New Band - WASP-76b

Well I'm at it again. As I'm patiently awaiting the release of my Dominus Meus DM1 Re-Vocalized project with Dale Thompson to drop on Oct.31st (Halloween), and while Jen is finalizing vocals for the 4th Evans and Stokes album, I spent the past two weekends writing and recording 10 new songs that I now plan to release under a new band name WASP-76b. WASP-76b is an exoplanet in the constellation Pisces. Scientists believe that on this planet it gets so hot that it rains molten iron. Yes, it actually RAINS METAL. What better name for a metal band?? Anyway, the music is done and now I just need to figure out what to do with the vocals. Do I try to find one person to work with? Or do I try to enlist multiple people and have them all just sing one or two tracks?

Anyway, here are a few samples of the music...







Follow on Facebook here:  Facebook Page Link

Need all the followers I can get. I launched the Facebook page and website last night and I think I have 4 followers so far. lol

Website: www.wasp-76b.com

PS - And the WASP in WASP-76b actually stands for Wide Angle Search for Planets

I like the music, man!  I can't wait to hear this one!

I think you should stick with one vocalist if possible.  That way, it will come off more as a band and not just another musical project.  Look at the division over the newer Tourniquet albums.  The fans see those more as a Ted solo project because of those.  A singer could have made it come off as a more cohesive band.

Do you have lyrics written for these?  If so, I would like to take a shot at the vocals.  I could do either something more in line with Alice Cooper or go for something a bit more Dio-ish.  If you don't like it, you can delete the file with no skin off my nose.

Good sounding stuff!

Thanks Chris and Derek!

Actually after I posted this I received communication from a singer in Latvia that I really like and I may have her do it. I'm looking for something more aggressive for this project, but that can also pull back and be really melodic at times and this woman from Latvia has it all.

But, I have a serious question to pose to this group. This singer is not Christian. She has no issue with Christianity at all. She is not against it and she respects the beliefs of others even if they are not her own. She has done a cover of a Behemoth song in the past and in a few of her photos she is seen wearing a pentagram. She explains to me that this is purely for artistic purposes and she is NOT a Satanist. She is very eager to do this project with me.

As in all of my projects, the lyrics and song themes are mostly Christian based. For example in my Dominus Meus project all lyrics are direct inspiration from specific scriptures. For WASP-76b I will be writing all of the lyrics, and they will follow suit with what I have done in the past. They will be mostly Christian themed. This singer knows this and wants to do the project.

What do you think? I'm probably going to make a decision and contact her in about an hour or so. So if you have an opinion, let me know.

Too late to give you my two cents (at least before you contacted her).

If you are controlling the lyrical content and she is willing to avoid anything apparently evil in the promotional material you might use for the release of the music (ie. pictures, written material, interviews etc.)  I say go for it.  I have employees in my company that are not Christian (although all the partners are).  As long as you maintain creative control of the content, I don't see why you couldn't work with a non-Christian.  Paul May (who is apparently a Christian) managed to do it successfully for a few really good albums with Al Atkins (who is not a Christian).
But that's just my two cents.  Of course it's ultimately between you and God.  

Would love to see one of the singers of Letter 7 sing over this.  Both of them could be aggressive (well not growly) and melodic at the same time.  No matter what you do I will be excited to hear it.  The music sounds fantastic, you are one ridiculously prolific musician (we are going to have to nick-name you J. "Dale" Evans, if you keep this up).

Music sounds great, I'm very interested in how this turns out.

JLE3 wrote:

Thanks Chris and Derek!

Actually after I posted this I received communication from a singer in Latvia that I really like and I may have her do it. I'm looking for something more aggressive for this project, but that can also pull back and be really melodic at times and this woman from Latvia has it all.

But, I have a serious question to pose to this group. This singer is not Christian. She has no issue with Christianity at all. She is not against it and she respects the beliefs of others even if they are not her own. She has done a cover of a Behemoth song in the past and in a few of her photos she is seen wearing a pentagram. She explains to me that this is purely for artistic purposes and she is NOT a Satanist. She is very eager to do this project with me.

As in all of my projects, the lyrics and song themes are mostly Christian based. For example in my Dominus Meus project all lyrics are direct inspiration from specific scriptures. For WASP-76b I will be writing all of the lyrics, and they will follow suit with what I have done in the past. They will be mostly Christian themed. This singer knows this and wants to do the project.

What do you think? I'm probably going to make a decision and contact her in about an hour or so. So if you have an opinion, let me know.

As long as she knows what they lyrics are like beforehand and she's cool with it, then I don't see a problem.

I think I could argue both sides of this one.  Ultimately it's your choice.  Follow your convictions.

Thanks everyone. I didn't respond to her yet. I'm going to sleep on it.

There have been many secular vocalists & musicians that have done Christian songs before, but it really is how God is convicting YOU. Their performance could be great yet missing the Spirit. It may be just a paycheck but could be sowing or watering.

I like the music but I'm not too sure about the name. When I see it, being as old as I am, I of course think of W.A.S.P. and not a planet. Perhaps that's just me but that's my thoughts on it.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. We're gonna give this a try and see how it goes. She's got the first three songs and plans to sing them this weekend. If I can get something good mixed then I'll post one of the songs early next week.

Here she is singing a Slipknot cover (so we can get a sense of what we're in for   ) 

I hope you didn't request the extreme vox from her. Of course, I know nothing of Slipknot's catalog so maybe that is how that song is sung. Her "normal" singing is fine.

topshot rhit wrote:

I hope you didn't request the extreme vox from her. Of course, I know nothing of Slipknot's catalog so maybe that is how that song is sung. Her "normal" singing is fine.

As far as the Slipknot song is concerned yeah she pretty much nailed that. That is how that song sounds. What I'm looking for is the combination of clean and extreme for this record. One of my favorite songs of all time is 'Reason to Believe' by Arch Enemy. The vocalist achieves this amazing combination of clean and extreme vocals. I didn't used to be a fan of extreme vocals at all but for some reason if they have a bit of melody, and if you can actually make out what they are saying, then I like them.

This is also my third 'band', so I'm looking for it to be different from the others. With Evans and Stokes we have similar music, but with a more pulled back, sultry, clean vocal of Jenny Stokes and much more intricate and well thought out lyrics and these tend to be concept albums. With Dominus Meus we have similar music but more of a hard rock Dio style vocal of Dale Thompson. Now with WASP-76b we will again have similar music but with a combination of clean and extreme vocals. I'd really like these three bands to compliment each other, not compete. If you dig the music, then maybe you would gravitate toward the band where you click more with that vocalist and their style. I'm a fan of all three styles and am truly having so much fun doing this stuff. It's like a dream come true and with every song I take a step back and sometimes can't believe that just came out of me.


What I'm shooting for is something like this....

I really don't mind extreme/clean vocal styles. It really takes a lot of control to do that vocal style well. Just watch Tatiana from Jinjer.

JLE3 wrote:

I didn't used to be a fan of extreme vocals at all but for some reason if they have a bit of melody, and if you can actually make out what they are saying, then I like them.

There better be a lot of melody and ease of making out what they're saying for me to like extreme vox. There have been a few I dig (e.g., Demon Hunter, Wolves at the Gate). I'm pretty picky about non extreme vocalists, too, though.

This sounds very cool JLE3.
Maybe, this is personal, but the voice of a man fits much better to this rockin' music than from a female.
Like it said it's personal.

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

I really don't mind extreme/clean vocal styles. It really takes a lot of control to do that vocal style well. Just watch Tatiana from Jinjer.

Based on John's description I was thinking Jinjer and Arch Enemy (even before he posted the video).
This could be quite interesting, I'm not much of an extreme vox fan, but depending on how it's handled I can certainly appreciate how it fits within the music, I will certainly be interested in hearing how it turns out.

JLE3 wrote:

What I'm shooting for is something like this....

This I can totally get behind.  I've never heard this song, but I have heard other songs with Alissa White-Gluz singing.  She is a phenomenal singer, and this song has the perfect blend of melodic/aggressive/extreme vocals.  Also I can still understand what she is screaming when she is using her "extreme voice".  Great song.