CLEVELAND — They won’t be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this weekend, and they won’t be walking down the red carpet. But what the members of a local band will be doing is an achievement all the same.
The essence of rock is less about the strings and more about the soul.
For Bill Sanchez, each riff has been a step in his journey.
“It's not about playing live. It's not about trying win over a bunch of fans or dominate the world in music. I'm 45 now. I don't know that I care about that like I did maybe 20 years ago. I care about creating music that inspires someone else to create something,” Sanchez said. “This album is about eight years in the making now.”
In his basement studio with his bass guitar, he can strum and sequence entire melodies and eventually, entire songs. Because these days inspiration has no expiration date.
“I’m putting together parts from years ago and I’m putting together parts from new ideas that I’ve constructed now. What I’m finding is that it's almost creating a new sound and I like that,” Sanchez said.
Although new, the sound is still distinctly progressive rock, but how it’s made is what's notable. The band's newest record has largely been made remotely
“This is nice because I get to piece all this together, I sent it to our drummer. He's going to program his ideas and send them back to me and eventually we'll lay them down in the studio,” Sanchez said.
As individuals, they were six musicians. Together, they formed the band Ceterum.
Jason Broussard was its drummer.
“Did the military thing after school, went off and met bill and started writing music,” Broussard said.
Broussard and Sanchez met in 2001. The rest of the band came together four years later. After releasing an EP and then a full-length album, the band broke up nearly a decade ago.
But for Sanchez, music was always his passion. And these are the rhythms that have led him through the years since the last album. But the drought is finally over.
Sanchez, Broussard and another former member of Ceterum released a new EP this month under a new band named Tranzhumanist.
“We made it come together all in the midst of this pandemic. Here is this sadness and all these things happening in the world, but for us, we came upon an incredible opportunity,” Sanchez said.
Every riff has been a step in the journey, and what a journey it has been.
“I think that's the ultimate goal is just to create something that we were proud of, share it with the world and see where it lands. And we're not done. We have a lot of music in the bullpen so to speak,” Sanchez said.
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
