What happened to Next?

[saucyjackstl]

Years ago there was this site called Amy Street or something like that where bands could sell their music online and prices escalated based on demand. A few member out here put their MP3s out there and I remember trying to support what I saw (I'm not often on this site).

One of the bands I bought and recently re-listened to was a band called Next. The song Eureka, I am a wild Animal, and If I were You are still on my IPOD.

I remember that they changed names almost immediately after putting these songs out there. Eureka was awesome and the other 2 very good (even with the cheesy lyrics of I am an Animal. But I have no memory of who they are now or even if they released anything else.

[Jefferson James]

Years ago there was this site called Amy Street or something like that where bands could sell their music online and prices escalated based on demand. A few member out here put their MP3s out there and I remember trying to support what I saw (I'm not often on this site).

One of the bands I bought and recently re-listened to was a band called Next. The song Eureka, I am a wild Animal, and If I were You are still on my IPOD.

I remember that they changed names almost immediately after putting these songs out there. Eureka was awesome and the other 2 very good (even with the cheesy lyrics of I am an Animal. But I have no memory of who they are now or even if they released anything else.

Saucy, "Next" changed their name to "Mars Hollow" and put out two albums on 10T records, self-titled in 2010 and "World in Front of Me" in 2012.

The drummer and I quit in June 2012 and formed "Heliopolis", released an album in 2014 ("City of the Sun" 10T Records) and a live album this year ("Heliopolis Epic at the Majestic: Live at RoSFest" on Bad Elephant Music).

I used the plug the fuck out of Mars Hollow back in the day and I caught enough flack for it to realize it's not worth it, so with Heliopolis I haven't done any real self-promo, but if you like MH you may very well like Heliopolis. Helio, I think, is a bit more muso and heavier but still melodic "classic rock" style prog.

All the Heliopolis and Mars Hollow stuff is out there on YouTube, if you want anything else let me know. I look back at the "Next" demos with great fondness, that was a great time in my life! Thanks man!

[aith01]

Hey, I liked both Mars Hollow discs quite a bit actually! Yet I'm ashamed to admit I haven't picked up City of the Sun yet. I've heard one of the tunes from it and liked it, so I marked it for later but then forgot to follow up.

It's going on my list now. And if it's on Spotify, I'm going to revisit it tonight.

Thanks for the reminder, Saucy!

Edit: Listening to City of the Sun on Spotify now, and I think I'm going to like this one a lot. There's a certain "sunniness" almost, that reminds me of Moth Vellum (R.I.P.).

Kerry, who is your keyboard player in Heliopolis?

[Jefferson James]

Hey, I liked both Mars Hollow discs quite a bit actually! Yet I'm ashamed to admit I haven't picked up City of the Sun yet. I've heard one of the tunes from it and liked it, so I marked it for later but then forgot to follow up.

It's going on my list now. And if it's on Spotify, I'm going to revisit it tonight.

Thanks for the reminder, Saucy!

Edit: Listening to City of the Sun on Spotify now, and I think I'm going to like this one a lot. There's a certain "sunniness" almost, that reminds me of Moth Vellum (R.I.P.).

Kerry, who is your keyboard player in Heliopolis?

Thanks and for God's sake, don't feel any shame whatsoever about not hearing Heliopolis or any of the 1,453,534 bands out there releasing product! No one can keep up with all of it, I have a hard time just keeping up with Neal Morse's output.

Anything I'm involved with musically is likely going to have that "sunny" quality, I just prefer chords and chord changes that somehow reflect the quality of lightness, so thanks for mentioning that. I loved Moth Vellum and so the comparison is very much appreciated (check out the follow-up band Perfect Beings).

Helio is lucky to have a fantastic musician in Matt Brown lending his imagination and talent on the keyboards and 1st backing vocalist (I wanna get him on a lead vocal some time). The recent live album is a showcase of what the band can do on stage and Matt's a big part of what happens when we "go off" live. Matt has a knack for improvising and sometimes the band follows him and we go somewhere completely unexpected.

I feel like Heliopolis has gigantic potential as a songwriting unit and even though I recently moved 100 miles away, we're still kicking it. In two weeks we go into the studio to record a 20+ minute suite we've built over the last year. We've kicked the tires and she's ready to hit the road.

Let me also suggest Helio members Scott Jones and Mike Matier's band Box of Shamans and their album "Belief and Illusion." It's seriously kick-ass and who knows, maybe Box of Shamans are putting a live thing together?

Thanks again!

[aith01]

Thanks and for God's sake, don't feel any shame whatsoever about not hearing Heliopolis or any of the 1,453,534 bands out there releasing product! No one can keep up with all of it, I have a hard time just keeping up with Neal Morse's output.

Anything I'm involved with musically is likely going to have that "sunny" quality, I just prefer chords and chord changes that somehow reflect the quality of lightness, so thanks for mentioning that. I loved Moth Vellum and so the comparison is very much appreciated (check out the follow-up band Perfect Beings).

Helio is lucky to have a fantastic musician in Matt Brown lending his imagination and talent on the keyboards and 1st backing vocalist (I wanna get him on a lead vocal some time). The recent live album is a showcase of what the band can do on stage and Matt's a big part of what happens when we "go off" live. Matt has a knack for improvising and sometimes the band follows him and we go somewhere completely unexpected.

I feel like Heliopolis has gigantic potential as a songwriting unit and even though I recently moved 100 miles away, we're still kicking it. In two weeks we go into the studio to record a 20+ minute suite we've built over the last year. We've kicked the tires and she's ready to hit the road.

Let me also suggest Helio members Scott Jones and Mike Matier's band Box of Shamans and their album "Belief and Illusion." It's seriously kick-ass and who knows, maybe Box of Shamans are putting a live thing together?

Thanks again!

Thanks for the response!

I loved Moth Vellum as well -- became the soundtrack to my spring/summer in 2008. In fact, I think it was around the time I found out about Moth Vellum that I came across the MySpace page for Next. Followed that up through the name change to Mars Hollow and got the debut when it came out. Ah, nostalgia...

Perfect Beings are very good, but don't quite capture the same feeling for me.

Exciting to hear about the new music you guys are working on too. I'm glad that you're still making music in spite of the physical distance -- gives me something else to look forward to. I think I'm gonna scoop up those two Heliopolis discs in the meantime. And I will check out Box of Shamans too. Thanks for the suggestion!