Iwrestledabearonce – Steven Bradley

Formed in 2007, Iwrestledabearonce is the true embodiment of zany creativity and the bizarre, albeit intriguing influence of avant-garde. Whilst the band constantly evaded genre categorization, they’re simply known to many as an offspring of equal parts grindcore and metalcore.

Metal Obsession had the pleasure to sit down with guitarist and programmer, Steven Bradley to discuss the band’s upcoming Australian tour this November.

Metal Obsession: Hey Steven How are you guys feeling about the upcoming Australian tour?

Steven Bradley: About fucking time is all I gotta say, we’ve been trying to come to Australia for forever now, we’re extremely stoked. I’m also excited It’ll be like the end of Spring, start of Summer so fuck yeah we’re coming to Australia. Looking forward to drinking and using the word cunt a lot.

MO: Yeah I’ve noticed when a lot of bands come down here by the end they love to use the word cunt.

SB: Yep, it’s great, it’s a good word, we don’t get to use that word.

MO: Is there anything in particular you want to see while you’re down here?

SB: Everything, of course we have to do the touristy bullshit like you know hold a koala and what not, we basically wanna show and be like “what’s the coolest thing to do here??” Alright, take us there. We want to do as much as possible.

MO: It’s probably something that you’ve been asked quite a lot lately but what’s going on with the vocalist situation, is Courtney on full time?

SB: Well, yeah for the foreseeable future, you know, Krysta still has a month left before she, you know, has a kid and then she might want to have time to hang out with her kid. So we kinda know as much as everybody else, obviously we’ve talked to Krysta but she doesn’t really know what the fuck she’s doing herself, so you know, we’re just hangin’ out.

But the good news is we said you know we aren’t going to go out and half ass it, we’re not gonna go out there and look like assholes, the singer obviously can’t do it, Krysta is definitely one of a kind, so they’re some hard shoes to fill. But, I don’t even know, we did the Warped tour and the Heavy MTL thing with Slipknot, Deftones and all those guys, playing them with Courtney who is a bad ass, obviously she doesn’t sound exactly like Krysta, but her screaming is definitely more gnarlier and Krysta singing was more Bjokish and all over the place whereas Courtney’s is different.

We basically said you know Fuck it, if Courtney doesn’t work then we’ll call it a day, but she’s been working out great. We called her, she quit her job and was on a plane 4 hours later and played Warped Tour pretty much the next day, it ended up being really fucking great. Up until the Heavy MTL show we hadn’t even practiced in a room with her or spoke with her about it, we just went out there and did it and it was great.

MO: Are you guys writing a new album at the moment?

SB: We’re sort of always writing, but we won’t sort of get to it until after this upcoming tour we have, so we’ll start the record in December.

MO: Do you prefer to write while you’re touring or do you prefer to sit down and have a writing session?

SB: Anybody is lying to you if they say they prefer to write on tour, cause you know you can’t sit alone in your room and work on shit with headphones and do whatever you want, we usually work on things ourselves and bring it all together and assemble them and jam on them, So definitely we write a little while we’re on tour like on a laptop but it always seems to work out better when we’re at home.

MO: Where do you get most of your influences when you’re writing?

SB: I don’t even know, just horror movies and drinking I guess.

MO: Do you guys have a specific name for your genre?

SB: Music I guess, or garbage, my favourite one is ADDcore, or somebody once said Electro Metal Grind Jazz Rock, You just think of a bunch of shit and mash the words together,  that sounds about right.

MO: Do you have any favourite bands that you like to play shows with?

SB: Our top 2 bands are probably Slipknot and Deftones but my personal favourites would be Mr Bungle or Refused but I don’t think we’ll end up on a Mr Bungle or Refused tour. But we’re up for anything, its weird, one day we will get an offer to play a death metal tour and then the next day we will get asked to do a fucking dance, electro pop thing, I guess that kinda the point.

MO: Are you a fan of any Aussie bands?

SB: One my favourite bands, and we’ve toured with these guys is Closure in Moscow, we’ve played with like the Amity Affliction guys in American before and Parkway Drive. More and more Australian bands seem to be doing things in different Countries which is great, we’re from the worst town in Louisiana that nobody gives a shit about so if I’m talking to you on the phone right now anyone can do anything you know. There’s a band I’ve heard with Unicorn in their name that I’ve been told I should check out, apparently they have a vinyl in the shape of a dick, so I got to check those guys out.

MO: Wicked, I’ve got one more question for you, is there anything you want to say to your Australian fans?

SB: We’re fucking excited and grateful to have to chance to come hang out so hopefully you’ll come out and dive off the PA and do dumb shit with us. It’s the first time we’ve ever been so we don’t know what to expect but I got a feeling that a lot of people in Australia are god damn weird and we’re really weird so I think it’s going to work out, it should be good.

We’re all god damn insane so I feel like it’s going to be awesome, I feel like it will go better than some places where they are way to reserved and don’t know what to do.

Make sure to catch Iwrestledabearonce on their upcoming Australian tour this November. Tickets on sale now via Moshtix and respected venues.

Iwrestledabearonce 2012 Australian tour:

Presented by Tapejean Select Touring, Alt Music Hub & Hysteria Music Magazine

Thursday 22 November – The Zoo Brisbane 18+
Friday 23 November – Expressive Grounds Gold Coast AA
Saturday 24 November – The Annandale Sydney AA
Sunday 25 November – Live At The Wall Sydney AA
Wednesday 28 November – The National Hotel Geelong AA
Thursday 29 November – The Corner Hotel Melbourne 18+
Friday 30 November – TLC Bayswater VIC AA
Saturday 1 December – Fowlers Live Adelaide AA

For more info head to: http://taperjeanmusic.tumblr.com – http://www.iwrestledabearonce.com