IWrestledABearOnce Interview FEATURE

Forest Gump's momma always used to say Iwrestledabearonce's music is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get. Well, she didn't say it specifically about them, but with a mish-mash of jazz, electro beats, swing, easy listening, metal and grindcore in their songs; Iwrestledabearonce (IWABO) have, without a doubt, created a unique sound in which you have no idea what will happen next.

BritEvents' Lucy Middleton catches up with the band for a quick chat before their Birmingham O2 Academy gig on the 2nd May.

Returning to the UK for the first time in two years, IWABO are playing as part of The Mosh Lives European tour along with Visions, Winds of Plague, War From a Harlots Mouth, We Set The Sun and headlining band Emmure. The tour hasn't been in the UK for long and will be returning for more dates in mainland Europe on the 7th of May. BritEvents' Lucy Middleton was fortunate enough to chat with members of the band renowned for defying all metal stereotypes before their performance at the Birmingham O2 Academy on Monday 2nd of May.

Unfortunately singer Krysta Cameron was unable to take part in the interview or perform on stage due to being ill. The previous night, IWABO played in Brighton and Krysta lost her voice halfway through the set. In order to stand any chance of being able to sing again during the rest of the tour, Krysta was advised to rest her voice.

Lucy interviewed Steven Bradley who is one of the guitarists and programmers for IWABO and bass guitarist, Mike "Rickshaw" Martin.

Iwrestledabearonce for 10 minutes

Lucy (BritEvents): How would you best describe your music in 5 words?

Mike "Fuck is in there somewhere."

Steven "Titty fucking rock 'n' roll."

Steven "Oh! I wrestled a bear once, that's five words."

Lucy: "That's one, there's no spaces."

Steven "You're right, damn."

Steven and Mike collaboration "electro jazz tech metal rape"

Lucy: What made you decide to cover a Muse song for the Homefront Album?

Steven They [Kaos Studios and THQ] gave us a list of songs about war and resistance, Muse were on there and it was our favourite song. It was pretty random to get the email, we've never covered a song before so we were like "why the hell not?".

Lucy: Did you enjoy doing it?

Steven Yeah it was fun, we love Muse.

Lucy: In the 4 years you've been together, how would you say your music has grown?

Steven Well it started off in my bedroom with 2 of us with programmed drums and kind of a drunken messing around after our other bands fell apart. It's grown exponentially; we've always done the same style of music and our other guitarist and I were in a band before IWABO and we'd just randomly build on riffs we did when we were younger.

We've been doing the same sort of weird shit forever now but I think IWABO has gotten more cohesive. With the new album, we've still got the crazy shit on there that will never make us popular but each record I think we get better at making sense out of the dumb shit that we do.

Lucy: So what can we expect from the new album?

Steven Well, the heavier parts are heavier and the singing parts are a little bit catchier, not that I'm doggin' them, but not like Paramore catchy.

Mike More get-shit-stuck-in-your-head type of singing. It's all a little more mature but a little less mature at the same time.

Steven We've still got weird random curve-ball parts thrown in there that don't make much sense, but the parts that do are better.

Lucy: Seeing as Krysta's not here, could you tell me who influenced her screams and vocal style in general?

Steven She's been screaming before she even tried singing.

Mike Her first screaming cover was a Deftones cover, Seven Words I think.

Steven She says she always used to put on the first Poison the Well album and practice to that. I think she said Phil Anselmo from Pantera was the first person she was trying to emulate. She grew up in Long Island, NY around the death metal scene with bands like Suffocation and all that, she always heard them and wanted be as gnarly as them.

She always said she didn't want to be limited by the fact that she was a woman and wanted to get deep, low and guttural with her vocals.

Lucy: I bet it can get annoying having people comment on Krysta being a girl all the time.

Mike There are plenty of girls in other metal bands so it's not even a big deal now.

Steven it's normal to us, I mean when we first got together it was kinda weird but, over the past four years, it's like there are a lot more girls on the scene. We get girls come up all the time who tell us that they always wanted to play in a metal band and they didn't have the courage to but we've made it more acceptable to do so. So now they're screaming in a band and it's cool, it's good to have a positive influence on folks.

Lucy: What was it like forming a metal band in Louisiana, a state best known for its strong religion and jazz music?

Steven We kept the jazz part and got rid of the religious part. It's weird actually, Jared Leto's band 30 Seconds To Mars formed in the same city and there's a few famous jazz and blues musicians where we're from but it was unusual in regards to heavy music. There's a little bit of a death metal scene going on there but it's all strictly death metal and even my friends who are in death metal bands were like, "yeah, you guys are kinda queer".

We took a lack of anything to do and that's why we joined a band so we had something better to do.

Lucy: Speaking of Jared Leto, how does the guy not age? He's stayed the same for well over a decade.

Steven Well, in America, we have plastic surgery and botox so, yeah...

Mike Definitely by drinking the souls of young women.

Steven That's what I plan to do to stay young, I'll do whatever I have to. I don't wanna be old; I wanna die young, looking as good and as wrinkle-free as possible.

Lucy: How have you found Britain when you've visited before?

Steven It's awesome, my folks moved to America from Britain so I have dual-citizenship. I love vinegar and mayo all over my chips and that's really weird in America.

We enjoy playing shows here, when we played the Never Say Die tour in 2009, it was insane with people dancing their asses off.

Mike We have you guys to thank for dubstep and Calvin Harris.

Steven We wanna see Calvin Harris while we're here so bad. We just wanna go, get wasted, dance and sing along. Dubstep is huge in the USA now which is awesome.

Lucy: Other than Calvin Harris, do you have any favourite British artists in particular?

Steven I know we're gonna forget people but all the bands we've toured with - Bury Tomorrow and our favies Enter Shikari. They're huge over here, like Slipknot are in the US - they're such great guys, cool as shit. They're a great band too, weird and like to push boundaries, I dig them.

Lucy: I read that Kevin Bacon had actually heard the IWABO song Tastes Like Kevin Bacon, how did he respond?

Steven Yeah, his kids like our music so they showed him that song. He didn't really comment on it but he did say he liked our band name!

The show must go on

Despite Krysta's absence, like the genuine musicians they are, the rest of IWABO performed an awesome instrumental set.

They stuck to the oldies, but the goodies, including songs You Ain't No Family (which can be found below), Tastes Like Kevin Bacon and Ulrich Firelord : Breaker of Mountains.

The set was packed full of sick drum beats, berserk guitar riffs and everything else you would expect from the brilliance they call Iwrestledabearonce.

BritEvents would like to thank Steven and Mike for having a chat with us and we'd like to send our best wishes to Krysta in the hopes she can recover to go on and play the rest of The Mosh Lives tour.

You can check out IWABO on the official Iwrestledabearonce website or check out their twitter @iwabo.