Rose Hill Drive perseveres

July 16, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Stone Temple Pilots tour

Perseverance and a little bit of luck is what led rock act Rose Hill Drive to get the opening slot on the current Stone Temple Pilots tour, which rolls through the area for a show Tuesday at Classic Park in Eastlake and an Aug. 10 date at Trib Total Media Amphitheatre at Station Square in Pittsburgh.

“Stone Temple Pilots was playing in Aspen and during their soundcheck, the sound guy was blasting one of our tunes,” said Rose Hill Drive singer-bassist Jacob Sproul, calling from Boulder, Colo. “Stone Temple Pilots brothers Robert and Dean [DeLeo] both latched onto it. The soundman said we were this local band. They were like, ‘Holy [expletive], we really like these guys.’ Now simultaneously, we had been trying to get on that show. So when Dean inquired about us to Stone Temple Pilots’ management, he learned we were trying to get on shows with STP. Almost immediately they set up the tour.”

These events took place this past spring, leading to a run of dates that how have been extended into the summer. For Rose Hill Drive, the timing couldn’t have been better with the recent release of the group’s new CD “Americana.” Sproul feels as though the group is about to enter its second chapter. After releasing its 2006 self-titled debut and 2008’s “Moon is the New Earth,” the group returned from a two-year hiatus and expanded from a power trio into a full-blown rock quartet.

The result is a sound Sproul likes to call a new old-school wave of rock similar in mind-set to The Vines, Supergrass and The Racounteurs.

Sproul points to new songs such as the funky “Telepathic” and the epic “Birthdays and Breakups” as defining the band’s sound.

“I think as far as a new vision and sound, we’re just more honed in on what our creative possibilities are,” Sproul said. “It’s not necessarily a deliberate direction as much as it is deliberately trying to be the best that we can be.”

Now it should be noted in 2007 the outfit was billed as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s “10 New Artists To Watch.” While one could argue that momentum went for naught – even though the group opened for the likes of The Who, The Black Crowes, Queens of the Stone Age, Van Halen, Gov’t Mule, Jane’s Addiction and Aerosmith, it hasn’t found mainstream success – the singer doesn’t see it that way.

He quantifies the experience in a clich d fashion of everything happening for a reason but also doesn’t close the door on history repeating itself. Perhaps “Americana” will propel the band over the hump.

“Just for the mere public exposure that helped us and is still helping us because it’s press,” Sproul said. “It was like something that was out there and so our name is familiar to anybody who saw that. And in a sense the whole stigma of Bands to Watch can be a bit daunting but also just a bit unrealistic. Generally speaking as far as life, I think anything can be hyped and over-hyped, and that doesn’t necessarily give a true analysis of what is actually going on with the band or with anything.”

After a lengthy pause, he added, “I was glad that it happened and it helped us for what it was. I think if that happens again it would be really funny and really cool.”