While many bands on the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival are continuing their established acts, Hell or Highwater has given several musicians the chance to Begin Again, as their new album so aptly states.

The hard rock and heavy metal festival will be stopping at the Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain on Saturday, Aug. 27.

Hell or Highwater vocalist Brandon Saller is better known to many metal fans as the drummer and occasional singer of Atreyu, but with that band currently on hiatus, he was given the perfect opportunity to release songs in a different vein of rock through Black Cloud Collective. Made up of himself and friends from “random bands,” BCC eventually became HoH when he chose a permanent line-up made up of several other successful musicians.

“I just feel like it was something fun for me, something that started out as just writing music and having a good time, that turned into something that has really opened my eyes all over again to music, playing music and writing music and what it really is to be in a band,” Saller explained.

“I feel all of us are in pretty transitional periods in our lives. Everyone in the band is, like myself, taking a break from what they’ve done for a long time. Everyone’s out of other bands…Hell or Highwater, to us, is kind of like a musical awakening and I feel like all of us have the passion and the fire to make this project work no matter what. Everyone really feels that this is the band of our lives. We’re writing the music of our lifetime.”

He emphasized that while he was grateful for his musical history and the fans it has generated, he would not be relying on his past to shape his future career.

“We don’t want to have anything handed to us because of what we may have done in the past. We want this band to earn everything that it gets because of what we are, not because of what, individually, we’ve been in the past,” he said.

“I was always at the back of the stage with that security blanket in front of me. Now I’m up front…and it feels like my baby. I’ve put everything I’ve had into this band. It’s a cool perspective to be able to perform in a different way and be on stage and really let loose.”

This fresh start allowed the band to release their first record, Begin Again, on Aug. 9 independent of any record label or outside control. Their first single, Gimme Love, was released for online for free via Facebook.

“In this day and age, it’s really great to do things on your own terms. We could either spend time looking for a label and maybe not have a record out until next year or later. Luckily, we were able to do things on our own. The record that we wanted to put out exactly how we wanted to put it out is coming out right now,” he said.

HoH had a three-week “trial run” earlier this year, but Uproar will be their first major tour, making them the only unsigned band in the festival. Saller has been pleased with the response he’s received from audiences thus far and is looking forward to touring with many of his best friends in the music business.

“This music really energizes us and puts big smiles on our faces, so with anyone that’s seen us so far, it’s rubbed off on them. It’s a fun show to watch,” he enthused.

“I write lyrics that are representative of what I’m feeling and what I’m thinking, but I wrote them in a way that people can relate to them as well. I lay everything out on the line plain and simple because I feel like that way people will relate to it and maybe get the same feeling that I have.”

The album’s overarching theme not only captures this synergy, but it also seems to serve as an effective account of Hell or Highwater’s foundations as a band.

“There’s a theme that kind of peeks its head a bunch on the album – the thought of wanting more in your life and wanting better for yourself in any aspect of your life, whether it be relationships or your career or anything. I know that a lot of people these days are feeling that way. The world is kind of down in the dumps, if you will. I feel like there are a lot of songs representative of that,” Saller acknowledged.

“It’s never too late to start over. It’s never too late to do something incredible with your life.”