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THE ESSENESS PROJECT Featuring Guitarist STEVE SMYTH: New Performance Footage Available

September 30, 2008

THE ESSENESS PROJECT, the band featuring former NEVERMORE/TESTAMENT guitarist Steve Smyth, performed a 45-minute set on September 20, 2008 on the Digitech Digitruck at Skip's Music in Elk Grove (Sacramento),California. Watch some of the performance below.

In a January 2008 interview with the webzine, Smyth was asked to tell the story behind THE ESSENESS PROJECT's name. "The name is actually a play on words," he replied. "My buddy Steve Hoffman and I are both named Steve. We used to hang out a lot back in the day, and every where we went, people would say, 'Hey, it's Steve and Steve!' We decided to name this project S and S, and decided to mix up the wording a little bit, and the end result is ESSENESS. Contrary to what I've heard, rumors about the name that go around, there is no link to anything else. It's just a play on how you would say S and S! Ha ha."

Regarding the band's musical style, Steve said, "This is an all-instrumental project, and for me, a delving into the world of progressive rock. It's not metal, but myself being from a long background of metal music, you know it's in there as well! There are different styles of music that find their way into our songs, plenty of shred from myself, Steve Hoffman on bass, and our special guest drummer, Atma Anur! Atma has a long history as a session drummer for Shrapnel Records. Most here may know him from the first CACOPHONY record, or Jason Becker's first solo album, 'Perpetual Burn', or maybe even Greg Howe's debut album. . . It's a mixture of styles, so fusion fits in there. Steve and I both have a jazz education background, and he has live experience with jazz, so I can see that as fitting as well. But, it's not snobby jazz, it's still listenable! Prog rock, and shred, most definitely there in spades! There's some heavy riffing in there, some atmospheric stuff, sound-scape type stuff that we went for. We set out to have an album of instrumental music that had atmosphere, mood, and musical diversity, as well as chops, and I think we achieved all of that!"

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