Institute: “Bulletproof Music”

One trend evident in the world of new rock the last few years has been the forming of brand new bands by previously famous names of the mid 1990s. We’ve seen it with Audioslave, Velvet Revolver, the new Richard Patrick, Dean and Robert Deleo project titled Army of Anyone and now, Gavin Rossdale’s new band called Institute. Rossdale’s name would be quite familiar to anyone who was a fan of post-grunge alternative rock with his band Bush. Bush enjoyed a hugely successful 1995 debut album Sixteen Stone, but the band was never really able to rediscover multi-platinum status with its three other LPs. The clincher for Bush’s demise came after the band released its last album Golden State in 2001 and guitarist Nigel Pulsford refused to tour ever again.

With Pulsford making his intentions for the future quite clear, Rossdale was left with some difficult choices to make. He did not want to continue with Bush without Pulsford in the mix, but at the same time he was not interested in ending his career in music which he very easily could have done. After all, Bush accomplished a lot as one of the most successful bands of the post-grunge alternative rock scene, Rossdale was getting offers to become a full time actor and maybe most importantly, he is married to Gwen Stefani, one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

When Bush officially came to an end, Rossdale briefly toyed with the idea of becoming a solo artist. Although he never got around to releasing a proper solo LP, Rossdale found the time to release some solo work, most notably on the song “The Current,” a collaboration with the Blue Man Group and the song “Adrenaline” on the Vin Diesel flick XXX from 2002. “Adrenaline” turned out to be a minor hit for Rossdale, but he wasn’t sure of what direction he wanted his music to proceed in. He considered the option of doing a sensitive, introspective solo record much like Chris Cornell did after the demise of Soundgarden, but Rossdale had the inkling to try to make his music harder and heavier. The outlet for Rossdale’s musical aspirations ended up being Institute.

While some have interpreted Institute as being a glorified Rossdale solo project, he has been quick to point out that it is a full-fledged rock band. It might surprise some people to know that besides Rossdale on lead vocals and guitar, Institute is composed of some well respected musicians including guitarist Chris Traynor formerly of popular metal bands Helmet and Orange 9mm, bassist Cache Tolman who used to be in the band Rival Schools and drummer Charlie Walker, a local Brooklyn musician who had played in New York bands like Split Lip and Chamerlain. Along with this well respected group of musicians, Institute’s debut album Distort Yourself was produced by Helmet frontman Page Hamilton who also helped Rossdale write and record much of the record.

Hamilton of course has been a prominent name within the metal genre for over fifteen years now and his influence and input really helped Rossdale decide which direction he wanted to take his music. Rossdale had been a fan of Hamilton and Helmet for a long time and when the two started to work together, they found that they had strong musical chemistry between them. In Hamilton, Rossdale found the right producer for the sound he was striving to achieve with Institute. Hamilton brought to the table the type of guitar sound that Rossdale was looking for and the Helmet influence shows through on some of Distort Yourself’s heavier songs like “Bulletproof Skin” and “When Animals Attack.”

Despite Hamilton’s heavy input, Distort Yourself should not be mistaken for a Helmet rip-off at all. The album has quite a versatile sound to it with lighter songs such as “Save the Robots” and “Ambulances” interjected with the heavier material. Rossdale was hesitant to show the softer tracks to Hamilton, but Hamilton ended up really liking them and he encouraged Rossdale to include them on the disc.

Institute is currently off the road for now after opening for U2 in the fall on several of the band’s Vertigo world tour stops which gave the band lots of world exposure. The band has also shown no hesitation to include covers of Bush songs in its live set as Rossdale has resurrected some of Bush’s bigger hits like “Glycerine,” “Machinehead,” “Swallowed,” and “The People That We Love.”

With Institute, Gavin Rossdale has shown that perhaps there is life after Bush. It’s never easy for a previously famous rock musician to start all over again, but Distort Yourself is a very decent debut album and the help of Paige Hamilton seems to have given life to Rossdale’s songwriting. Hopefully Rossdale can continue to grow with Institute and build a whole new history with a whole new band.  [ END ]