Depswa is 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 from

Modesto, California Modesto ( ; ) is the county seat and largest city of Stanislaus County, California, United States. With a population of 218,069 according to 2022 United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimates, it is the List of cities and towns in Ca ...

. The band released two studio albums, two EPs, and a compilation before entering an indefinite hiatus in 2011.

History

Formation and EP releases

The beginnings of Depswa came together in 1997 with vocalist Jeremy Penick and bassist Ryan Burchfield, under their original band name "Carcinogen". With this name, the band released their first EP, named Depswa, that eventually will become the band's name. In 1999, Penick and Burchfield had moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and added guitarist Dan Noonan. The band would then rename themselves as "Depswa". The band released their debut EP in 2000 titled ''Faithless'', and by October 2001, had added drummer Gordon Heckaman into the fold. Depswa had generated some significant interest around a number of

major record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and t ...

s. Ultimately they decided to sign with

Geffen Records Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...

. The band went to work recording their debut album with producer

Howard Benson Howard Michael Benson (born July 20, 1956) is an American record producer from Havertown, Pennsylvania. He has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2007 and 2008, among two wins and 16 total nominati ...

. A second guitarist in James Mills also joined the band at this point.

''Two Angels and a Dream'' (2003–2004)

Depswa released their debut album titled ''

Two Angels and a Dream ''Two Angels and a Dream'' is the debut album by American rock band Depswa. It was released on June 3, 2003, via Geffen Records. Album sales were impressive despite the lack of promotion, with over 39,000 copies to date sold in the United States ...

'' on June 3, 2003. The band was part of

Ozzfest Ozzfest was an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband O ...

2003, as a second stage act. Also, Their song, "This Time", was featured in

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

' ''

NASCAR Thunder 2004 ''NASCAR Thunder 2004'' is a racing simulator by EA Sports, released on September 16, 2003 and available in separate versions for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. This was the last NASCAR game for the PlayStation. It was succeeded ...

'' in two forms, the original with lyrics, and an instrumental version. "This Time" was also sampled by

Krayzie Bone Anthony Henderson (born June 17, 1973), better known as Krayzie Bone, is an American rapper. He is a member of the hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Career Solo After finding success with Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Krayzie Bone recorded his so ...

on the track "Don't Know Why" from the album '' Gemini: Good vs. Evil''. As of August 13, 2003, Depswa had sold 9,060 copies of their debut album in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate Data, LLC (formerly MRC Data and P-MRC Data) is a provider of music and entertainment data. Established as a joint-venture in 2020, it brought together Nielsen Music, Alpha Data (formerly BuzzAngle Music) and Variety Business Intellige ...

). At this point, it was rumored that the band had been dropped off the remaining part of the Ozzfest tour, due to Geffen withdrawing their tour support of the band. Geffen was not in communications with the band's management and had not sent the remainder of the tour support that was needed. The band told Geffen that if they did not receive the backend support they would pull themselves off the tour. Geffen responded saying that they were going to send the funds two days after the band started for home. Upon returning to L.A. Depswa's attorney requested that the label let the band go to pursue other labels that might be more supportive. On December 6, 2003, guitarist James Mills departed Depswa. The band was seeking a replacement guitarist, but nobody was ever hired, and have since continued as a four-piece with Penick playing second guitar and singing.

Inactivity, second studio album, re-releases, and indefinite hiatus (2005–2011)

In January 2005, Depswa revealed via their

MySpace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

that they were under way recording material for their second album. After working with a couple different producers, Depswa eventually decided to re-record much of the material along with several new songs. In May 2007, they entered the final stages of the recording and mixing process. May 13, 2007, was Gordon's last show with Depswa as their drummer, being replaced by Steve White. As of April 2008, they've been working hard on mixing the tracks for their next album and hope to be wrapped up by the end of summer 2008. On March 16, 2010, Depswa released their second studio album '' Distorted American Dream''. In 2011, Depswa announced they will be going on an indefinite hiatus. On February 17, 2015, the band released a compilation album of unreleased recordings entitled "Lucid Dreams – Demos, B-Sides, Covers and Rarities", along with a re-release of the Faithless EP and the Depswa EP (originally released, as ''Carcinogen''). The band stated that this will be their last release as of now due to them being on an indefinite hiatus since 2011.

Band members

Current * Jeremy Penick – vocals, guitar * Dan Noonan – guitar * Ryan Burchfeild – bass * Steve White – drums, vocals Former * Gordon Heckaman – drums * James Mills – guitar * Jesse Nunn – lead guitar

Discography

;Studio albums *''

'' (2003) *''Distorted American Dream'' (2010) ;EPs *''Depswa'' (1998) as "Carcinogen" *''Faithless'' (2000) ;Compilations *''Lucid Dreams – Demos, B-Sides, Covers and Rarities'' (2015)

References

External links

Launch: Depswa

MTV.com: Depswa

VH1.com: Depswa
* {{Authority control American alternative metal musical groups Musical groups established in the 1990s Nu metal musical groups from California