In as little as two years, North Hollywood (California)
based outfit In This Moment have gone from being a successful independent
act on MySpace to becoming an international success story with their
signing to Century Media Records in 2006, and the eventual release of
their debut album 'Beautiful Tragedy' earlier this year.
Praised for its diversity and somewhat different take
on the familiar metalcore sound, 'Beautiful Tragedy' has definitely
given the five-piece act (comprising of vocalist Maria Brink, guitarists
Chris Howorth and Blake Bunzel, bassist Jesse Landry and drummer Jeff
Fabb) some well-deserved attention, with tours alongside acts such as
Kittie, Walls Of Jericho, Lacuna Coil and Within Temptation only drawing
more fans to their cause.
In a stopover in Ohio, I caught up with In This Moment
front woman Maria Brink to talk about the progression the band have
made since the release of their demo on MySpace to 'Beautiful Tragedy',
the confusion surrounding which genre tag befits their diverse sound,
how their constant touring schedule since the album's release has been
going and the prospect of having everything whisked away with the threat
of tornados!
"It's crazy at the moment because there's warnings
of tornados around here at the moment. It's storming outside right now
and they're warning us to get down in the basement at this moment! (Laughs)
I'm like, 'Oh my God! I just wanted to do a couple of interviews!' I
think it's going to be fine. I just called one of the guitar players
at the venue and I asked him to come over here to stay with me. So he's
going to stay here with me just in case something happens. Otherwise,
I'm fine."
And Brink has every reason to be fine too; with In This
Moment enjoying the success that 'Beautiful Tragedy' has brought the
band a little less than two years since the release of their demo on
My Space.
"That's right. We had a demo recorded that we made
available on our My Space site, and that was quite successful for us
too, but not on the same level as 'Beautiful Tragedy'. So far, I'm really
happy with the way the album has been going. We're all pretty excited
about having been given the opportunity to make a real album rather
than a demo. You can really tell the difference too given that three
of those original demos turned up on 'Beautiful Tragedy'. They're kind
of different sounding arrangement wise but there were only a couple
of slight changes at most. You wouldn't really call the differences
huge sounding but obviously the production quality is much better. In
the end, having the final product with all the artwork and stuff finally
out there is great. We're all really excited."
What makes In This Moment's debut 'Beautiful Tragedy'
quite different is its diversity. Everything from metalcore, heavy metal
and melodic hard rock is present on the group's debut, which only makes
tagging the band genre wise something of a real challenge.
"Well I think that's good. It wasn't really intentional.
It's just that we have some really diverse members in this band. I think
that's really where it all comes from. One of our guitar players really
loves straight-ahead metal. You know, the sort of stuff that's really
heavy and intense sounding. Then there's our other guitar player who's
really into alternative rock. But then when it comes to me, I love all
kinds of stuff - especially the melodic stuff. I think it's just an
amalgamation of everybody's influences and styles that's really developed
into the sound that's present on our album. We didn't really want to
focus on what we wanted or didn't want to be sound wise when we were
working on the songs. We just wanted to make sure that we all collaborated
on everything, and making sure that everything we were doing felt right.
We didn't want it to end up in discussions where we would talk about
whether this song needed to be more metal, whether I needed to scream
more in that song or whether I shouldn't sing quite as much in those
songs because metal heads wouldn't like that. We just focussed on what
we wanted the songs to sound like and it eventually developed into this."
While In This Moment are generally lumped into the metalcore
genre, Brink is quick to point out that while some of the genres influences
are present in their songs, they're not a metalcore act as such.
Because the album is so diverse, what genre would you
place yourselves in?
"I don't think we're metalcore. To me, metalcore
is more like hardcore influenced metal, with lots of breakdowns. I think
we're a lot more diverse sounding than that. I don't know what genre
you would put us into and I'm always telling people that. When I'm trying
to explain In This Moment's sound to them, all I can say is that it's
diverse sounding, with influences such as metalcore's breakdowns, metal
in general and some melodic rock. I just tell people that they have
to hear it for themselves, so that way they can make up their own minds."
And In This Moment have given plenty of people the opportunity
to make up their own minds, with their recent US tour alongside Kittie,
36 Crazyfists, Walls Of Jericho and Dead To Fall.
"That tour was good. The crowd reaction was really
positive and I think that's because we really are really diverse sounding.
We just fit in style wise so well with the fans that came out to see
those bands. I think that's one of the beautiful things about In This
Moment. It's true that we can tour with full on metal bands and definitely
have a good response and feel good about it. But then we can also tour
with bands like AFI and Thirty Seconds To Mars and still do well and
grasp onto that crowd too. We've made friends with all the bands on
that tour and they were all incredibly nice to us. But we're all excited
by the next tour with Lacuna Coil and The Gathering. We're really excited
by that. Well at least I hope that they're as excited by us too! (Laughs)
We're doing a whole month's touring with them."
Following the completion of the month long Lacuna Coil
and The Gathering tour, In This Moment will take part in this year's
free Ozzfest on the second stage.
"That's right. I think it's going to be amazing to
see how it works out without the admission price. For years, people
have had to pay to go see Ozzfest and my guitar player recently said
it's now like they're giving back to everybody this time around because
it is for free. I think that's an amazing thing. I think it'll be a
huge success. There are a lot of experimental types of bands on the
bill, but I think that'll make this year even better and more varied
than previous years. I think we'll stick out in our own way too with
a lot of exposure. Put it this way, I don't think anything bad can come
from this tour."
I would like to thank Maria Brink for her generous
time, and Andrew Haug at Century Media Records for making the interview
possible.
For more information on In This Moment, check out - http://www.myspace.com/inthismoment
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
