95Hyde

Motorsports daredevil Travis Pastrana has recruited Marblehead's own modern rock band, 95Hyde, to work on music for his upcoming film, "Action Figures."

The film, due out in December, is an action-sports-based music video that tells the story of how extreme sports began, from building ramps to testing tricks and progressing the different sports, according to a press release.

Pastrana is the cousin of 95Hyde's lead singer and bassist Jessica Prouty, whom locals might recognize from the Jessica Prouty Band. Her namesake group morphed into 95Hyde after Jon Suh and Jansen Manning, who are both students at Berklee College of Music with Prouty, joined her and the band's longstanding drummer Cam Pelkey. They replaced two guitarists who had left the band to relocate and pursue other musical interests.

"It started as the Jessica Prouty Band because I was the one writing most of the music at the time, and it was just me at the start. Now it's these band members that really have an equal part in the music," Prouty said.

Prouty and Pelkey had met Suh back in 2011 at a teen band competition in Anaheim, Calif. At the competition, Suh's band Peligro, which is Spanish for "danger," won first place, and the Jessica Prouty Band was the runner-up. Suh, Pelkey and Prouty also received awards for best guitar player, best drummer and best vocalist, respectively.

"So it was kind of like a super group thing developed," Prouty said.

Then she and Suh were reunited as Berklee students. When he heard that they were looking for a guitarist, he was eager to apply.

"I was just sick of... going to a music school and not playing shows, like it's the worst feeling," he said. "You're literally going to school to play music, but you're not playing music in front of people. So I really needed something."

Suh joined the band in December 2013.

Manning found out about the other open guitar spot from a Facebook post in a Berklee group. He sent in a video, and Prouty was impressed. He soon won the other spot.

The name 95Hyde combines two references. The "95" refers to Interstate 95, which represents the band's busy tour schedule and faraway gigs that require long hours on the highway. "Hyde" refers to the popular book "The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde," which juxtaposes Dr. Jeckyll, a well-to-do doctor, and Mr. Hyde, a lunatic. Suh explained how people in the rock scene can sometimes be perceived as bad or misunderstood like Mr. Hyde, and that the name gives the band an "edgy kind of feel."

According to Prouty, their modern hard rock band could be compared to Halestorm and Heart, which are both female-fronted rock bands.

"I feel like it's Heart and AC/DC and... Guns 'N Roses. If they all got together, that would be kind of the feel," she added.

Earlier this month, Prouty received an email from Pastrana saying that he was looking for music for his new film and that he had listened to some Jessica Prouty songs. Before they knew it, the four band members were packed up and on their way to Maryland to compose music with him. The nine-hour drive was worth it.

The musicians arrived at a mansion - it was featured on MTV's show "Cribs" - that included a huge warehouse-type space that was filled with skateboard ramps, dirt bikes and a foam pit for safe landing. During the trip, each member - except for Prouty - took a turn jumping from 30-foot-high rafters into the foam pit. Pelkey even did a flip on the way down.

"You go into this dude's house and no matter what kind of person you are... you end up turning into an extreme sports animal because you're just like around all this stuff," Pelkey said.

Making the song with Pastrana was fun, too.

"He was going over, like, specifically, verbally... what he wanted and what the scenes were gonna look like and from there we worked out the sounds," Prouty said. "Most of the time he was like, 'Aw that's awesome!' But then he added a lot to the music, too."

The film follows Pastrana and his team, Nitro Circus, as they perform extreme stunts and attempt to break world records.

95Hyde stayed at Pastrana's house for three days, composing one song and contributing another. Their song "Guts and Glory" will be featured on this film.

Suh compared the music to a school bus crashing off a ramp. Prouty changed it to a food truck "filled with your favorite food, and it's all just spilling everywhere."

"It's basically just heavy modern rock," Pelkey said. The music will be available by December, when the film is released.

"Working with 95Hyde was such a relief for me," wrote Travis Pastrana in a press release. "They were able to build a song exactly how I needed it in no time at all."

You can follow 95Hyde at www.95Hyde.com or on their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/95Hyde. - Marblehead Reporter 11/10/14