Interview — These Arms Alone

Skratch Magazine

These Arms Alone is only a month old but in the short time span Leah (vocals), Dorian (guitars), Josh (bass) and Lior (drums) have managed to master Metallic Post-Hardcore. “Our sound is Lullabies over heavy-ass distortion and drum and bass,” says Leah, who lives in Los Angeles, as does the rest of the band. “We do melodically driven by vocals with the weight of hardcore crunch and double bass as anchors.” Sounds pretty heavy, right? Here’s what else they had to say to Skratch Magazine.

Skratch: How did you become interested in music?

Leah: Listening to Charlie Parker and Liza Minelli mainly. I spent my formative years living with my grandma dancing to everything from flamenco to opera and blues. I loved the voices. And I just remember wanting to wail with my voice the way Charlie Parker wailed on his sax.
Dorian: I discovered early as a teenager that I loved music too much to not know and understand exactly how it was done. Growing up in a religious environment I often felt alienated from the people around me and music was the only thing that I seemed to be able to connect with on a consistent basis. It became a passion. So I picked up my first instrument around age 16 and moved from there.
Lior: I was about 9 years old and I remember my dad told me Freddy Mercury past away. That got me curious to get to know Queen's music, and I loved everything about it. Queen definitely opened up the door for me to many sub genres in rock, and that’s where it all began.
Josh: When I was 10 years old, The Beatles Anthology Documentaries aired on TV and hooked me on to them immediately. I bought every Beatles record and started playing the bass later that year. They were the first band I loved, but that love was short because 6 months later I bought Metallica’s black album, and 30 seconds into Enter Sandman I knew the kind of music I wanted to play.

Skratch: What is your song writing process like?

Leah: I’m a writer first then a singer. Dorian will approach me with a riff or a fully executed idea, and I’ll find a melody that feels right then sift through poems, scraps of words and half-phrases and put them to the melody. Sometimes I’ll approach Dorian with a vocal pattern or melody to put guitar to it.
Dorian: Sometimes I will bring a concept to Leah musically and we will work on the song together then bring it to the guys. Sometimes I will bring riffs to the group as a whole and we will all hammer it out together. The more poppy songs usually start off as acoustic pieces that are fleshed out, the heavier stuff usually comes from all of us.
Josh: A good amount of songs were written by Dorian and Leah when they were an acoustic act before Lior and I joined the band. The newer songs are either started by Dorians riffs that he brings to practice and we work on them together, are born in jam sessions, or are written at home and brought to practice.

Skratch: What artists or musicians inspire you?

Leah: I’m attracted to the feelings I get listening to: James Maynard Keenan, Etta James, Bjork, Nirvana, Fugazi, Mike Patton, Joy Division
Dorian: I am heavily influenced by Failure, Django Reinhardt, Only Living Witness, Glassjaw, MachineHead and American Nightmare.
Lior: Queen, Faith No More, Iron Maiden, U2, Biffy Clyro, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Tool, Jeff Buckley, Muse, Frank Zappa.
Josh: Metallica(Cliff Burton), Mudvayne, Tool, The Misfits, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine, Pantera

Skratch: Where do you take musical inspiration from? Your environment? People? Explain.

Josh: Strong emotions, usually frustration.
Leah: I go where the wind blows, wherever time takes me. Sometimes I will write about the past: abuse, addiction, love, love lost, death. other times I will write about what’s to come. I’ll write something and it won’t be relevant to me in that moment, but 6 months later, it will suddenly make sense. Everything is in the head and what the mind interprets. I just let it come out at will.
Dorian: Since I was very young, music has been something I’ve been deeply involved in. Whether was part of a band, just writing at home, working at an A and R company and learning about something or just listening to various types of music. I get inspired when I hear or see concepts or techniques in music that really stand out as interesting in other types of music and see if and how I can fuse it into the sound we are trying to create. We have a very clear goal and direction in mind, making music that is heavy, haunting, and melodic, but there are just so many ways to do it, and so many ways its been done that the only way to make things interestingly sonically is to reinvent the wheel so to speak. That inspires me. If that makes sense. I am a big music nerd.

Skratch: What is your musical background?

Leah: I was classically trained in opera by this beautiful, plump woman from Barbados named Maria Heslop. My lessons were in a church, and I’d always here the gospel choir singing in the background. That definitely helped me with belting and connecting with the soul each time I opened my mouth to release a note. I trained also under Fred Silver for Broadway/Musical Theatre, and studied contemporary music thereafter when my ex-boyfriend introduced me to Nirvana. I thought, “Damn, I want to be this honest and raw when I sing”. No jazz hands or over the top vocal gymnastics. Just pure story telling.
Dorian: I am completely self-taught. I’ve had the privilege of being friends with a lot of musicians and have picked up different styles and techniques from everywhere. I’ve been in a few different LA grind and hardcore bands like 357 facelift, one round left, avoid serious injury, ruckus.
Lior: I started playing drums at the age of 13 (it was my bar mitzva present..hehe). I had a few different drum teachers for a few years, and then I just kept teaching myself learning songs from albums I loved listening to. Later on I studied music in London for a year and just kept playing with different bands.
Josh: I was lucky enough to have parents that paid for music lessons. I learned the scales, technique, and songs that I liked. I was in my first band was when I was 13, our only performance was a KISS cover that was needed for our 8th grade school play. I later was the bass player in Say Anything for most of the “Baseball” song writing process.

Skratch: Tell us about how you got started as a band.

Leah: Before I moved out here from Florida, I posted ads looking for musicians. Dorian answered and approached me with a hardcore/metal project he was working on. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, coming out of a trip-hop/alternative band. So we found a middle ground where we are able to push each other while finding artistic satisfaction in it. Lior and Josh came on board after we cut our “Roses” EP and have added most effectively to the dynamic and drive of the band’s sound.
Dorian: I was looking for a female vocalist for a metal project I had put together strictly for online distribution. Just something to put out there and see who would pick it up. I met Leah through Craig list. I heard her demo and was floored by her voice, but felt that she had been sold short by the musicians backing her at the time. I made it my mission to put together something for her that she would be happy with but that would also push her and make really good music that could be liked by a lot of people but still be respected by musicians. Something deeply honest and heartfelt. And HEAVY.
Lior: I was looking for a band to join that I can connect musically, personally, and find creative chemistry with. I sent Dorian and Leah a message online after listening to some of their songs, and told them that I would love to be their drummer. We met up, jammed, and I personally thought that we had a great click! I feel very fortunate to have found them.
Josh: I’ve known Dorian for many years, and he asked me to join. I only had to listen to the demos once to realize it would be a good fit.

Skratch: What is the most rewarding part of playing in a band?

All: The camaraderie. The feeling you get when you have something in mind and everyone else in your band is in that exact same zone and you don’t even have to talk to communicate just looking at each other is enough to figure out where a song that’s being jammed out is going to go sonically.

Skratch: What challenges have you faced as musicians?

All: Industry and technology is kind of a double edged sword. It has made music more accessible to people. Its easier now than it ever has been to make music, to spread it around to a decent size demographic and of course to steal it. This has kind of made the public pretty apathetic because every genre is saturated with bands with nothing but hype and no talent or skill, in the mean time there are super talented bands that remain under the radar completely or are not nearly as recognized as they should be. Its become more about corporate branding than sonic quality. The challenge is finding unique and innovative ways of marketing your music without becoming gimmicky or false. It’s a thin line we are learning to ride as we go.

Skratch: What would you say is your best song to date? Why?

Leah: For me, it’s “Don’t Stop”. I wrote that song in a good, sweet place. I feel purest and most centered when singing it. I feel it is most reflective of what we’re about as a band- soft and tender, with strong builds and a warm trail off in the end. It’s good to sing about something beautiful and pleasant as opposed to singing about mental instability and infidelity (though both certainly serve their purpose)
Dorian: I would have to say Maria on our EP “Roses” that is out now on ITUNES because it shows off our various influences pretty seamlessly, without sounding contrived. Its just really catchy heavy and memorable.
Lior: My favorite out of the EP "Roses" will have to be Sessile. I just love the way the song is written. Flows really good when I play it and gets me going.
Josh: Maria, because its strikes the right combination of sounding unique and familiar to the listener. It’s easy to enjoy, but also has layers that the listener can discover through multiple listens. I would also like to add that we have some songs that aren’t recorded yet that could top Maria.

Skratch: Do you remember the first album you ever bought? What was it?

Leah: The first album I bought with my babysitting money was Salt n’ Peppa “Push It”. My mom wasn't a fan haha.
Dorian: Metallica “Black Album”
Lior: I am not sure but I think it was Michael Jackson "Dangerous".
Josh: Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits

Skratch: Where do you see your band in five years?

All: Hopefully still together doing what we love. Connecting with more people and evolving together artistically as a unit.

Skratch: Would you say your goals as a band are long term, or short term? What do you ultimately hope to achieve? Explain.

Leah: We want to travel and tour and keep making music!
Dorian: We want to put our mark on this planet artistically. Put out something truly honest and memorable that people can connect with no matter what walk of life they come from.

Skratch: How has your band evolved since when you first formed?

Leah: We started off as an acoustic duo with Dorian and I, playing everything from folk to metal. Then, we found Josh and Lior who bring all new energy to it, creating a heavier more definable sound. Still infusing the soulfulness and folk aspects we had acoustically with double bass and pounding bass guitar to give it body and more life.

Skratch: How often do you practice? What is your rehearsal time like?

All: We practice for about 9 hours a week as a whole, usually broken up into 2-3 practices.

Skratch: What shows/album releases/plans do you currently have set up? Tell us about them.

All: We are currently writing material for a second EP or full length we still aren’t sure. We are playing the Green Expo in Woodley park with OC natives DMT. That is on March 20th and then we will be booking more shows after we nail that.

Skratch: Where have your performed? Tell us about the experience.

All: We’ve played all over So-Cal. Cranes in Hollywood, The Pig n' Whistle, The Cat Club, The Whiskey, Key Club, Roxy, and Rainbow Bar and Grill as well as the Good Hurt and the Universal Bar and Grill. Every place is a bit different because promoters in those venues don’t really care how they put their shows together as far as like genres, they care more about the band's ability to draw, so you get a lot of variety in audiences. Most of the time we go over pretty well. It’s a bit interesting when we play to mellow audiences who are there to see a bunch of singer-songwriters and jam bands, but we do well with the alternative rock shows and surprisingly we are pretty well liked when we play metal/hardcore shows.

Skratch: What sets your stage show a part from all the other bands making the rounds at venues?

All: Our energy. We like to bring the punk rock aggression out in our live presence even if we are playing a mellow song, it’s gonna be intense and people will feel it even if they aren’t familiar with us.

Skratch: Anything else you think we should know about the band?

All: We love music and we love being able to pull from various genres to hopefully introduce to people new ways of playing what's already been played before. We’re four Jews. Shalom!

For more on These Arms Alone you go to www.myspace.com/thesearmsalone

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