Rosella refines its sound

By John Benson

Whether it’s paying an actual compliment or just sucking up, the members of Cleveland rock band Rosella can’t say enough about Youngstown area audiences.

“We love Youngstown,” said Rosella singer Ben Marthey. “We’ve played at Barley’s and The Cellar. And we also did the VexFest festival last summer, which was over -the-top awesome. We hope to do that again next summer. The people there are just really open and receptive, and we always have a good time.

“It seems like people just love to go out and see music in Youngstown. I feel like they have a really strong music scene there.”

Aw, shucks. Youngstown loves Rosella man. Upon regaining our composure, it turns out the band — Marthey, Ian Leffel (guitar), P.J. Toomey (drums), Chris Dudas (guitar) and Sean Barbarotta (bass) – is now working on refining its sound. Whereas the group’s studio debut “Seasons” was a post-grunge affair that featured plenty of Stone Temple Pilots-esque riffs and imagery, the outfit has taken its music into a different direction for its sophomore effort, tentatively due out in late summer or early fall.

“I think we’ve evolved,” Marthey said. “I’d say [the post- grunge] elements are still there. And we’re kind of honing our own particular style now. It’s a newer, modern hard rock and from the top of my head I’d throw a few bands out there like Strata and Muse. One of our new songs is ‘Peripheral,’ which is, I’d say, faster paced and towards the harder end of the spectrum for us thus far.”

While 2008 was spent supporting “Seasons,” the members of Rosella have other ideas for its near future, including a return engagement Saturday at Barley’s.

“Last summer we had an album out and wanted to get around in the region and the surrounding states as much as we could,” Marthey said.

“This time around, our goal is to write and to come up with the best group of songs that we possible can. We’re really taking our time this time around. We want to make sure that what we put out is a strong representative of how we all want to be put out.”

Invariably, setting the bar high is what Marthey stresses Rosella is attempting to do with its next studio effort.

“I think it’s different in the fact that — I don’t want to say we’re veterans now but — I think as a band we’re getting more mature,” Marthey said.

“We still have obviously that drive and need to want to put out music as often as we can, but I think part of the maturity is coming into play where it’s a great drive to have but also you just don’t want to put out anything.”