Drive

There are at least 13 (!) acts with the name Drive, most of them not having had more than 1 or 2 releases, disbanding afterwards.

(1) Drive – Houston/Los Angeles, USA
Mid ‘80s-1992
One of the first bands having chosen to call themselves Drive was a five-piece progressive metal / power metal / heavy metal / hard rock band formed originally in Houston, Texas (USA) by Rick Chavez and Mercy Valdez and having released two albums, characters in time (1988) and diablero (1992).

“Drive soon found their voice in a young David Taylor, just barely out of his teens. In the mid ’80s, the band moved to Los Angeles, which was quickly becoming the epicenter of the ’80s metal scene. Winning a radio contest with their song i need the nights, Drive landed on the Best Of The West compilation that was released on Rampage Records. Rampage soon signed to band, and in July of 1988, released their debut, characters in time. The album received tremendous reviews from the industry’s top hard rock press, including the coveted 5 “K” rating from Kerrang! Magazine. The album also received solid airplay from hard rock stations around the country, including Los Angeles powerhouse, KNAC. What separated Drive from the “hair” bands of the Sunset Strip, was their intelligent lyrics, intricate musicianship, and of course, Taylor’s suburb voice that fell somewhere between Ronnie James Dio and Queensryche’s Geoff Tate. And what endeared them to true metal critics and fans alike was that they were more Iron Maiden than Poison, more Judas Priest than Winger. characters in time was followed by the more mature and sonically advanced, diablero on Zoo Records. Unfortunately, a shake-up at the label along with the dawn of the metal-killing “grunge” scene, left the album without much of a push, so the band’s recording career was put on hold as the band members moved back to Texas, where Taylor was living in recent years. While driving along a San Antonio interstate on June 25, 2009, Taylor apparently lost control of his vehicle after a tire came off, causing him to crash. He was airlifted to an area hospital where he died of his injuries five days later. He was 44.”1

According to a review of characters in time, “Vocalist David Taylor gives off an incredibly awesome performance” and “the next driving force behind this release outside of the powerful vocals is definitely the guitar work” which goes “rom catchy rockin' rhythms to rippingly fast riffs”; finally, “ans of bands like Fates Warning, early Queensryche, Heir Apparent, Crimson Glory, Lethal, early Savatage, early Vicious Rumors, etc, should look into this right away.”

(2) Drive – Liverpool, UK
1990-1992
The Liverpool-based Drive was a punk pop / hardcore / indie band founded by Iain Roche. After some singles (e.g., No Girls, go out – be happy), the EP grease girls, a Peel Sessions recording, and hundreds of shows mainly in England (in which they got to play with the likes of The Dickies, Leatherface, Mega City 4, Fugazi, Lemonheads, etc.), Drive released their first and only full-length album Out Freakage on First Strike Records in 1992.

Out Freakage, produced by Leatherface’s Frankie Stubbs was very well received by both critic and public, getting a 4 “K” rating from Kerrang! Magazine and managing to chart at number 7 in the British Independent charts. The album included 10 new tracks, such as F**k Me USA (the absolute highlight of Drive shows), as well as a cover of Nick Drake's road. First 500 LPs came with a free 7" of cover versions (Descendants’s my world and Minutemen’s This Ain’t No Picnic).

Reviewers described Drive’s music as “heavily melodic distortion” managing “to combine fun, frenzy and harmony”1, “the same runaway emoting and pop-metallic riveting as Hüsker Dü circa New Day Rising”2, and “classic punk-pop with bags of energy and melody and lots of cheerful, tuneful aggression most of it straightforward gruff-voiced guitar attack-stirring stuff”3. The vocals have been said to be “parched, frayed, and halfway toward Kurt Cobain's grit-gargled plagency” and the guitars and drums as “welded close together”

(3) Drive – UK
1993
Another UK band with the name Drive was a pop duo consisting of Melanie Guillaume and Julienne Davis. Drive released one only single on Ninja Tune in 1993, produced by Woodie Taylor and Jay Strongman and released both in the UK and Germany. The release contained four versions of the song Curfew which didn’t chart.

Melanie Guillaume went later as Melanie Blatt on to worldwide success as a member of the UK girl group All Saints. At this time (late 90s), copies of the Drive single were highly collectable.

(4) Drive – Portland/Eugene, Oregon, USA
1997-2000
Also this Drive had one only release; it was, however, a full-length album with the title Music for Interplanetary Travel, issued on Secret Decoder Records in 1999.

This alternative rock / emo rock oriented Drive was one of the projects by singers/songwriters Pamela Rooney (bass) and Adam Wayne (lead guitar), subsequent to The Betmars and previous to The Bella Fayes and Charmparticles. Further members of Drive were Shane Fisher (drums) and Tove Holmberg (violin).

“Drive formed in the Summer of 1997, began their incessant gigging by the following March, and earned a show at Portland's North by Northwest music conference by August. By Halloween of 1998, they emerged victorious over 110 other bands to claim the championship of Sonic Xplosion, a battle of the bands contest sponsored by KNRQ and The Rocket. Fielding offers from several indie labels, Drive decided to use the Sonic Xplosion prize money to create their own label, Secret Decoder Records, and release their sparkling debut LP, Music For Interplanetary Travel. Produced by Ezra Holbrook (recognized for his work on The American Girls' In the Whiskey Ya-Ya's and Lael Alderman's Slowdrag), the album is a chronicle of the band's experiences and ambition. Acclaimed among the most innovative and spellbinding live bands on the Northwest art-pop scene, Drive's unique style puts together unpredictable melodies and lyrics. Their harmonies and rhythms weave in and out of each other, but form cohesive and solid music. The combination of their musical stylings and their onstage chemistry brought about a fan base that helped them win Sonic Xplosion and pack venues in Eugene and Portland.”

Drive’s music was compared to Tanya Donelly’s2 and in the North by Northwest programme, it was described as “Constructing sonic layers with violin, guitar, bass, drums and male-female vocal interplay, deliver confident, complex songs that skirt around the alt-rock field and into a less crowded territory where art meets music and morphs into an accessible sonic treat.”

(5) Drive – Helsinki, Finland
2000-present
The Finnish Drive is an industrial metal band formed in 2000, having since then experienced some line-up changes and released one EP (Circles), a full-length album (1st Class Enemy) and one single (Burn, Break, Kill).

“In the summer of 2000, vocalist, J., met guitarist, Euge, and asked him to jam with drummer, Dallas, and himself in a try-out. The chemistry of the three musicians was instantaneous, and Euge brought his old friends, bass player I.T., and vocalist, Nico, to the next jam session. The band we now know as Drive was born. Drive played its first gig at Helsinki's legendary, Tavastia-club, only a few months after the guys first met each other. After the gig J.'s old friend, Reeo, joined the band and added in the keyboard portion that the band had in mind.”1

With this line-up and yet in 2000, Drive released the four-song EP Circles “and the video for the song Circles went straight to number one on Moon TV's Top 6 video chart show”2 (Finnish cable channel). Afterwards, they “played at festivals like Tuska and Nummirock and have received radio airplay from several different metal shows all over the world.”2 A reviewer of this EP identifies a nu metal touch in Drive’s music, above all in technical terms, since the songs are full of sound effects; this is the reason why Drive’s music is described as “synthetic sounds” or “disturbed bass”.3

Drive’s debut album 1st Class Enemy was released in 2004 on Stay Heavy Records. This album contains 10 new songs, 2 tracks from Circles, as well as a cover of The Prodigy’s hit Breathe. According to the musicians themselves, in this album “the band boldly chooses to use elements from mainstream dance pop music without prejudice.”

In the time afterwards, “Drive played some gigs but concentrated more on writing new material.”2 A preliminary result of that is the 3-song CDS Burn, Break, Kill, released in 2008 for promotional purposes. A reviewer of this single release labels Drive’s music as “hybrid metal” wildly merging black metal, death metal, thrash metal and industrial metal, “in other words: Pantera-riffs and voice with Linkin Park clean vocals & loops, Sepultura-groove and Rammstein-keyboards.4

A signature feature of Drive is the presence of two vocalists whose singing has been described as “psycho vocals” and “hardtone vocals”; for this reason, not only a parallel between Drive and Linkin Park has been drawn, but the former has also been seen as following the pioneer work of the latter.

The musicians themselves describe their music as “ass kicking metal” or “explosive metal, loops and modern industrial elements”2 and mention as their strongest influences the bands Slipknot, Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad.

Over the years, the original line-up has been repeatedly changed. Vocalist Nico Hartonen and guitarist Euge Valovirta left, in order to concentrate on their parallel band Godsplague, and were replaced with TM and Renton, respectively. The latter was later replaced with Ile and also Reeo left the band, with Demonic stepping in as “the keyboardist who gives Drive the raging metal touch.”1

(6) Drive – Toledo, USA
2002-????
The Toledo-based Drive was a five-piece band having been classed as alternative rock, indie rock, emo rock and power pop. Their music shared Weezer-like anthemic song structures and was kindred to the likes of Ozma and Nada Surf.

Drive released (at least) one full-length album, As You Wish, in 2002 when its members were 16 and 17 years old. “In order to launch their first CD, the up and coming band raised half of the $10,000 on their own from numerous appearances including the famous Harpo's Of Detroit, a Concert Carwash, and a 10 Band Local Show in which every other band played for free. Drive has repaid the favor at their bands' shows and itself played for free at other fundraisers, including a Poetry Publication Launching, Leukemia, Patch Adams M.D.(the real one) and the Mayor's First Lady of Toledo's Young Mothers event.”1

Reviewing As You Wish, producer Marshall Block of Real II Reel described the band as “musically tight, entertaining, & creative”, their music as “sophisticated ‘fuzzy guitar’ 'rock and pop' music with smart lyrics, and pleasing vocals much of which are harmonized” , and predicted that the band had “a great future ahead indeed.” 2

Drive has been said to take “a step away from Stooges-esque rock and a leap toward chunky, melodic rock (ala Weezer). Drive succeeds in reviving and revitalizing the long-dominant style of vocal harmonizing popularized by groups like the Beach Boys [or The Beatles]. Their vintage vocals are balanced out by Samuel Woldenburg’s solid drumming and Nathan Post’s soaring guitar solos, which create a textured and lively sound.”

(7) Drive – Zurich, Switzerland
2002-present
The Swiss Drive is a trio merging different genres, such as thrash metal, speed metal, nu metal, punk, alternative rock, rock’n’roll, among others.

“The band was founded in 2002 after a concert of Fabi Ann at a Biker's Club in Zurich. Josh Henen brought up the idea of recording a selection of his newest songs. After a while of growing together they decided to put the first Drive-album out in an unplugged version (2003, Drive).”1 After a long period of concerts in 2003 and 2004, the musicians started to record their 2nd album, Sympathy is a Phase, released in 2006 on T:d:M Thunderdome and including a bonus DVD with the video-clip of the title song Sympathy Is A Phase, as well as rehearsals of three songs not included in the album. Currently, the band is working at their third album to be released in the spring of 2010.

Critical reception of Sympathy Is A Phase was mixed. On the one hand, the album’s artwork, its surprising professionalism considering that it was self-produced by the band, as well as the quality of the video-clip and the rehearsals were praised. Also, Drive’s genre mixture, Josh Henen’s emotional vocals, and melodies reaching from depressive to college-rock-like to ballad-like were found to be worth listening to. On the other hand, some tracks were classed as mere similar-sounding fillers and Josh Henen’s voice was found to be very limited.

(8) Drive – Norway
2003

(9) Drive – Jakarta, Indonesia
2003-present
Drive is an Indonesian alternative rock band based in Jakarta. ( http://www.drivemaniacs.com/

(10) Drive – Chicago, USA
2003-????

(11) Drive – San Antonio, TX
2004-2011
Drive is a hard rock band based out of San Antonio, TX. They performed both original music and covers across the state of Texas. They had a single release, a self-titled album.

(12) Drive – Porto Alegre/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005-2009

(13) Drive – Boca Raton, USA
2009