Chorus, Repeat: Iwrestledabearonce Ready To Surprise All Over Again
Wednesday, 03 July 2013
Written by Huw Baines
It seems that the time has come for Iwrestledabearonce to dial down the crazy a couple of notches. The American metallers will release 'Late For Nothing' on August 12, a record that finds them experimenting with more traditional song structures amid the unruly time signatures and crushing guitars that have become hallmarks of their sound.
Their third full-length – after 'It's All Happening' in 2009 and 'Ruining It For Everybody' in 2011 – 'Late For Nothing' is the first to feature new vocalist Courtney LaPlante, who joined the band midway through last year's Warped Tour. Guitarist Steven Bradley – who produced, recorded, mixed and mastered the record – was delighted with her contribution after a change-up that has derailed other bands.
“It was extremely painless, it was awesome actually,” he said. “She did real good. I couldn't imagine her not being on it. As far as the music goes we've always kinda done our thing and then in the past just gone 'alright, here you go, work on the vocals'.
“I guess we were excited to have her clean vocals, they're a bit gooderer and we were less scared to repeat things. I make it sound like we've put out a Nickelback record, but it's still weird as hell. We made a conscious effort that if there was a cool chorus part, let's have it more than once this time. Other than that, there were no real rules or anything. We all like songs with nice choruses that repeat, so why the hell not try that?”
Bradley was happy to accept the added responsibility of looking after the record from the writing process through to sign off, which represented something of a natural progression for a band whose style lends itself to creative autonomy.
“It's basically how we've always done it, we've just had other people helping engineer and things like that,” he said. “This time we were just like, 'fuck it, might as well do all of it'. It's a big part of how we write, the production side of it.
“It's definitely more pressure because it's having to wear two hats. It's tracking guitar and the songwriting part, as well as that nerdy aspect. It's mixed right, and with all the little synths and that kind of stuff it would be a pain in the ass to tell someone else how we wanted it. Just do it. DIY and whatsuch.”
The record's seventh track, Carnage Asada, features a guest spot from none other than Steve Vai. Thanks to the virtuoso guitarist's reputation as a connoisseur of all things weird and wonderful, the collaboration was one that immediately leapt out at Bradley when mentioned by Vai's son, a friend of the band.
“I still don't believe it happened, but it did,” he said. “It was totally easy. We sent him over a track and he sent it back later that night. He was like, 'yeah, I'll try to get to it but I'm leaving for Europe and I'm real busy. Shit, I want to do it though'.
“Two hours later, he was like, 'yeah, I went ahead and knocked this out'. It was fucking awesome. It was extremely strange and also extremely badass. As you might have heard, he's quite good at the guitar. We sent him a weird part, a Mariachi sort of thing. He was pumped, because he's Steve Vai and he's a little bit weird like us. He was into it and shredded a solo. It was pretty insane.”
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