OS @ Warped Series: iwrestledabearonce

posted in: Exclusive Interviews • Rock

With summer right around the corner, we can’t help but be totally stoked for Warped Tour. In case you haven’t heard, we’ll be sponsoring our own stage for twenty-two dates and bringing twenty-three artists out to perform on it. Twenty-two acts will snag a performance at their local tour stop, and Dallas native Larry g(EE) will be rocking the stage at each and every date. In addition, there are a handful of other OurStage artists already booked to play various dates of the tour. We decided to catch up with them to get the scoop on their summer plans.

Shreveport, Louisiana’s iwrestledabearonce don’t take themselves”or the metal scene”too seriously, and that may be one of the best things they have going for them. Sure, they may not be for the faint of heart, and you probably wouldn’t expect any less from a band with song titles like “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon” and “Karate Nipples.” Even so, the group is refreshingly fearless on stage and in the studio, mixing grindcore, electronica, screamo and just about every other genre into their musical melting pot. Led by formidable lead vocalist Krysta Cameron, the band battled sterotyping early on in their career, but have since proved that they can hang with the most metal dudes around. We caught up with guitarist Steven Bradley to chat about what they’ll be bringing to Warped Tour, the horror movie they just finished filming, and what they’ll be doing when summer ends.

OS: You guys love to mix a lot of different genres and styles in your music. How would you describe your music to those who have never heard it before?

SB: Terrible…beyond that, I don’t know. It’s heavy music that’s not quite as serious as maybe other straightforward heavy bands. Dance, grind, jazz, electronic, terrible…as long as the word terrible is in there.

OS: What do you think is the most common misconception about your band?

SB: Well, not anymore, but starting off…I guess it would be because [we] have a gal who does all the vocals…singing and gnarly screaming, people would be like, “Oh, there’s no way that’s really a chick.” But we’ve been on tour for so many years now, that people are like, “Oh yeah, okay. YouTube exists, alright, maybe that’s real.” Before, they were like, “It’s probably one of those dudes,” before they realized none of us sound awesome at all when we scream. We sound more effeminate than our female singer.

OS: Yeah, she’s awesome.

SB: She’s got big balls. That’s another misconception, that she’s a woman…

OS: What can people expect from your set at Warped Tour?

SB: Lots of sweating, number one…an ungodly amount of sweating. And probably us hurting ourselves, breaking things, having a good time, probably drinking cold beers…I would say fun. “Fun” would be my go-to word here.

OS: You guys have played on Warped Tour before…what are some of the most important things you learned from being on the tour in the past?

SB: More baby wipes. You always need baby wipes on tour, but Warped Tour, good lord… I’m not complaining, by any means, but it’s just one long sweaty mess of a day. People go out to shows like Warped Tour and they’re like, “Oh, that was fun, we made a day out of it, that’s what I did this week that was really insane,” but we do that every day for two months. That and sunscreen. Dear Lord. Two people in our band still have insane tan lines that are permanent, apparently, from 2010. So…sunscreen! Sunscreen, cold beers, and baby wipes.

OS: You’re going to be offering music lessons on Warped Tour. Can you tell us more about that?

SB: Yes, it’s through the website BandHappy. They’re trying to do music education with us. Doing lessons is only part of what they do…they do a lot of stuff, actually. I’m not entirely sure if anyone’s interested in learning how to get worse at their instrument from us, but I don’t know, it’s cool! We just recently made an online site through BandHappy, doing lessons. Obviously anyone taking lessons from us isn’t expecting to get Steve Vy or Dream Theater-type solo advice, but it’s really cool. You never know what people want to know and it’s always interesting to answer questions about guitar or just music business stuff, getting out there and getting on tour and stuff. I guess to some extent we know what we’re doing and it’s nice to help people who want to learn more.

OS: You released a teaser trailer for your horror film, A Beary Scary Movie, in March. Any update on when fans can learn more about the film’s release?

SB: It’s getting wrapped up right now, we actually ended up going back and filming a little more with some more folks who wanted to be involved in the movie, so we made it a little longer and crazier. I guess that’s all I can say for now. But it’s pretty insane, it’s a real horror movie, not an extended music video. It’s got a little short thing of us playing, but it’s an hour and a half long, legit movie. Jake Busey, who’s awesome, from The Frighteners and Starship Troopers, he’s in it for a second. “Clown” from Slipknot, he’s in it. It’s a real movie, it’s pretty exciting! We all die, we all kill people. It’s more of a really, really profane comedy than anything. I would say that moreso than horror movie, but there’s a considerable amount of blood and CGI. We built sets and turned them upside down and there were gaffers and all that…it’s a real fucking movie. It’s pretty crazy!

OS: Looking ahead, are you planning to repeat the promotional recycle of your last record and tour into the winter, or are hoping to return to the studio?

SB: We’ll be doing a new album, yeah. We’ll have some more tour announcements for the rest of the year and then at the end of the year we’ll definitely be in the studio again.

Fire, dolphins, piano-playing dogs, glittery rainbows and lots of brutal screaming…check out the music video for “Danger in the Manger”: