Bands under the AOR and melodic rock umbrella are in pretty plentiful supply as of late. Frontiers Records alone seems to churn out a new AOR “supergroup” or project weekly, and it’s sometimes tough to discern one Band from the next.
The best artists in the genre not only have the songs but the sound to separate themselves from the pack. Eclipse, Work Of Art, Palace, Nestor, Chez Kane and The Defiants are solid examples of bands flying the flag for quality AOR, but the best of all just might be Swedish melodic rock crusaders, Houston.
Since 2010, Houston has been a study in catchy, vintage AOR harkening back to the glory days of Survivor, Foreigner, Bryan Adams and Journey. If it seems like singer Hank Erix sounds like the second coming of Jimi Jamison, that’s almost precisely what he’s going for. Yet Erix and Houston seamlessly combine the best parts of Jamison and Survivor with a host of other influences to create a vintage AOR style that’s still somehow their own.
“We figured, nothing sounds like the things we listen to,” Erix said of Houston’s origins in the genre. “Bands try to do it, and then they make it sound so modern, it just doesn’t work for us. So we said, ‘Let’s try to make it more retro.’”
Houston has just released their seventh full-length effort, “Relaunch III,” and it boasts another 11 tracks of effortless AOR. The band has four original albums, Houston I, II, III and VI, and their “Relaunch” series mixes their own material with covers of mostly obscure, unknown AOR gems. Previously, the band’s highly successful cover of Dakota’s “Runaway” prompted Dakota to reunite and record a new studio album. Houston has also tore up stages live at Sweden Rock, Download Festival and Rock of Ages, and they frequently top “Best Of” AOR lists whenever they release something new.
Erix recently talked about the band’s new album, history, paying homage to AOR greats and more in this Web Is Jericho exclusive.
Let’s get to know Houston with some fast facts.
Houston is filling a need for vintage AOR. “We released the debut album in 2010. Everything AOR in recent years that has come out has been some weird, modern hybrid of AOR and melodic rock. All the AOR we listen to like Survivor, Jimi Jamison, Journey, early Foreigner, all of those and also west coast AOR like Toto and other west coast AOR bands that people haven’t heard of, I think we hit a spot in the vintage, AOR rock sound. People come and people go (in Houston) like in most bands. But for the longest time it’s been me and (guitarist) Calle Hammar as the main songwriters along with the producers we work with.”
The band pays homage quite frequently to their heroes, and they did it specifically for their 2021 song, “Hero.” “I wrote the song “Hero” for the last record, Houston IV. I have a part that is the same melody as “I See You In Everyone” by Survivor. I like that you mention it like that, because yes, there are little homages to the artists we love in our songs.”
Houston hopes to one day play the Monsters Of Rock Cruise. “I’m surprised we haven’t been approached yet. I actually wrote them, and said it would be a dream come true to play. Other bands in our style from our home country, Eclipse and Nestor and Crazy Lixx, they all played. I think we would fit really well, but also because we do something different than other bands.”
“Relaunch III” was built around two songs written with Mike Palace. “We recorded ‘Do You Believe’ before we recorded Houston IV. It was supposed to be on Houston IV, but we couldn’t agree on what songs to include, so we had to take it out. We waited with that, so we added it for this album. Mike Palace, he wrote ‘Do You Believe’ with our guitarist Karl. People liked the song, and it streamed pretty well, so we asked him to write a follow-up, which was ‘Live Forever.’ It’s been finished for ages as well, so we kind of built the album around those two songs.
Catchy album closer “Running Back” was included via suggestion from AOR fans as well as Frontiers Records. “’Running Back’ is a cover from a band called Urgent. I asked a few of the AOR nerds out there that I know what we should include for ‘Relaunch III,” and I got a few suggestions. It was also a suggestion from Frontiers who thought it would fit us perfectly. It’s not that far away from The Wknd or some of the retro pop artists out there, but there’s little more teeth to it.”
“Outrageous” shows that while the band is certainly melodic, they also can rock. “I wanted to do something with more teeth. It doesn’t have to be heavy or metal for it to sound evil or dark. I used to joke about it, we want to show that the kitty has claws. Everybody thinks we’re so damn soft, but we do have claws, and we like to show them sometimes. And that’s what we wanted to do with ‘Outrageous,’ and the same with cover we did of ‘Heart Of Stone’ (Originally by Blackjack and written by Bruce Kulick and Michael Bolton). We wanted to show we can do that stuff as well.”
Erix likes to mix up Houston’s setlist. “We were discussing the setlist for the record release party. We want to do “Power Over Me” (from the new album, originally by Atlantic). We also did an acoustic version as a Japanese bonus track, and my vocals actually came out much better on the acoustic version for some reason, so I’m looking forward to doing it live acoustically. We do have many strong songs from Houston III, which was an album many of the older fans didn’t like as much. They didn’t see the Bryan Adams feel that we wanted to bring. But song wise and vocal wise it’s really cool. We have ‘Twelve-Step,’ which is a great song that I want to put in the set again. My all time favorite to play live is ‘Talk To Me,’ from Houston II. I think it’s very strong lyric-wise, and deserves more attention than it has gotten. ‘Runaway’ (from ‘Relaunch,’ originally by Dakota) is our most streamed song, so that’s the one we always have to play. And there’s a lot from the first album we feel we have to play, but I like to switch it up a bit. I actually put in ‘I’m Alive’ into the setlist, and we haven’t played that since 2011.”
Speaking of Bryan Adams, “Into Thin Air” from Houston IV pays homage to “Summer Of 69” but also a few other rock legends. “The way the song is structured, it’s like telling a story. ‘Into Thin Air’ is an old song of mine. It kind of became a mix between Bryan Adams and “Be Good To Yourself” by Journey. And there are Survivor vibes there as well. But my No. 1 reference for it is actually “I’ll Do Anything For Love” by Meatloaf.”
When melodic rock and AOR legends call it a career, Houston hopes to carry the torch for the genre. “Most of the other bands still out there could be our fathers. But I’m trying to just continue to make quality AOR music. The legends when they die, someone has to fill their place, so there must be space for us sometime.”
