April 15, 2005
The Lumberjack - Humboldt State University

"Trio to Light Up Quad: Attila & Dave Project Performs Friday"

By Oliver Symonds, Lumberjack Staff Writer

This Friday at noon the Attila and Dave Project is coming to H5L to illuminate the Quad.

Their music has been con­stantly evolving since their beginning in the late 1980s, when the band consisted solely of Attila Medveczky and Dave Stevenson. The band would play coffee shops across the Bay Area as Attila and Dave Acoustic Duo.

"We never thought of doing an acoustic duo, it was all necessity [because they didn’t have a drummer]" said Medveczky, lead vocals, bass and keyboards.

Sporadically the band would hire a drummer or keyboardist to fill in on a recording or a gig. In 1995, the band hooked up with Rusty Aceves and was finally able to obtain the talent and solidity they desired.

With the new lineup came more opportunity for improvisation and expansion.

"Rusty had a lot of loops," Medveczky said. "Rusty had a lot of ideas for us."

Medveczky has expanded his on-stage equipment from an acoustic bass to electric bass, electric piano, bass pedals, two or three synthesizers and more.

"It's a strange situation between all these instruments." Medveczky said. "It's three guys doing the job of five."

The Project doesn't have any particular genre, which is both good and bad, according to Medveczky. It allows them to expand and explore as a band, however it also excludes them from certain scenes and also prospective labels who only cater to specific genres.

"We never set for a definite idea of our style," Medveczky said. "It's unfortunate because it's made it hard for us to do things a band can do. If you're a jam band you can play at shows intended for jam bands."

Medveczky described his music as "mildly experimental music" but not as limited as that.

"We're really getting into sampling things;' Medveczky said. Sampling is taking pieces from different audio tracks and combining them to create a new

"It's always getting more mature;" Medveczky said. Medveczky grew up surrounded by classical and jazz as opposed to Stevenson, who exhausted himself in the Bay Area punk rock scene. The addition of Rusty brought a lot of jazz, funk and rock influences.

It's apparent that artists such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Miles Davis have influenced the Project and assisted them in painting such rhythmic soundscapes in their music.

The addition of Aceves prompted the release of their first full-length CD, Songs of Innocence & Experience in 1996. The compilation is essentially re-recordings from their earlier days transformed into something new due to the new band lineup.

"It was artificially made electric with Rusty stuck in," Medveczky said. "It was a weird Frankenstein kind of thing."

A very shocking and different experience than one might expect if they had viewed the band live at one of their acoustic shows.

In 1999, Attila and Dave Project headed back to the recording studio to work on their second full-length album, Lifeline. The album contained all new tracks; pure Attila_, Dave and Rusty originals.

Their most recent album, Illuminated, completely captures and portrays the talent of this trio. It carries the unearthly, psychedelic sounds of Pink Floyd as well as the heavy rock styles of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

However, underneath all the synthesizers and smooth melodies, lie very big social and ideological questions about society.

"We like to ask the questions rather than give our answers and opinions." Medveczky said. "Get people thinking about the issues and having them come up with their own answers to them."

The Project is currently working on their next album expected to be released early next year.

"We have a lot of songs and we have a concept;' Medveczky said. "The trick is figuring out how to fund it."

The band is going to be playing songs from all their albums including unreleased material. They will also be doing a live set on KMUD, Saturday at 4 p.m.