Downplay is an American
alternative metal
Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by ...
band formed in
Athens, Ohio, in 2003, and is now based in Columbus, Ohio. The group consists of vocalist Dustin Bates, bassist Ron DeChant, and drummer Brian Patrick. The band has released five full studio albums and three
EPs to date and have recorded with producer
Dave Fortman
Dave Fortman (born July 11, 1967) is an American record producer and musician. He is the guitarist for rock band Ugly Kid Joe, and has worked with bands such as Superjoint Ritual, Snot, Atomship, Eyehategod, Mudvayne, Otep, Slipknot (on the ...
. Their song, "Hated You From Hello" was featured for Game Changer of the Year in the 2011
WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...
Slammys.
History
Formation and ''Saturday'' (2001–2006)
Downplay originated near Youngstown, OH, in Salem, in 2001. Originally a cover band, they entertained crowds in bars before many of its members were old enough to drink. Soon after, the band (composed of Dustin Bates, Brandon Hill, Nick Kiser, and Chad White) moved to Ohio University in Athens, where two of the original members enrolled.
Over the next three years the band developed its sound and live show and found a major fan base in the Athens area while attending school there.
One story says that the band's name was ironically stumbled upon during one of the many fights that occurred during the early days of the original Downplay line-up (Bates, Hill, George Andres, and Greg Huzyak (locally known for his soulful basslines and funky grooves that helped lay the foundation for the band’s hard rock sets) as Bates accused another band member of "downplaying" his role in the argument. But it has been said in interviews that Bates did not want their original music to be downplayed whilst they were still a cover band.
In 2005, Downplay reorganized as an original band. Their first studio album, ''Saturday'', was recorded "in about a day" on a $1,000 budget at Ohio University's student-run audio production studio and released during its time at OU. It included a “bonus track,” a spoof hip-hop song about an OU frat bar, "The Crystal", which became a student/bar favorite with over 3,000 downloads.
Downplay found its niche for energetic live rock shows at Ohio University, playing famous events like the Halloween Block Party, PalmerFest, and the numbered fests (threefest fourfest, fivefest, etc.). In 2006, upon most of the members graduating from OU, the band moved to Columbus, OH, and played a mix of covers and original music.
''A Day Without Gravity'' (2007–2009)
Downplay returned to the studio in late 2007, this time at Cleveland-based Jungle Recording Studio. Around the same time Bates, with the contribution of loyal friends, established an indie rock record label (True Anomaly Records, LLC), and signed Downplay to the label under a one-album contract. ''A Day Without Gravity'' was released in October. The cost of the second studio album was approximately $16,000. This record had a more polished sound and displayed the band's improvements in song writing over their first album, and helped the band begin to expand across the state of Ohio. In 2008, Mike Mealey became Downplay's fifth member. The band's lineup was then reconfigured completely, save for Bates and Mealey, in 2009.
The year of 2009 was full of showcases for Atlantic, Virgin/Capitol, Island, Mercury, and Epic Records, both in Columbus and in New York City for Downplay.
On November 17, they released their first EP ''Rise. Fall. Repeat''. From this time into the first half of 2010, Bobby Withers, Ron DeChant, Derek Snowden, and Brandon Zano were in the band for a short amount of time.
Line-up change and record deal (2010–2011)
The band signed with In De Goot Management in April 2010 and went on their first major tour with
Puddle of Mudd
Puddle of Mudd is an American rock band formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1992. To date, the band has sold over seven million albums and has had a string of No. 1 mainstream rock singles in the United States. Their major-label debut '' C ...
and
Sevendust
Sevendust is an American rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1994 by bassist Vince Hornsby, drummer Morgan Rose and rhythm guitarist John Connolly. After their first demo, lead vocalist Lajon Witherspoon and lead guitarist Clint Lo ...
. In June, the band signed with
Epic Records.
Immediately after, Bates went to
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
to begin writing the first major-label debut. "We're the first hard rock band to sign with Epic Records in the last five years," said Bates.
Throughout this period, Downplay accumulated the lineup of Trevor Connor, Evan Mckeever, Brian Patrick and Corey Catlett.
As a holder of an electrical engineering degree and a master's degree in avionic engineering, Bates said he was moving toward a PhD at Ohio University, "clear up until the record deal."
In January 2011, Downplay began recording their third record with producer Dave Fortman (
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut ...
,
Slipknot,
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three millio ...
,
Godsmack
Godsmack is an American rock band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is composed of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Sully Erna, bassist Robbie Merrill, lead guitarist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin. Since its form ...
)
in New Orleans where they cut their first album. The working title was ''Sleep''; the album would have 12 songs and two bonus tracks available for download from
iTunes, as well as a different track from
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
.
It was finished in May 2011. Downplay played with a number of rock bands, including
Chevelle,
10 Years
10 Years or Ten Years may refer to:
*Decade, a period of ten years
Film
*10 Years (2011 film), ''10 Years'' (2011 film), a film starring Channing Tatum
*Ten Years (2015 film), ''Ten Years'' (2015 film), a Hong Kong film
Music
*10 Years (band), a ...
,
Theory of a Deadman
Theory of a Deadman (abbreviated as Theory or TOAD) is a Canadian rock band from North Delta, British Columbia. Formed in 1999, the band is currently signed to Roadrunner Records as well as 604 Records. The band includes traits of music styles ...
,
Crossfade, and others at a number of major rock festivals, including Rock on the Range in Columbus and XFest in Dayton.
In October 2011, after realizing that the album that was recorded for Epic would not come out until 2012, the band quickly got in the studio and recorded an album that was to be released on December 1 for all the fans that they had promised a record to by the end of 2011, which turned out to be their third studio album ''Beyond the Machine''. Then later in the month, the band was dropped by Epic Records so the label could sign bands from the new TV show, ''
The X-Factor
''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for ''Pop Idol'' (2001–2003) ...
''.
In December, Downplay released their first music video for their song, "Digging It Out". After the release of ''Beyond the Machine'', their song "Hated You From Hello" was used by WWE.
''Radiocalypse'' (2012–2013)
Downplay released their fourth studio album, ''Radiocalypse'', in May 2012. Their second music video, for the song "Where Did You Go", was released the following month. During this time, DeChant rejoined the band.
In July, Downplay announced that Connor was leaving the band to pursue other interests. On the day before the release of Downplay's second EP, ''The Human Condition'', Connor died in a car accident. Later in the week, the band performed a tribute to Connor on 99.7 The Blitz.
In July 2013, Downplay announced on their website that they had "recently signed a licensing contract with
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...
" allowing them to use over a dozen of their songs and that the band would be going on a short break and would likely go into the studio "sooner than later." On the following day, the band released an acoustic record, their debut compilation album, titled ''Stripped''.
During an AMA on Reddit in August 2014, Bates revealed that he is still working on new music for Downplay, but has not received the "blessing" of the label to release it. By this time, he had released
an album with a new project, featuring Bates and bandmate Ron DeChant,
Starset
Starset is an American rock band from Columbus, Ohio, formed by Dustin Bates in 2013. They released their debut album, '' Transmissions'', in 2014 and their second album, '' Vessels'', on January 20, 2017. The band has found success in expandin ...
.
On February 6, 2016, DeChant posted a band reunion photo of himself and Bates together with former members of Downplay, including Hill, Kiser, McKeever, Mealey and White.
In December 2019, Dustin shared his 2019 Spotify wrapped info-graph of Downplay with the caption "I should release some more of this."
Band members
;Current
*Dustin Bates – lead vocals, guitar
*Ron DeChant – keyboard, bass, backing vocals
*Brian Patrick – drums, percussion
;Past members
*George Andres – lead guitar
*Greg Huzyak – bass
*Brandon Hill – drums
*Nick Kiser – guitar
*Chad White – bass
*Mike Mealey – bass
*Bobby Withers – lead guitar
*Derek Snowden – rhythm guitar
*Brandon Zano – rhythm guitar
*Trevor Connor – guitar
*Corey Catlett – bass
*Evan McKeever – guitar, backing vocals
; Timeline
;
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Discography
Albums
* ''Saturday'' (2005)
* ''A Day Without Gravity'' (2007)
* ''Beyond The Machine'' (2011)
* ''Radiocalypse'' (2012)
Compilations
* ''Stripped'' (2013)
EPs
* ''Rise. Fall. Repeat'' (2009)
* ''The Human Condition'' (2012)
Singles
* "Hated You From Hello" (2011)
* "Dark on Me" (2012)
Videos
* "Digging It Out" (2011)
* "Where Did You Go" (2012)
* "We"ll Be Kings" (2012)
* "Down With The Fallen" (2013)
Notable appearances
*
Rock on the Range
Rock on the Range was an annual rock festival that was held at two locations. The first and main location was in Columbus, Ohio, United States at Mapfre Stadium (originally Columbus Crew Stadium; renamed in 2015) from 2007 to 2018, while the ...
2011
*
X-Fest
X-Fest is an annual music festival held in various venues throughout the United States by Clear Channel Communications radio stations. It features alternative rock, hard rock, heavy metal, grunge, and industrial rock bands.
Noblesville, Indiana
T ...
2011 in Dayton, Ohio
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{Starset
Epic Records artists
Alternative rock groups from Ohio
American alternative metal musical groups