Steph Honde

Early life

Steph Honde was born. His love for music developed early. His first musical instrument was drums and he later started to play guitar in order to achieve his goal to become a songwriter. Honde started his music career as the frontman of the French band Mamooth.

With Café Bertrand

Honde achieved great success in France as a guitarist. He garnered a well-deserved reputation as a guitar virtuoso when playing in the French hard rock band Café Bertrand in 2004-2010. In 2006 Café Bertrand was chosen to be the opening band for the Deep Purple European leg of the Rapture of the Deep tour which included 36 dates across Europe in October and November 2006 and another 12 dates in France in March 2007. Café Bertrand played at giant stadiums such as Stade de France, with an audience capacity in excess of 80,000. In 2009 Café Bertrand was the support band for two AC/DC shows in France during the Black Ice World Tour: on 9 June 2009 at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille and on 12 June 2009 at Stade de France in Paris. In July 2009 Café Bertrand played at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Honde left Café Bertrand in 2010.

With Paul Di'Anno and The Stars

In 2010, after leaving the band Café Bertrand, Steph Honde toured with Paul Di'Anno (the original vocalist of Iron Maiden) and The Stars across France. Later in 2014, Di'Anno made a guest appearance on the album Big Trouble by Hollywood Monsters on bonus track "Fuck You All". Di'Anno chose the song himself from the number of songs suggested to him by Steph Honde.

With Hollywood Monsters

In 2012 Steph Honde emigrated to California, U.S. and started working on his own project, the band Hollywood Monsters which features legendary guest musicians. Steph Honde created the project in 2013 and is the only songwriter of the project, including the band's debut album Big Trouble. The band members are: Steph Honde (vocals, guitars), Don Airey (keyboards) (Deep Purple, previously played in Whitesnake, Gary Moore, Ozzy Osbourne, Michael Schenker Group and others), Vinny Appice (drums) (previously played in DIO, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Kill Devil Hill and others), Tim Bogert (bass) (previously played in Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, and Beck, Bogert & Appice).

Steph Honde met Don Airey in 2006 when Honde's then-current band Café Bertrand was the opening band for the Deep Purple European leg of the Rapture of the Deep tour. Tim Bogert appreciated the demo recordings suggested to him by Steph Honde and agreed to play on three tracks of the album despite the fact he had been in retirement for several years prior to the recording of the album Big Trouble. Vinny Appice plays drums on most of the tracks on the album. Steph Honde wrote the song "Village Of The Damned" as an homage to Vinny Appice before even meeting him.

Style and influences

The music genre of Steph Honde is commonly referred to as hard rock reminiscent of the 1970s, yet his songwriting was also inspired by progressive rock and heavy metal. Honde listed among his influences Iron Maiden, along with Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, The Who, Deep Purple, Marillion, Led Zeppelin.

Steph Honde's expressive vocals and guitar playing style have become Hollywood Monsters' most distinctive feature, as well as his melodic and versatile approach to songwriting which adds lush and modern touch to the classic hard rock sound. In his songs Honde fuses elements of hard rock, progressive rock and metal, and employs different arranging techniques (e.g. use of classical instruments in the song "The Ocean" from Hollywood Monsters' album Big Trouble). Honde's songwriting is highly appreciated by many of the legendary rock musicians: those who participate in his project Hollywood Monsters and those who have expressed their willingness to record on the upcoming album.

Guest appearances & other projects

In February 2015 Steph Honde made a guest appearance as a guitarist on the song "Ole Blood & Guts" (in memory of general George S. Patton) by the American metal band Age of Liberty. The song also features Darren Crisp on vocals, Tony Franklin on bass and Vinny Appice on drums.

Honde also appeared on the single Streets of Anger by AraPacis on their album System Deceive in 2015 and on the single Translucidity by AraPacis from their album Obsolete Continuum forthcoming in 2017, the song also features Vinny Appice on drums.

The Hollywood Monsters' song "Village of the Damned" from the album Big Trouble will be featured in the French action movie Kill The Nazi, due to release in 2015 by Action-Prod company.

With Café Bertrand

Honde recorded two albums with Café Bertrand: Les Airs Empruntés (2005) and L'Art délicat du Rock'N'Roll (2008). He was the sole songwriter of the latter. Both albums were critically acclaimed and commercially successful.

With Hollywood Monsters

The Hollywood Monsters' debut album Big Trouble was released in 2014 on Mausoleum Records and is being promoted by Rock N Growl Records. The release dates are: 23 May 2014 in the U.S., 8 July 2014 rest of the world (except Canada), 14 October 2014 in Canada (under the Universal Music label). The album Big Trouble features 10 tracks and a bonus track, all of which were written by Steph Honde.

Present

Hollywood Monsters are working on a new album called "Evilution" . The album will feature Steph Honde on vocals, guitars, piano and bass, Vinny Appice on Drums, Tim Bogert,Danko Jones on vocals,Neil Murray and Pascal Mulot on bass,Tracy G on guitars, Jenny Haan from Babe Ruth on vocals and Darren Crisp on vocals.

The album should be released early 2016 and will contain 12 track plus a cover of David Bowie "Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing reprise".