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Downplay was 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 Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
, in 2001. The group consisted of vocalist Dustin Bates, bassist Ron DeChant, and drummer Brian Patrick. The band released five full-length studio albums and three EPs independently, under various labels between 2007 and 2010. The band went on hiatus in 2013, with Bates and DeChant focusing on their new project,
Starset Starset is an American Rock music, rock band from Columbus, Ohio, formed by Dustin Bates in 2013. They released their debut album, ''Transmissions (Starset album), Transmissions'', in 2014 and their second album, ''Vessels (Starset album), Vesse ...
.


History


Formation and ''Saturday'' (2001–2006)

Downplay originated near Youngstown, OH, in Salem, in 2001, originally as a cover band. 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 found a 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, 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. Most of the band's early riffs and music were based on bass player Greg Huzyak's heavy and groovy riffs bore from his love of Led Zeppelin and early blues rock bands like the Allman Brothers, Duran Duran, and Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys 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 their 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,'' the band's second studio album. was released in October. 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 post-grunge band formed in Kansas City, Missouri in 1992. The band has sold over seven million albums. Their major-label debut, '' Come Clean'' (2001), spawned the single " Blurry", which peaked at number 5 on the ...
and
Sevendust Sevendust is an American Rock music, rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1994 by bassist Vinnie Hornsby, drummer Morgan Rose and guitarist John Connolly (musician), John Connolly. After their first demo, lead vocalist Lajon Witherspoon an ...
. In June, the band signed with
Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...
. Immediately after, Bates went to
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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 music, rock band founded in 1994 by singer and keyboardist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody in Little Rock, Arkansas. After releasing independent extended play, EPs and a Origin (Evanescence demo album), demo ...
,
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,
Mudvayne Mudvayne is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois, Peoria, Illinois, in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over five million records wor ...
,
Godsmack Godsmack is an American Rock music, rock band from Lawrence, Massachusetts, formed in 1995. The band is currently composed of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Sully Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill. Since its formation, Godsmack has released eig ...
) 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
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, as well as a different track from
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. It was finished in May 2011. Downplay played with a number of rock bands, including Chevelle,
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, Theory of a Deadman, 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'' (2001–200 ...
'', which lead to ''Sleep'' being scrapped, and never released. 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 World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...
.


''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
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" 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 the album '' Transmissions'' with a new project,
Starset Starset is an American Rock music, rock band from Columbus, Ohio, formed by Dustin Bates in 2013. They released their debut album, ''Transmissions (Starset album), Transmissions'', in 2014 and their second album, ''Vessels (Starset album), Vesse ...
, featuring Bates and bandmate Ron DeChant, which contained re-recorded versions of some of the songs that would have been on the scrapped album, ''Sleep.'' 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 – bass, keyboards, backing vocals *Brian Patrick – drums, percussion ;Past members *George Andres – lead guitar *Greg Huzyak – bass *Brandon Hill – drums *Nick Kiser – lead guitar *Chad White – bass *Mike Mealey – bass *Bobby Withers – lead guitar *Derek Snowden – rhythm guitar *Brandon Zano – rhythm guitar *Trevor Connor – lead guitar *Corey Catlett – bass, backing vocals *Evan McKeever – rhythm guitar, backing vocals ; Timeline ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:90 top:0 right:20 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/2001 till:10/08/2013 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:Vocals value:red legend:Lead_Vocals id:BV value:pink legend:Backing_Vocals id:Guitar value:green legend:Guitar id:Keys value:purple legend:Keyboards id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:studio value:black legend:Studio_album id:ep value:gray(0.85) legend:EP Legend = orientation:vertical columns:4 position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:2001 Scaleminor = increment:1 start:2001 LineData = layer:back color:studio at:01/01/2005 at:10/10/2007 at:20/12/2011 at:29/05/2012 at:02/07/2013 color:ep at:17/11/2009 at:04/12/2012 BarData = bar:Dustin text:"Dustin Bates" bar:Andres text:"George Andres" bar:Kiser text:"Nick Kiser" bar:Bobby text:"Bobby Withers" bar:Snowden text:"Derek Snowden" bar:Zano text:"Brandon Zano" bar:Connor text:"Trevor Connor" bar:Evan text:"Evan McKeever" bar:Ron text:"Ron DeChant" bar:Greg text:"Greg Huzyak" bar:White text:"Chad White" bar:Mealey text:"Mike Mealey" bar:Catlett text:"Corey Catlett" bar:Hill text:"Brandon Hill" bar:Brian text:"Brian Patrick" PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Dustin from:01/01/2001 till:end color:Vocals bar:Dustin from:01/01/2001 till:end color:Guitar width:3 bar:Andres from:01/01/2001 till:31/12/2003 color:Guitar bar:Greg from:01/01/2001 till:31/12/2003 color:Bass bar:Hill from:01/01/2003 till:31/12/2008 color:Drums bar:Kiser from:01/01/2003 till:31/12/2008 color:Guitar bar:White from:01/01/2003 till:31/12/2008 color:Bass bar:Ron from:01/01/2009 till:31/12/2010 color:BV width:3 bar:Ron from:01/01/2009 till:31/12/2010 color:Keys bar:Ron from:01/01/2012 till:end color:Bass bar:Ron from:01/01/2012 till:end color:BV width:3 bar:Ron from:01/01/2012 till:end color:Keys Bar:Ron from:31/12/2012 till:end color:bass width:7 bar:Brian from:01/01/2009 till:end color:Drums bar:Mealey from:01/01/2009 till:31/12/2010 color:Bass bar:Bobby from:01/01/2009 till:31/12/2010 color:Guitar bar:Snowden from:01/01/2010 till:31/12/2010 color:Guitar bar:Zano from:01/01/2010 till:31/12/2010 color:Guitar bar:Connor from:01/01/2010 till:19/06/2012 color:Guitar bar:Catlett from:01/01/2010 till:31/12/2012 color:Bass bar:Evan from:01/01/2011 till:31/12/2012 color:Guitar bar:Evan from:01/01/2011 till:31/12/2012 color:BV width:3


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 ot ...
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 ...
2011 in Dayton, Ohio


References


External links

* * * * {{Starset Epic Records artists Alternative rock groups from Ohio American alternative metal musical groups