Ithaca: And Fear Us They Should

It’s funny how quickly momentum can build. At the start of 2019, relatively unknown UK metallic hardcore crew ITHACA were poised to release their debut full-length The Language Of Injury into a crowded and thriving UK scene. A quality record that pushed at the boundaries of the genre in question, while also fiercely championing non-conformity and representation, it was more than enough to cut through, with acclaim coming thick and fast from fans and critics alike. Fast forward three years and they’ve squeezed tours under their belts with everyone from BIG THIEF to BLEEDING THROUGH, and, as the ravenous reception to the lead single and title track from their sophomore album They Fear Us proved back in February, the hype has only grown stronger.

All the excitement could surely send lesser bands spiralling under pressure, but, as the album’s title makes abundantly clear, ITHACA aren’t ones to give into fear. If anything, it’s the other way around. For vocalist Djamila Boden Azzouz, the only real pressure was the pressure the band put on themselves. “Our creative process is so fun, there’s never really any part of it that feels like a slog,” she explains. “And that’s not to say that it’s not a difficult process because it really is; I think I put more pressure on myself than anyone else and perhaps if you ask the other guys they might tell you the same thing, but we very rarely, if ever, put pressure on each other. We have so much faith in each other that we know whatever our creative output will be individually will still be great.”

As you might well expect then, the results presented on They Fear Us tear full-speed ahead through the already significantly stretched boundaries of its predecessor for an album of powerfully expansive intensity that still hangs onto the bristling fury that made the band so compelling in the first place. Perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference comes from Azzouz herself, who spends far more time singing on this record than she did on The Language Of Injury, and indeed than she ever intended to in ITHACA in the first place.

“Aeons ago when we started this band, I was very anti-clean singing,” she smiles. “And it wasn’t because I didn’t like other people doing it, I just didn’t like doing it. I’m a trained singer, or at least I was, and I did it at university as well and I actually ended up dropping out of university for various reasons, a lot of them to do with my mental health, and I kind of swore it off after that. It just left such a bitter sour taste in my mouth that I just committed myself to never really singing again.”

Obviously something shifted however, with Azzouz suggesting that the inclusion of cleans on They Fear Us came “quite naturally and organically”, albeit not without a hefty dose of red-light syndrome when the time came to put them to tape. “Part of the reason for my nerves and stuff is actually caring what people think of my voice,” she continues. “But I think there was a certain turning point in the recording process where I realised that I was looking at singing the wrong way and I needed to look at it the same way that I look at screaming and using my voice as an instrument. Once you let go of the idea of sounding good, everything is so much easier, and I really let go of the idea of being good at singing… that was when it fell into place for me.”

For all its evolution from The Language Of Injury though, there definitely remains a clear through line to that which came before. “This album is so different to The Language Of Injury in so many ways, but they still hold hands, there’s still a connection,” agrees Azzouz. “It’s quite clear when you listen to them both that The Language Of Injury is such a desperately sad record, and there’s a lot of anger in it, and I think They Fear Us is also a very angry record but it’s different this time around because I’m not directing the anger at myself anymore; I’m directing it at everyone else, and I think that’s one of the defining differences between them. I’ve taken that self-loathing and I’m done with that and now I’m making everyone else pay for it.”

At the same time, Azzouz is quick to emphasise that the ITHACA we hear on They Fear Us is the truest representation of the band yet – a testament to their refusal to be beaten or broken by whatever setbacks may come their way. “All of the stuff that we’ve done before, we love it, but it doesn’t really matter anymore, and all of the sort of preconceived notions that you had of us as a band don’t really matter. All of the scenes that we tried to squeeze into and be a part of, it doesn’t fucking matter anymore. This is who we are as people and we love that, and if you don’t love that, then that’s absolutely fine, but also don’t fucking try and stand in our way because it won’t work.”

“It’s about self empowerment and being able to harness your own personal strength,” she adds. “I think sometimes visibility itself is a political act, and on the occasions that we have had people who are non-conforming in whichever way talk to us about our band and say that what we did meant something to them or inspired them in some way is so important… It’s not to say that we have a massive political agenda, maybe it’s slightly more nuanced than that, but us just being here is a really great personal triumph to us, and I think that does mean something to people.”

Of course, ITHACA aren’t as alone as they perhaps once would have been in their mission, with a whole crop of younger bands coming through in recent years who have sought to make the scene a better place by pushing boundaries both musical and otherwise. “So much progress has been made even over the past 10 years that we’ve been playing,” affirms Azzouz. “It’s not to say that things are perfect, and we’re not there yet, there’s still a lot of work to do, but I look at some of the younger bands now and I just think ‘thank fuck, you’re really doing it’.”

As we wrap up, the future seems to look ever brighter for Azzouz and co., with the vocalist concluding, “This record is such an amazing opportunity for us and we worked so hard on it. Obviously we want people to like it, but at the same time if people don’t like it I’ve made my peace with it because I love it and for us it feels like we’ve already won. But we do want to step it up and take it to the next level, and we feel so confident that we’ve found our sound as a band and our identity as a band. We’ve reached a point where we’re finally able to do things our own way.”

They Fear Us is out now via Hassle Records.

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