Riff Playbooks

Riff Playbooks: Luke Hoskin and 15 Years of Fortress

posted February 17, 2023

Riff Playbooks: Luke Hoskin and 15 Years of Fortress

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Protest the Hero's album "Fortress", we punished Luke by convincing him to sit down and relive some dusty old riffs! He chose to rip his way through three examples from the song "The Dissentience". You'll find videos below of all three sections, both up-to-speed and slowed down. We thought it would be helpful for us to provide you with the corresponding tabs, and Luke insisted we give you the entire song transcription - you can grab that right HERE!

We always try to ask our artists some probing questions before they head off. You'll find that video interview at the bottom of the page!

Here's Luke with some thoughts about the song:

"The Dissentience" was the first song we wrote for Fortress, which dates it back a lot farther than 15 years (I am clearly just trying to justify my grey beard here). We took our time when writing Fortress - holing ourselves up in a little rehearsal spot in Toronto for the better part of a year. It was the first time we approached writing music as a job - 5 days a week, 8 hours a day (broken up often with a daily lunch-adventure to Dufferin Mall of course). I remember it being really exciting at the time, and I couldn't wait to get in there each day to see what we'd dream up. We had improved at our craft since releasing Kezia and I think we were eager to prove it. The Dissentience is what happens when you take an album on the road for way too long, and are really eager to write something that represents you "now", rather than when Kezia came out three years prior.
I still have fun playing these riffs, and hearing them again always gives me a sense of wonder about what in the world we were thinking at the time."

Section A: Bars 1-9 in "Fortress - The Complete Guitar Transcription"