Inside House Of Protection: Bad Omens' Explosive Support Act

House of Protection, a super-duo of sorts, have been labelled a ‘fresh of breath air for heavy music’ and might just be the next big thing in the alternative scene. You may have seen House of Protection’s name circling around Australia recently, as they’re currently making their live debut down under supporting heavy music juggernauts Bad Omens with Poppy this week.

The duo is Stephen Harrison and Aric Improta, formerly two thirds of Fever 333, they’re signed to Red Bull Records, backed and produced by legendary producer and ex-Bring Me The Horizon keyboardist Jordan Fish and are featured on track 5, ‘Brain Dead’ on Architects‘ upcoming album The Sky, The Earth & All Between, out Friday, 28th February.

House of Protection – ‘Pulling Teeth’

House of Protection launched earlier this year with their debut EP GALORE, featuring six impressive songs that have established the duo as ones to watch. The band bridge the not-so-disparate worlds of hardcore, electronica, and punk for boundless creativity and a community fuelled by chaos. Music Feeds sat down with the pair ahead of their shows with Bad Omens to chat about their craft and what’s to come…

Music Feeds: Hey mates! Great to be chatting with you both. For the uninitiated, who is House of Protection, how did you form, and who do you work with?

Aric: House of Protection is a collaboration between me and Steve, but also two of our best friends Jordan Fish and Nick Depirro. They’ve been a big part of the writing process. Initially it was like, “how do we do something that’s going to sound different than anything we’ve done in the past?” but at the same time maintain the energy that we love to bring to the stage. And so through a bunch of weird demos and us kind of guessing and having fun, we ended up with the song ‘It’s Supposed to Hurt; and then from there, we just kept guessing. We’re still figuring it out and we’re still in the middle of playing shows we want to do, but it’s been a very fun process and probably one of the most creatively surprising things I’ve ever done in my life!

MF: What song would you suggest for a first time listener to begin their journey with the band?

Stephen: I would say listen to ‘It’s Supposed to Hurt’

Aric: Yeah, I agree.

MF: You mentioned Jordan Fish as a part of the writing process. What does the timeline look like from demo to release? How does Jordan help mold your sound?

Stephen: I mean, Aric, Nick and I have been working together for a while and Jordan would hit me up every now and then asking how it was going. And then one day he was like, “If you’d be down to let me help out, that would be very cool.” And I was like, “Yeah man!” – I respect his work a lot.

Aric: When we first sent him ‘It’s Supposed to Hurt’, it was a very band-sounding demo. We knew we wanted more electronic elements, but we just kind of created from what we knew. And then Jordan had a couple structure ideas and some production and all of a sudden, he was like, “Oh, this is what it’s supposed to sound like.” And then we were just writing a bunch after that, and we made the video. Steve sent the video to Jordan and I think after that, Jordan was like, “Okay, let’s get in the studio.” So then it was me, Nick, Steve, and Jordan locked up at this Airbnb in LA for a week, and we wrote the rest of the EP that week. Every day was new. Every day started with a weird loop that Jordan had built, or a riff that Steve had and because they were so different from each other, there was nothing to fall back on. It was a lot of us trying everything we could and not setting any limitations and it came together so easy, it was almost like a fluke, like I don’t know if that’s ever gonna happen again, but that week was fucking sick and the speed it took, like it just all fell together. Really fucking fun. [Jordan] is such a strong influence and has so many good ideas and opinions. But at the same time, we come from different backgrounds so we meet in this weird middle ground that upon initial writing sometimes doesn’t sound like it’s going to make sense, but we always find a way to get there at the end.

MF: Having worked together on a couple of different music projects now, tell us a bit about your dynamic and how you inspire each other?

Stephen: I feel like we’re just so similar in a lot of ways and also so different in a lot of ways that it’s kind of like this perfect storm. Beyond respect for each other as artists and being a fan of each other’s styles, I think the things that we see eye to eye on are so crucial. And they’re sometimes not even things that perhaps you would think to seek out in a collaborator, like some of the things are just what we value – from the things that get us excited like sports, skateboarding, basketball and, like, nostalgia. I feel like we have a lot of the same views on things that we did and watched and listened to growing up that we can kind of draw from. I feel like we’re both observers at heart. I think that being able to work with someone who grew up observing and really paying attention to the details of things and being able to be in a moment, even as a kid, and knowing that you’re in a specific moment is special and it’s very unique.

But also we’re very different in a lot of ways. Even down to the shit we’re into, it allows us to come to each other with unique ideas that the other wouldn’t have even considered.

MF: Sounds like you have shared lived experiences but are also able to balance each other out..

Aric: Definitely. We literally have these conversations where, I know this is a cliche but – the core memory will get unlocked and we’ll be like, “Oh my god, I forgot about that feeling.” And then whatever that is can determine a whole song or a whole theme for an album. And most people you jam with, they’re like, “Okay yeah cool, but what chords do you want to use?” or “Okay yeah, but what are we gonna do here?” And for us, almost none of it really starts from a traditionally musical place, so to find somebody that’s interested in exploring that side of artistic interpretation is pretty rare… There’s times where it feels like we’re thinking about the music video as much as we’re thinking about the song that we’re writing and that really does sort of put things in a completely different realm as far as the direction that it ends up.

MF: Speaking of music videos, the ‘Pulling Teeth’ clip – How did that come together? Why did you choose to fly to India and film in the Well of Death? Was there a reaction to seeing Hanumankind’s video for ‘Big Dawgs’ being filmed in the same location around the same time?

Stephen: So I had the idea to film in the Well of Death, like, over a decade ago but haven’t really been in a project to do it and have it make sense. And so with Red Bull Records and their support, they were just down to help us out and make it happen. There are other wells of death in the States, but they’re not really the same. Like there’s motorcycles and things like that, but it’s not as big, and we needed the size of the well to be big enough for the cars, and that’s a very uniquely Indian thing. We played India in the past so we know the vibes. We had friends on the ground who could help us make it happen. It’s kind of hilarious how abysmal the timing was with the release of that video.

Aric: Also for the record, I think what was most crushing is that we shot it four months ahead, and that video came out like four weeks before ours. So we were also sitting on the footage trying to match a schedule for release but sitting there going, “Oh my god!”. We literally had everything sitting there just waiting, but at the same time, it’s like, you can’t control that shit. There’s not very many videos I’ve ever shot in my life that could come close to that one. And in the end, so many things could have gone wrong – somebody could have lost a leg. These drivers are amazing, but like, one of the motorcycles literally died while we were filming as it was coming down from the wall. So there’s just so many things that went right for us that you have to focus on the positives and feel proud of the fact that we were able to accomplish that. And we had so much help from our friends. It wouldn’t have happened without our incredible team on the ground, and our friend Kevin that came out and made shit happen. He was literally throwing up while filming.

MF: 2024 has been a huge debut year for you guys. Has there been any highlights or any moments that have exceeded your expectations?

Stephen: Everything really. Like, everything. I’ve said before in the past that we’ve been working on this for so long that you forget that it’s going to be out for the world to listen to and enjoy so when that happens and people dig it, it’s like, “This is crazy.” I don’t know, the whole thing has exceeded all of my expectations.

Aric: This sounds funny, but we like, imagine a lot of shit. We’ll just sit there on a long drive to practice and be like, “what if we played in a well of death?” “What if we had a flamethrower?” There’s so many things that we just throw out there and somehow with the amazing team that we have with our label supporting us, with Kevin directing, with Nick doing demos, with Jordan producing. Almost everything that we set out to do happened pretty quickly. I mean, it felt like a long build up to getting everything to actually start rolling, but once the song launched and we actually started filming, it was like, “geez, dude.” There’s so many ways that any of those things could have just not happened. We feel really grateful for that… It just really felt like our team and everyone on our side made whatever they could happen. It’s amazing.

MF: Well with that, obviously you’re very creative, always thinking beyond just the music, How do you spend time unwinding? Do you have hobbies outside of music that offer that balance from all the creativity?

Aric: Steve’s better at unwinding than I think I am. I do it with House of Protection and Night Verses – I think sometimes I need two bands because it can get a little exhausting for me to be calling Steve three times a day being like, “Yo. What if we do this? What do we do this? Or do this?” So my downtime is either drawing or hanging with my wife, but that’s it. I feel really lucky that I’m in a band with all my best friends, and we just get to make shit all the time. I would love to just do that until I die.

Stephen: My favorite thing to do is run. I love running. Distance running. I mean, I work out a lot now, just kind of with shows in mind. But running for me is really just like a mental thing. Makes me feel better. I’m not a runner so much as a guy who likes to run a lot. There’s technical things and posture and stuff that I need to work on, but like, that’s my favorite thing to do outside of music. I also collect things. I collect Pokemon cards and graphic novels. I skate every now and then but the first two are my biggest things.

MF: If you could create a custom House of Protection Pokemon, what type would it be? Would it have any certain powers or attacks? What would it look like?

Stephen: So my favorite Pokemon ever is Dragonite, and most of my other favorite Pokemon are just legendaries like Celebi and things like that. Basically, I like Pokemon that are strong that don’t necessarily look strong. Like Dragonite kind of looks strong, but compared to some of the other ones he’s not menacing looking, but he is stronger than that. I think they call him a pseudo legendary, because he may as well be. So I feel like we’re giving like a psychic dragon. Definitely some kind of flying ability, definitely emphasis on flight and speed. I wouldn’t give it too much physical fighting strength, but more so just psychic strength and speed. I think that would probably be its strong suit.

MF: Love that. So. You’ve obviously been over here before. How have you found Australian audiences in the past? Do you feel like it’ll be different this time around playing as House of Protection?

Aric: I mean, Australian audiences are awesome. I hope they’re the same, they’re fucking into it from the first song. It’s the best.

Stephen: Yeah, I love Australian crowds. It really is a whole different kind of show goer down there. I feel like it’s like a different sort of DNA, really. I mean, you’ve got a bunch of people who live in one of the nuttiest places in the world and are surviving day to day with animals that are four times the size they are anywhere else in the world and are actively trying to kill them. I saw a video of a 9-foot Kangaroo the other day. So I just feel like if you live in Australia, and that’s your day-to-day, you’re just surviving this insane wildlife climate. And then you go to a heavy music show, it’s like, yeah of course you’re gonna be nuts because Australia is so unhinged in the best way.

MF: Have you guys had much time to explore Australia previously? Is there anywhere you’d like to see and visit?

Aric: I really want to go to the Gold Coast. That’s the one place I’ve heard is amazing that I haven’t gotten to see. I’ve heard it’s incredible. And then the first time I ever went to Australia was in 2014 and we got to go to Perth, and I’ve never been back, but Perth was incredible.

MF: Are there any Australian bands that you’ve been enjoying or listening to lately?

Stephen: Ocean Grove for me, they’re really good!

Aric: I just toured with Plini [with Night Verses] in the US, and they were fucking incredible every night. And they haven’t put out anything in a while – but I loved Karnivool. I think I saw that they’re in the studio. Maybe I’m wrong. But literally, anything they put out, I’ll probably just listen to over and over, playing in Night Verses I try to write music in that kind of vein. Australia has a lot of really, really good drummers.