Human Waste Project was an American rock band from

Huntington Beach, California Huntington Beach is a seaside city in Orange County, California, Orange County in Southern California, located southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The city is named after American businessman Henry E. Huntington. The population was 198,711 duri ...

, with Aimee Echo on vocals,

Mike Tempesta Mike Tempesta is a rock guitarist and an artist relations manager. He also goes by the moniker M.33. He was credited for rhythm guitar tech on the 1990 Anthrax album '' Persistence of Time'' and his guitar solo in their Album/Song " Stomp 442,"/" Am ...

on guitar, Jeff Schartoff on bass, and Scott Ellis on drums. They released one studio album, '' E-lux'' (1997), and broke up soon after.

History

Friends Jeff Schartoff and Scott Ellis, while on the way to

Lollapalooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Musi ...

, decided to start a band. They then drafted Aimee Echo as vocalist after asking if she could scream. They initially also had another vocalist, Michael Walsh, who departed from the group in 1994, leaving Echo as the sole vocalist. John Monte joined as guitarist but did not last long and they went through a string of guitarists, one of whom was John Chase of

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before finding Mike Tempesta. The group began opening for large name bands such as Sublime,

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, and

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and struck a deal with

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. The band also toured the UK with

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and

Coal Chamber Coal Chamber is an American nu metal band formed by Dez Fafara and Meegs Rascón in Los Angeles, California in 1993. Prior to Coal Chamber, the two had also created the band She's in Pain, in 1992. The original lineup also consisted of bassist ...

respectively in 1997 before playing the UK Ozzfest in June 1998. This trip awarded them press coverage that they did not find in the United States. Features with the band (particularly Aimee) were found in the European rock magazines, most notably

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off ...

. Despite the band's success in the UK, the band's singer Aimee Echo was becoming disillusioned with the band due to her dislike with the band being

typecast In film, television, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character, one or more particular roles, or characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ...

as just a heavy metal or nu metal act, as well as with ''E-lux'''s failure; this resulted in her quitting Human Waste Project in July 1998 following their performance at Ozzfest. As a result, Human Waste Project announced their disbandment, and they played their last official show at the

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in Los Angeles on July 8, 1998. Aimee Echo and Scott Ellis went on to form theSTART. Jeff Schartoff formed

Professional Murder Music Professional Murder Music (PMM) is an American industrial metal band from Los Angeles, California. The band was formed by bassist/keyboardist Jeff Schartoff and guitarist/vocalist Roman Marisak in 1998, just prior to the disbandment of their pre ...

and joined Peter Murphy's live band. Mike Tempesta joined Powerman 5000.

Reunions

On Aimee Echo's birthday, March 27, 2008, after a theSTART show at Crash Mansion in downtown

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, the remaining three HWP members came on stage and played "Dog" and "Shine" with her. In attendance were former members of Snot,

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, Craig Riker of

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, producer

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and Chibi of

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. Human Waste Project had a publicized reunion show at the Key Club in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. It is considered one of the most ...

on October 10, 2008, as the opening act for Snot. Three of the four original members were present ( theSTART drummer Chelsea Davis filled in at the last minute for Scott Ellis). Their set list consisted of most of the songs off ''E-Lux'' and a cover of Depeche Mode's "I Feel You". Aimee stated that this would be the only full scale reunion show and the band would not be getting back together to tour. Another mini-reunion occurred on July 9, 2009, at a theSTART show at

The Roxy Roxy, Roxey, and Roxie may refer to: People * Roxy (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name Places in the United States * Roxie, Mississippi, a town * Roxie, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Music * Roxy ...

. Mike Tempesta joined them mid-set to perform "Dog" and "One Night In Spain". The latter being a song theSTART have performed during their own shows. On August 3, 2009, Mike Tempesta was announced on stage by Aimee Echo as being in the audience of a theSTART show in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the

Mercury Lounge The Mercury Lounge is a live music venue in the Lower East Side of New York City. Like its brother venue The Bowery Ballroom, The Mercury Lounge is celebrated as an iconic indie venue due to its acoustics, its fostering and even launching of up ...

. He joined them and performed one song.

Discography

Studio albums Singles *" Powerstrip" (UK: number 85)

References

External links

Official website
(archived) * {{Authority control 1993 establishments in California Alternative rock groups from California American alternative metal musical groups Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups disestablished in 1998 Musical groups reestablished in 2008 Musical groups disestablished in 2009 Nu metal musical groups from California