Praden

Praden

Praden (Formerly "Touching The Flame") are an English, 4-piece Punk band from St. Albans, UK. The current members are Leo Troy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Peter Style (bass guitar), Chris Treasure (backing vocals,guitar) and Ben Smith (drums), . The bands line up has remained as such since early departure of Mark Collins, who was a backing vocalist, and a keen member of Praden, but relations between him and Lead Guitarist, Chris Treasre led to him being removed from the band. One of their most famous aspects is that they are still in their teens, which is why the majority of their fans are young.

Leo Troy is the producer of Praden's Music and is also the Lyricist, the band believe in a more personal, less commerical approach to their music, the band practise in "The Shed" in Bedmond, which is their professional studio, and is a fully equipped, full size studio, which boasts of the newest technology, this was supplied to them by the St. Albans Music Committee.

Leo Troy and Ben Smith are the most famous members, they generally participate in interviews, and are the pioneering forces leading the band in a positive direction, although in most bands the "Front Men" are normally the Lead Singer and Lead Guitarist, unlike in this case, and the fact that they are "different from cliche bands", Chris Treasure isn't too confident due to his personal problems, and therefore Chris Treasure and Peter Style remain behind, although in Peter Style's case it's due to him being split between two bands.

Around Christmas 2007, the band debuted with their first single, a progressive rock song, namely Ending Call. Since then, the band has released 10 other songs. Their most popular song would evidently show to be Stay, and closely followed by My Depression while popularly known as "My Descent". Praden, till date, have shown increased popularity around the St. Albans area. Their ecletic style has been positively embraced by their fans, as they are still re-producing many of their demos.

Peter Style on His Bass Guitar at Aboyne Lodge

Praden have performed in many locations around Hertfordshire and London and are looking to spread out more, globally perhaps; and Praden are already famous for their hard grungey shows and brutal mosh pits throughout England, yet they wish to bring their live shows to fans globally.

History

Beginnings and Touching The Flame (2007-2008)

They formed on 12th December, 2007; under the name Touching The Flame. The band was originally a "just for fun" band and started off with Paramore, System Of A Down, Ghosts, Sum 41, The Kooks and Metallica Covers, explaining their ecletic state at present.

Praden released the EP Touching The Flame on 1st January 2008. The EP had a couple of covers and a preview to Ending Call, although it was an official EP it didn't reach many fans and only 400 copies were sold.

Mark's departure and Band Renaming (January 2008 - February 2008)

Due to family issues, and poor relations between Mark Collins and Chris Treasure, he was eventually led away from the band; "They were constantly arguing and were clearly not getting on", was the verdict of James Brouder, the ex producer of Praden before he ventured into his own music band, JCT. Mark Collins left the band, after a couple of weeks of hard "jamming", he later joined JCT (an experimental group with Jimmy Brouder), This led to a couple of changes, the band eventually named themselves "Praden" after a long discussion. Peter Style, although, was a little dissapointed with the name and expressed his preference for "A Shot In The Dark". Eventually they all agreed on the name and finally settled down.

New Name (February 2008 - June 2008)

Recording of the band's new CD began , songs such as, My Depression, Stay, Ending Call, were all re-recorded and released on a small scale CD sale, although Praden discontinued the sale of the CD as they were still unhappy with the quality and production. Leo Troy eventually became the sole producer of their music and led the band on a more systematic or "Progressive" approach, which could be seen as a step forward in the right direction.

Other Projects

Peter Style and A Shot In The Dark

File:Sitd.jpg

A Shot In The Dark Logo"

Due to the decreased practise times, and being off tour, Peter Style ventured into a new band, with musicians like Alex Bowden, in a band called "A Shot In the Dark", and they are St. Albans based Alternative Rock band. This led to Peter Style having a "bit more of a good time". After showing an increased amount of attention to A Shot In The Dark, in order to prepare their first single "The Battle You Cannot Win", Peter Style eventually got bored and returned his attention to improving Praden's music. The new version of Stay, compared to the Demo version, shows examples of Peter Style's Skill and his hard work, this is seen as an effect on the influence from the other members of Shot In The Dark, and that they did help Peter Style to excel in his work as a Bassist.

Chris' Personal Problems

After a hard month, and mental trauma, Chris led to personal problems, and his lack of expressed feelings towards a girl who is unknown to the public known to the public, but wishes to be anonymous, this led to him becoming Depressed, which eventually led to him, "going across the road. After an "impossible" period, Chris came out well from this phase and showed increased effort in the riffs performed in many of the songs. His problems were overcome after a hard period and the band are all happy he has come out of it, this has shown a lot of improved work and more experiences in relationships.

Leo Troy and Vertic

During a small break, Leo decided to Venture on his own solo project called "Vertic", mainly a Nirvana Cover project he released a couple of songs, and eventually turned back to Praden. In the project, he did various Nirvana covers, and a couple of other covers. The style of the songs, were reminiscent to Praden, and the style of singing in Praden showed similarities, the Solo Project did gain many positive responses. The main, popular song in the Project, would be, About A Girl, a cover of the song by Nirvana. This was arguably the best song from the project and the most widespread song.

Music style and influences

Leo Troy Singing at Aboyne Lodge

Early influence on their music included Progressive Rock (Ending Call) and other similar sub genres, with Leo adding a sub-techno element, but later work showed a more Pop-Punk sound with Stay and My Depression, with infuences from Sum 41's All Killer, No Filler. Their Newest stuff (Sleep Forever) has been described as Alternative Rock and Experimenal with influences from Scars on Broadway. The band's general musical style is often compared to Blink-182 and Green Day, owing to the catchy melodies and humor present in the work of both bands. The genre of Praden's music have been disputed among critics due to the complex combination of different musical styles and much more punky, depressing and heavy sound in later work. In General their style is mainly Punk, but the band are slightly ecletic at the moment, as they are still consolidating their likes for different genres, which is perfectly acceptable.

Discography

Main article: Praden discography

Studio albums

Praden Demo CD (October 2008)

EP's albums

Touching The Flame EP (Early 2008)

Singles

Stay

my descent

sleep forever

broken letters