Steph Honde

Steph Honde (born Stéphane Honde; 5 September 1975) is a French singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (vocals, guitar, piano, bass guitar). Honde is most famous for being the frontman and songwriter of the American hard rock supergroup, Hollywood Monsters which he founded in 2013. Before Hollywood Monsters, Honde was the guitarist of the French rock band Café Bertrand from 2004 to 2010, when he resigned from the band and joined Paul Di'Anno band as the guitarist on tour across France.

Early life

Steph Honde was born. His love for music developed early. His first musical instrument was drums and he later started to play guitar in order to achieve his goal to become a songwriter. Honde started his music career as the frontman of the French band Mamooth.^[1]

Music career

With Café Bertrand

Café Bertrand opening for AC/DC in Marseille, 2009

Honde achieved great success in France as a guitarist. He garnered a well-deserved reputation as a guitar virtuoso when playing in the French hard rock band Café Bertrand in 2004-2010.^[2] In 2006 Café Bertrand was chosen to be the opening band for the Deep Purple European leg of the Rapture of the Deep tour which included 36 dates across Europe in October and November 2006 and another 12 dates in France in March 2007.^[3] Café Bertrand played at giant stadiums such as Stade de France, with an audience capacity in excess of 80,000. In 2009 Café Bertrand was the support band for two AC/DC shows in France during the Black Ice World Tour: on 9 June 2009 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille and on 12 June 2009 at Stade de France in Paris.^[4] In July 2009 Café Bertrand played at the Montreux Jazz Festival.^[5] Honde left Café Bertrand in 2010.

With Paul Di'Anno and The Stars

Steph Honde and Paul Di'Anno live in 2010

In 2010, after leaving the band Café Bertrand, Steph Honde toured with Paul Di'Anno (the original vocalist of Iron Maiden) and The Stars across France.^[6] Later in 2014, Di'Anno made a guest appearance on the album Big Trouble by Hollywood Monsters on bonus track "Fuck You All". Di'Anno chose the song himself from the number of songs suggested to him by Steph Honde.^[7]

With Hollywood Monsters

Hollywood Monsters lineup, 2014

In 2012 Steph Honde emigrated to California, U.S. and started working on his own project, the band Hollywood Monsters which features legendary guest musicians.^[8] Steph Honde created the project in 2013 and is the only songwriter of the project, including the band's debut album Big Trouble. The band members are: Steph Honde (vocals, guitars), Don Airey (keyboards) (Deep Purple, previously played in Whitesnake, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Schenker Group and others), Vinny Appice (drums) (previously played in DIO, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Kill Devil Hill and others), Tim Bogert (bass) (previously played in Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and Beck, Bogert & Appice).

Steph Honde met Don Airey in 2006 when Honde's then-current band Café Bertrand was the opening band for the Deep Purple European leg of the Rapture of the Deep tour.^[9] Tim Bogert appreciated the demo recordings suggested to him by Steph Honde and agreed to play on three tracks of the album despite the fact he had been in retirement for several years prior to the recording of the album Big Trouble.^[10] Vinny Appice plays drums on most of the tracks on the album. Steph Honde wrote the song "Village Of The Damned" as an homage to Vinny Appice before even meeting him.^[11]

Style and influences

The music genre of Steph Honde is commonly referred to as hard rock reminiscent of the 1970s, yet his songwriting was also inspired by progressive rock and heavy metal. Honde listed among his influences Iron Maiden, along with Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, The Who, Deep Purple, Marillion, Led Zeppelin.^[12]

Steph Honde's expressive vocals and guitar playing style have become Hollywood Monsters' most distinctive feature, as well as his melodic and versatile approach to songwriting which adds lush and modern touch to the classic hard rock sound. In his songs Honde fuses elements of hard rock, progressive rock and metal, and employs different arranging techniques (e.g. use of classical instruments in the song "The Ocean" from Hollywood Monsters' album Big Trouble). Honde's songwriting is highly appreciated by many of the legendary rock musicians: those who participate in his project Hollywood Monsters and those who have expressed their willingness to record on the upcoming album.

Guest appearances & other projects

In February 2015 Steph Honde made a guest appearance as a guitarist on the song "Ole Blood & Guts" (in memory of general George S. Patton) by the American metal band Age of Liberty.^[13] The song also features Darren Crisp on vocals, Tony Franklin on bass and Vinny Appice on drums.

The Hollywood Monsters' song "Village of the Damned" from the album Big Trouble will be featured in the French action movie Kill The Nazi, due to release in 2015 by Action-Prod company.^[14]

Discography

With Café Bertrand

Honde recorded two albums with Café Bertrand: Les Airs Empruntés (2005) and L'Art délicat du Rock'N'Roll (2008). He was the sole songwriter of the latter. Both albums were critically acclaimed and commercially successful.^[15]

With Hollywood Monsters

The Hollywood Monsters' debut album Big Trouble was released in 2014 on Mausoleum Records^[16] and is being promoted by Rock N Growl Records.^[17] The release dates are: 23 May 2014 in the U.S., 8 July 2014 rest of the world (except Canada), 14 October 2014 in Canada (under the Universal Music label). The album Big Trouble features 10 tracks and a bonus track, all of which were written by Steph Honde.

Present

Hollywood Monsters are working on a new album called "Evilution" .^[18] The album will feature Steph Honde on vocals, guitars, piano and bass, Vinny Appice on Drums, Tim Bogert,Neil Murray and Pascal Mulot on bass,Tracy G on guitars, Jenny Haan from Babe Ruth on vocals and Darren Crisp on vocals.

The album should be released early 2016 and will contain 12 track plus a Pink Floyd cover.

See also

• Steph Honde interview at Metal-temple.com by Jeff Legg, 21 June 2014.
• Stephane Honde (Hollywood Monsters) interview on Rock Overdose: "I took a chance on doing something a little bit different from what we hear these days".| at Rockoverdose.gr by Michael Spiggos, 10 June 2014.
• Steph Honde interview at Neoprog.eu by Togo Chubb, 23 August 2014.
• Steph Honde interview at Via Nocturna by Pedro Carvalho, 11 June 2014.
• Steph Honde interview at Arte Metal by Victor Hugo Franceschini, 12 December 2014.
• Official press release by the promotion company Rock N Growl Records
• Official press release by the record label Mausoleum Records
• Video of the song "Ole Blood & Guts" by Age of Liberty on Youtube. The video features Steph Honde on guitars.
• Movie Kill The Nazi at Action-Prod company website: teaser, plot, crew.
• Lageat, Philippe, Brelet, Baptiste (2014). AC/DC Tours De France 1976-2014. Éditions Point Barre. p. 712. ISBN 978-2-7466-7071-6.  - The book features Café Bertrand as support band in 2009.
• AC/DC Tours De France - book overview on Youtube by the authors. The book features Café Bertrand as support band in 2009.
• Hollywood Monsters – Big Trouble. Album review by G.W. Hill at Music Street Journal, 29 September 2014.
• Hollywood Monsters – Big Trouble. Album review by Jeb Wright at classicrockrevisited.com 29 September 2014.
• Hollywood Monsters: Big Trouble. Album review by Craig Hartranft at Dangerdog Music Reviews, 14 May 2014.
• Chronique de Big Trouble. Album review by Togo Chubb at Neoprog, 23 June 2014.
• Hollywood Monsters – Big Trouble. Album review by Oshyrya at metalchroniques.fr 1 June 2014.

References

External links