INTRODUCING: I Am Pariah
When their drummer left during lockdown, Stoke-on-Trent’s I AM PARIAH faced a sink or swim moment. Confronted with the idea of potentially abandoning the band they had poured seven years into, they persevered through. With their new three-track EP Charm Before The Storm, the nu-metalcore outfit have come out the other side swinging with a statement of intent.
“Our drummer left during lockdown and it was sort of a make or break moment like do we jack this in and just forget about the EP that we’ve pumped money into and the around seven years we’ve been going now or do we just crack on and make a go of it. Because we weren’t gigging it was easier to bide a bit of time to find a drummer so that helped a bit.”
With lockdown kicking in, the band were unable to meet-up and work out their new ideas in the flesh. With them all having full-time jobs, the band became an escape from the rest of the world even if they were still in their houses by themselves. “We kind of had bits and pieces prior to the lockdown but then we pieced it together, fortunately the other two in the band have both got degrees in music tech and have all the gadgets so for me it was just a case of recording my guitar parts. And then again with technology nowadays, it was just a case of pinging it over on one drive so it’s not as hard as it might seem. We did it ourselves and just got it mastered elsewhere so that ironed out any problems we might have had.”
On Charm Before The Storm, the band wear their influences on their sleeve as their sound pays homage to their own heroes from the worlds of rock and metal. Guitarist Steve Westerholm sees the band’s sound as a natural collaboration of their various tastes, which really took shape once vocalist Ben James joined the line-up. “We are getting this nu-metal vibe for a lot of people, or nu-metalcore, and that’s kind of what we are going for. We never aim to sound like a particular band, we like mixing it all together. We’ve got influences from all across rock and metal, Ben‘s more on the pop-punk side, he likes his GREEN DAY and loves MARILYN MANSON and that’s where he gets those softer harmonies for the choruses from.”
“We didn’t particularly go down that nu-metal route but it’s definitely a big influence from our youths and though we don’t go specifically for that sound, the big riffs and vocal styles and a big fat beatdown always seems to work.”
With the influence of bands like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE tightly weaved in and through every second of what I AM PARIAH do, Westerholm says they never want to repeat themselves. Whilst the EP backs this up, it also serves as a trailer for the band that in Westerhlom’s own words is “just enough to show people what we are but not too little to just be disregarded as another metalcore band etc.”
“I think it’s just the way the songs go, we don’t really write to a specific style whether that’s a good or bad thing. I’m a firm believer that if we’re gonna make music for another seven years, you don’t want to make album after album that sounds the same. A lot of modern bands get knocked for that, you’ve had it with KILLSWITCH and ATREYU and AVENGED SEVENFOLD, even older bands like Ozzy were always switching it up. I think as an artist you’ve got to really as it gets stale otherwise.”
With a view to create more dynamic songs with a mixture of softer and heavier leaning tracks in future releases, the label I AM PARIAH have been stuck with is a fitting one. Previously playing on a bill alongside Howard Jones’ (formerly of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE) band LIGHT THE TORCH was a self-confessed fanboy moment for Steve and Dave, so they’re more than happy to oblige in that particular scene. “They were playing at The Sugarmill in Stoke and we got on support with them there. So yeah that was a bit of a fanboy moment for me and Dave, when we were younger we were listening to those bands so to be in the same room as him and on the same bill was a bit of a starstruck moment. It was really cool.”
After recording their EP during lockdown, transferring files back and forth before sending it off to get mastered, the band are now sat on some free time alongside the rest of the music world. Aiming to get right back into playing shows at the nearest opportunity, they currently have one date booked and are planning on scheduling some for themselves. “Hopefully we can book a few ourselves and kind of get touring with the EP and some other new stuff. We are going to wait from now until Easter, which seems to be this imaginary end of COVID-19 that people think is going to happen, and then hopefully get back out there.”
Charm Before The Storm is out now via self-release.
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