Other Bands
Beneath Dead Waves
Beneath Dead Waves – Matt Reeves (Guitar), Joey Draper (Vocals), Leigh Costanza (Drums), Doug Cartwright (Guitar), Chad McCamlie (Bass)
A lyric video for the Beneath Dead Waves song ‘Imperfect’ – Joey Draper (Vocals), Doug Cartwright (Guitar and Bass), Leigh Costanza (Drums)
In 2006 I founded the heavy metal band Beneath Dead Waves along with my longtime collaborators Joey Draper (vocals) and Leigh Costanza (drums). We spent several years writing and developing a set of songs with a unique fusion of diverse influences from the alternative music landscape, really trying to push ourselves out of our comfort zones both musically and artistically.
We released our album ‘Inertia’ in 2014, the first album that I was fully responsible for recording, mixing and mastering. The journey to completing and releasing this album was a long and hard one, but we all learnt so much along the way and the final effort was worth it; Metal Hammer magazine included our song ‘Imperfect’ on the compilation CD ‘Riffs From Outer Space’ alongside established acts including Judas Priest and Opeth, praising ‘Inertia’ as delivering “metal anthems executed with brainbursting technicality“, whilst Alex Baker at Kerrang! described us as “so talented it’s like they’re taking the mick” and amusingly “like Dream Theater on crack!”.
After a long search we completed our lineup with Matt Reeves (guitar) and Chad McCamlie (bass) for live performances. Beneath Dead Waves played shows in support of ‘Inertia’ throughout most of 2014, supporting established acts including Monuments, Intronaut and Scale the Summit before disbanding in the spring of 2015.
Hellcat Molly
Hellcat Molly was the rock band I played in from 2008-2011 alongside David D’andrade (vocals), Levi Clay (guitar), Huw Beynon (drums) and either Will Cass (bass) or Sean Brennan (bass) depending on the time period. We all met as students when we were studying for music performance degrees at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP), bonded over our mutual loves of drinking, Indian food and Rob Halford’s ‘Resurrection’ album and swiftly formed a band to play every dingy rock venue we could possibly find around London and further afield.
I have hugely fond memories of this band and the times we had gigging, rehearsing and writing music together, plus the numerous parties and other student activities that became a massive part of the bands camaraderie. The shows were always full-on rock n’ roll experiences, with powerful rock vocals, shred-offs and (in the early days at least) outrageous trousers that I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing now.
A recording of Hellcat Molly show opener ‘Forever Again’, featuring David D’andrade (Lead Vocals), Levi Clay (Lead Guitar), Doug Cartwright (Lead Guitar) and Leigh Costanza (Lead Drums).
After several failed attempts at reunions, Levi resurrected the Hellcat Molly name in 2015 to release an album of new material he’d written. The album features David D’andrade on vocals and former Beneath Dead Waves/Amid the Barren and Lost drummer Leigh Costanza on drums. I engineered all the guitar recordings for the record and provided a guest guitar solo.
You can check out this album and support Levi on here.
For my latest release, check out Amid the Barren and Lost.