there was also a fucking headache. And then getting there, we didn’t have a whole lot of time to shoot the thing itself. We really only had like a few hours. There’s so many factors in doing something like that, that you have no control over, especially coming from the States and not being local. We were just trusting the people who were helping.
IMPROTA: There was a point when we were eight hours into the drive, not knowing where we were going, where you feel like if anything goes wrong, there’s no help. We asked if there was a hospital nearby in case anything [went] wrong? They’re like, “Uh, no.”
Hey, at least you got all of your shots in.
IMPROTA: Steve doesn’t like roller-coasters and he was willing to get in the car. So, I feel like that was a pretty good move. That was the last shot of the day, so the fact that he just went for it was fucking awesome.
It was like a 10-12-hour plane flight straight into an eight-hour drive. And I think at that point we were so delirious. The [director called] action, and then the minute the cars started—because you look up and the walls are so tall, there’s no way out—I feel like that adrenaline was just what got us through the four or five hours of filming. Like just having those cars circle and us being like, “Shit, let’s get as much as we can out of each performance.” It felt like we were playing in front of 10,000 people at a certain point.
How does House Of Protection differ from projects including FEVER 333, Night Verses, The Chariot, etc?
IMPROTA: Obviously, there’s a different chemistry with all the people that you collaborate with and that sort of defines what the group is able to do. And because Steve is such a unique individual and like our common ground we don’t really have with a lot of our other friends, it’s allowed us to do things that we just haven’t been able to do in other projects.
So, how Steve was talking about having that music video idea for 11 years, there’s just a lot of these things where we’ve been sitting on these ideas of these like song concepts or like live show visions that we haven’t really been able to pull off. We haven’t been with the right group of people to do it. So the fact that we’ve been able to sort of really just bounce everything between each other has allowed us to get to chart new territory where it’s stuff we’ve always wanted to do like since we were kids but we just haven’t had the right collaborators to pull it off.
HARRISON: This is the first band I’ve ever started and seen through. I joined Chariot, I joined Fever—early on, joined Cancer Bats. And it feels amazing. [It] feels like my first band. And it’s the first band doing something I’ve never done, like I’ve never sang up front before.
You both share a pretty even split when it comes to singing and screaming, and neither of you has existed as a frontman in previous projects. If anyone approaches and asks who the “lead singer” is, how would you respond?
HARRISON: I feel like we won’t know really until we play live who’s the lead singer because it comes down to who’s going to be doing the most jargon and shit-talking and blabbing and yapping, which I imagine will be me. I don’t see you, Aric, talking a whole lot of shit from behind the drum kit, which you’re obviously more than welcome to.
IMPROTA: I feel like it’s just gonna be more fun to get the team up and talk shit as friends. And also, I think the reason I say it is because you can actually sing. Like most of my shit, I’m just yelling on the side, like Steve’s gotta hold notes. So to me and my brain, that qualifies as a singer. But it’s been fun to kind of like build around sort of like doing [vocally] what the other one can’t.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Performance Dates:
- Sept. 24—Los Angeles, CA @ 1720
- Oct. 15—London, UK @ Underworld
