House of Protection are making their Australian debut this January supporting Bad Omens and Poppy.
House of Protection is the project created by Stephen Harrison and Aric Improta, who were formerly two thirds of Fever 333. After their departure from Fever 333, those years of camaraderie and friendship from being in the studio and on the road together formed the foundation of House of Protection.Fast forward to the present day and they've just released their critically acclaimed EP 'Galore' (produced by ex-Bring Me The Horizon member Jordan Fish) and have performed their first live shows – literally just two shows - as House of Protection to crowds of 500 people. Now they're performing their first full run of dates supporting Bad Omens and Poppy in Australia.
Although they're career veterans having performed with Fever 333 – and Stephen with The Chariot and Aric with Night Verses – they're going from performing in front of 500 people as House of Protection to sold out crowds of 10,000 in Australia.
"There's definitely nerves, but definitely more excitement than nerves," Stephen says. "There's just so much new to it. It's a new band, we're doing new things in the band that we haven't done before.
"With new artists really, the bands that we're touring with, it really is a whole new thing; we've been in other bands before but there is just so much unknown that it would be weird to have no nerves."
"Yeah, we've only sang two shows and both of them were for 500 people," Aric adds. "So to jump up to like 10,000 for our third show is pretty hilarious. I think normally we've had other people to sort of help keep the energy up, but being a two piece we inherently feel this responsibility to give as much energy as possible.
"It's very exciting to anticipate what that's going to feel like when we actually get onstage and do what we know how to do. I'm very curious how's it going to go."
House of Protection have captured the attention of hardcore fans online with their chaotic music videos. The latest video for 'Pulling Teeth' saw the band travel to Ahmedabad, India, to perform in a well of death.
The footage shows them performing in a coliseum-type enclosure with two motorcycles and a car circling the walls around them. "We didn't have any time to warm up. Some of that footage is just the first take," Aric says.
"We had like a 30-something hour travel process. Even after we landed we had to drive like eight hours into the desert. So right when we got there we set up for an hour and then they started the motorcycles and we started filming."
In the video, there's a shot of Stephen singing lyrics while staring down the lens of the camera while he's a passenger in one of the gravity- and death-defying cars. Although he looks as cool and calm as could be, he didn't feel it.
"That was the last take of the day. Yeah, it's extremely unnatural for me because I have really bad motion sickness. So it was hard to kind of keep my composure and afterwards I was a little sick," he laughs.
In their music video for 'Being One', there's a moment amongst the chaos where the camera drops onto Stephen's face and splits his eyebrow wide open. Although it makes for a great visual later in the video, the behind the scenes show it was an accident.
"Yeah our videographer was trying to do something that was really difficult at the time. We were pushing Steve on an air mattress to look like he was sleeping and levitating over the street.
"Unfortunately, the air mattress lost air so it was really unstable and within like a few seconds of filming he kicked me in the face holding the mattress and fell with the camera directly into Steve's face. The day was going really well up to that point.
"To be honest, most of our videos we just kind of reference the feeling of shooting a skate video. Where you just have two or three locations per night. You're usually not supposed to be shooting there, so we kind of just try and get as portable and efficient as possible. Then we run to the spot, shoot for 20 minutes and get out of there.
"'Being One' specifically was a lot of that. Being on the freeway bridge, being on the carousel, that stuff was not permitted and we went out and tried to see if we could get it done. Honestly, everybody that was involved was really cool about helping us get the shot and get us out of there."
Another striking visual was the duo sitting in the middle of the ocean on a buoy. Once again it seems like they're in their natural habitat and this is just one of their usual hangout spots. "We definitely got close [to falling in]. My uncle has a boat, which we actually found out the engine blew up the very next time he took it out, so I'm glad it didn't when we were out there.
"We went to this buoy that I had seen on a jet ski a week prior. I thought it was way bigger. When we got out there it was tilting like crazy and Steve was like 'I don't think this is going to happen', and I was like 'just get on we'll balance it'. It was really hard to keep that thing steady and up, but we got the shot."
"It was covered in bird sh.t as well," Stephen laughs. "Hahaha yeah, I had to throw away my pants after they smelt so bad," Aric recalls.
As a two piece, both Stephen and Aric sing while playing their respective instruments (guitar and drums) at the same time. The vocals on 'Galore' go from hardcore screams like in their previous projects to softer more melodic moments akin to Bloc Party or - like in 'Pulling Teeth', Damon Albarn-esque moments in Gorillaz.
So it's a surprise to learn that neither of them had taken on lead vocal duties before. Although you wouldn't guess it, it's a skill they're still learning and figuring out. "The whole point of this band with Aric and I was to do this ourselves," Stephen says. "It definitely came with its hurdles as we were starting and figuring out our voices.
"We're still kind of figuring it out in a way. As far as live goes, even these rehearsals we're doing now for Australia. I feel that our voices are sharpening. It really is all so new. It really is, there's so much. . . between the London show and now I feel like a better vocalist. I'm sure Aric does as well. It just kind of comes with time and I'm expecting after Australia to kind of learn more about my voice as well."
"I think that the process of this band has been a little unnatural for us only because we're used to just writing in a room," Aric explains further. "Even Night Verses, for most of our career we've written in a room. The fact that we'll do demos where we'll try things where we’re not holding the instruments at times, then finding out how to [play our instruments and sing] both at the same time.
"It's definitely left us with new challenges. Like Steve said the more we do it the more comfortable it feels; at this point we trust each other so much that it's like, if the other one says it sounds cool we go with that and we don't really worry about anyone else."
'Galore' is an EP that goes in many different musical directions. From the sound of their previous projects, fans would be forgiven thinking this was just a metalcore project, but it's much more than that.
'Galore' shines the most through these softer, poppier songs like 'Being One', but it wasn't always the plan to explore these genres. "It wasn't our intention. I think Jordan [Fish] opened up a lot of doors for us. We wrote a lot of demos with Nick [Night Verses] and it was heavier leaning. I think Jordan opened up the potential in what Steve's voice could do. That was exciting for us, 'Being One' is a perfect example.
"I think that was the second song we wrote with him. It felt good right away. There's still that fast drum & bass pace to it, it kept everything energetic but at the same time hearing Steve in that light was really exciting for me.
"I had just come out of a year of writing with Steve and I hadn't heard anything like that from him before. For it to happen and seem so natural was exciting. It was some sh.t you didn't realise you could do. That was one of the best parts about working with Jordan, was him being able to highlight things we didn't know we had the potential to pull off."
Jordan Fish's involvement with the project garnered media attention due to it being the first project he had worked on since suddenly leaving Bring Me The Horizon. "I've known Jordan a long time. We've written together for fun in the past while he was in Bring Me," Stephen says.
"I think he probably would have helped us out even if he was still in Bring Me to be honest. We've been close for a while and on top of being best friends we've been musical collaborators for a while."
"It felt like there was a little extra motivation, when you create with anybody for as long as he did there's sort of rules you just learn," Aric continues. "With this we all came into it going 'okay, sh.t this is a new chance to do something, let's see where it goes'.
"It's hard to maintain that openness the more you work with someone and the more you learn their strengths and weaknesses. It was a really special week when we wrote the rest of 'Galore'. We wrote 'It's Supposed To Hurt' first and then Jordan added production and then we wrote the rest of the songs in a week together. I just think he was so open-minded and ready for a fresh start that it was like everybody on the same page at the same time, which is hard to do."
Outside of House of Protection, Stephen also wrote on tour mate Poppy's new album 'Negative Spaces' with Jordan Fish. The album was received as one of the best metal releases of the year.
"It's my first time writing on a full album for another artist. I've written songs here and there for other people. As far as a full album project this was my first time; and how it was received was just incredible man, I was blown away by the reception.
"It's kind of one of those things where it was so much fun to record, I almost didn't care about how people felt about it. I obviously hope people thought it was cool. It was a blast, it was so much fun to work with Jordan and Poppy, I was upset it was over. It was an incredible experience and I'm glad people seemed to like it."
While Stephen was writing with Poppy and Jordan, Aric had a gigantic 2024 of his own. This included supporting Tool with Night Verses and releasing their new album 'Every Sound Has A Colour In The Valley Of Night'.
How is someone expected to juggle these all consuming projects? "It's really hard and sometimes it's really difficult to try and fit everything with an even amount of energy and ambition. The only way that it works is because it's with all my best friends. If this is anybody else there's no way I'd be doing both.
"Like seriously, I love it, I love both so much, but it's not easy. There's a lot of scheduling and it's not just the moment, it's trying to prepare for those moments. I'm someone who always tries to zoom out and say like 'this is a moment in time that I'm not going to have forever and it's with my best friends', so that's a very big motivating factor for me, but it's not easy."
Despite this hectic schedule, 2025 looks to be even bigger and they're ready to do it all again. When asked about new music, it looks like it's already on the way. "Yeah I think we’re allowed to say yes [fans can expect new music soon]. We've worked a lot in the down time between the release. We want to do everything we did last year plus play shows."
House of Protection support Bad Omens and Poppy on tour this January.
Bad Omens 2025 Tour Dates
Wed 22 Jan - Festival Hall (Melbourne)Thu 23 Jan - Festival Hall (Melbourne)* final tickets
Sat 25 Jan - The Riverstage (Brisbane)* sold out
Tue 28 Jan - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)* sold out
Wed 29 Jan - Hordern Pavilion (Sydney)
