I Am Because We Are - Interview, April 2011

Directly from the Danish underground metal scene, Metal Music Archives bring you an interview with up-and-coming underground metalcore act I Am Because We Are. The band consists of Ylle (vocals), Frederik (guitars), Joachim (guitarist), Bahrt (bass), and Oliver (drums), and they all chime in as we discuss the band's style of metalcore, their past, and future as well as what makes good metalcore, plus the guys give us an insider's perspective on the Danish underground metalcore scene.

How would you describe your style of music?

Ylle: Personally, I would define our musical style as melodic and filled with many complex guitar riffs, as well as a deep, mean bass to go with some heavy drums.

Oliver: Unique!

 

Those of your tracks that I have heard are generally very heavy and groovy but there also seems to be a dose of both melody and noise rock elements to your music. Do you consciously aim at creating balance between heaviness, groove, noise and melody?

Frederik: I love the mix between heaviness and melody. August Burns Red and Parkway Drive are great examples. We are aiming for a breakdown where you can head bang and at the same time get an 'ear-gasm' from a melodic riff.

Joachim: I do not have a recipe for our composition, but we are definitely trying to get a balance between our fast melody riffs and our heavy breakdowns to not bore the listeners.

How would you describe I Am Because We Are's writing process?

Ylle: Coming up with songs, is a smooth process. Frederik and Joachim start jamming and after a while they come up with a new riff or two. Then we build up the song around that. Our drummer puts on a good rhythm and our bass player comes with suggestions for the bass.

Frederik: Joachim and I split up the lyric writing evenly, and then Ylle puts the words into a song.

 

Your Facebook page states that you are avid lovers of all things -core. What, in your opinion, makes good metalcore?

Frederik: Good metalcore... Hmm, I AM BECAUSE WE ARE!!! Haha... In my opinion, good metalcore is filled with heavy riffs, melodic and fast riffs. It is badass and the advanced technique used for the drums is vital to the overall sound. Most importantly, good metalcore should have some crazy growls, screams and good lyrics! AND BREAKDOWNS!!! I live for the breakdowns.

Joachim: For me, good metalcore is a journey through fast, advanced, melodic riffs with bridges to heavy breakdowns. The genre is still very vast and differs from band to band. If you compare two of my favourite metalcore bands, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive, you will hear that they are two very different bands, but both bands have the melodic tone and elements I seek when I search for good metalcore. I like that Howard Jones does clean vocals in their choruses and unites them with catchy melodic riffs. On the other hand I would have liked a few breakdowns, which I think is an important part of a good metalcore song. Parkway Drive is just as melodic on the guitar, but they have heavier breakdowns and no clean vocals. I also like a short pause after a fast riffs and then a dramatic input with a brutal sentence such as "so cry me a fucking river, bitch" from the song 'Romance Is Dead'. It makes you jiiiizz and makes you want to put the song on repeat.

Ylle: You have got to love riffs that speak to you. Riffs that- kind of, have their own message.

 

Do you aim at integrating those -core elements into your music?

Bahrt: Hmm, we're not really aiming directly for making metalcore, or any other specific genre. We are playing the music that we like - and it just happens to be metalcore.

 

In some metal circles, there are people to argue that metalcore is not real metal music. If someone challenged you on this point, which aspects of your music would you emphasise as heavy metal music elements?

Ylle: I have met a lot of these metalheads. They consider themselves the true metal fans because -core - music and what not is just for "emo fags" and "posers". However, I consider metal as the opposite of the popular mainstream genres: open-minded and welcoming each other as brothers and sisters of metal and the alternative. In many countries, the circles/communities of metal fans are very small. And this is why I do not feel that we should be cussing each other out because of our separate styles within metal. Most of these metal circles are usually the fans of old metal bands, such as Metallica and Iron Maiden, all of that. They have my respect for listening to their metal. However, as years pass and things change, so does metal. Honestly, I do consider Metallica and Iron Maiden "Metal" but they do not live up to the increasing standards of heaviness that I have seen within metal nowadays. It really just gets heavier and more technical in my eyes.

 

Which bands do you yourself listen to, and which bands/artists serve as the main inspiration of I Am Because We Are?

Frederik: I listen to almost every kind of music: Indie Rock, Reggae, Dubsteb, 80's pop, Metal. I take my inspiration from all these genres. Our main inspirations are: August Burns Red, While She Sleeps, Joy Division, Parkway Drive, Emmure, Primordial, Suicide Silence, Bring Me The Horizon, In Flames, Scarred By Beauty, Threat Signal and Amon Amarth.

 

Song titles such as 'Santa, Suck it Off' and 'Save Your Preachers, Father' made me wonder, what are your lyrics about?

Frederik: 'Santa, Suck it Off' is about a person you really love, but then you need to say goodbye to the person and then you kill the person. You want to move back to the beginning and forget it all. You delete the person from your mind. It's a crazy thought. 'Santa, Suck it Off' is just a fun and provoking title.

Joachim: Death and destruction!! No... we try to write about things that concern us and things that are relevant in the world today. The song 'Save Your Preachers, Father' was made with inspiration of the Tsunami and Earthquakes in Japan in mind, and how we sympathize with the hurt ones and how only we humans can help them, that there is no one above them to do so. No god.

 

How and when was I Am Because We Are formed?

Joachim: The band was formed about two years ago, when Frederik and I decided to learn how to play the guitar after playing a lot of guitar hero. We started to jam a bit Metallica and thought that was very cool. Soon we were able to create our own riffs and then we started searching for band members.

Frederik: And then it just developed into metalcore! We started out calling ourselves "SolidMetal", hahaha.

And what's the story behind the name of your band?

Joachim: After getting tired of people who could not say our former band name, "Igneus", right, we started coming up with ideas of a meaningful and cool band name. It was a long and hard progress to find and agree on such a band name. I came up with 5 new names every week and loved them all, but the others always hated them. The band name I Am Because We Are came to me very suddenly and I just thought "hey that's a pretty fucking cool band name!" and presented it to Frederik. He liked it, but thought it was a bit too long. The other guys liked it and Frederik changed his mind and so it became our band name. That was all before we found out that Madonna had made a documentary with the exact same name... Fuck Madonna.

Frederik: I Am Because We Are: You are nothing without your friends and family. You are nothing without love. And yeah FUCK Madonna!

 

You have been active in the underground lately and received a lot of praise by figures in the Danish metal underground. You recently played a gig at Rust. What was that like?

Ylle: RUST, the 9^th of april, was AMAZING. Although there were a few screw-ups during the songs on our debut performance there, we did receive a lot of acceptance and thumbs up. It was nothing less than amazing. We love the persons, (although there are few of them) who follow us and stay updated. What is a band without fans? Nothing. So thank you to everyone who likes our music and thinks we can make it! THANK YOU.

Joachim: It was our first gig. The sound, light settings and crowd were all awesome.

Frederik: My guitar string actually broke and then the other guys played a number without me. We were not prepared. I got out backstage and yelled to the other bands "we need a guitar, we are in the middle of a concert!" Hahaha when I think back it's pretty fun.

 

What is the Danish underground metal and metalcore scene like?

Frederik: It's really big, but it's very isolated; not many great Danish metal bands make it to US and UK. I love Danish underground bands like Scarred By Beauty, Dead Elegance, Contrition, Embracing Sickness etc.

Joachim: It is very popular and it seems to be growing every day. I think Denmark has a very huge metalcore scene. The Danish metalcore band Scarred By Beauty is a huge promoter of the underground metalcore scene and gets a lot of credit for what the scene is like today.

 

I have heard that you are working on your first release. Can you tell us more about your upcoming release?

Frederik: We are still writing it, but, at the moment, we have seven tracks! Some of the tracks is ofc better than others. We are planning to record it in August and then release it for free in October.

 

Where can people who would like to know more about I Am Because We Are go for further information?

They can check out our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/iambecausewearedk and our MySpace page http://www.myspace.com/562168998

 

What can we expect from I Am Because We Are in the future?

 A lot of gigs in Denmark and Sweden, and one hell of an EP!

 

Thank you for doing this interview, and best of luck to you in the future.

Thanks man!

Peace & love

I Am Because We Are

<3

Edited by Time Signature - 06 May 2014 at 1:33pm

Cheers.