We Are The Fallen

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We Are the Fallen, formed in 2009, came together when former members of Evanescence decided to go in a different direction. Ben Moody contacted drummer Rocky Gray & guitarist John Lecompt and from there the band added on bassist Marty O’Brien and former American Idol contestant Carly Smithson. With their debut album “Tear the World Down” being released in May 2010, the band is currently touring North America as well as Europe, creating a buzz worldwide.

I was fortunate enough to get to speak with guitarist John Lecompt over the phone about their album, the difficulties of the industry and all their upcoming plans.

CONFRONT: Let’s start off with just a brief history of the band. How did you guys get together?

JOHN: Well the history of the band is pretty brief. We’re not even a year old yet. Ben Moody, whose been a friend for a long time since the departures from evanescence, called me out of the blue and he was like “Lets do a rock band together!”  And I was like “Dude lets do it!” So Rocky, him and I decided we would do that and he brought Marty over too. Marty’s worked with tons of bands like Tommy Lee and we just needed to find our singer. Coincidentally Carly was looking for a band so she just haphazardly ended up at Ben’s house after some coaxing from his girlfriends mother. Carly was good friends with Bens roommate and he was like “Well we’re doing this” and she was like “Well I’m doing this” and we’re like lets try and do this together.

CONFRONT: So everything just kind of came together perfectly for you guys.

JOHN: Yeah within a few short weeks actually.

CONFRONT: That’s amazing! So your debut album “Tear the World Down” was released yesterday.

JOHN: Yes it was!

CONFRONT: Talk to me about that experience, what was the recording process like?

JOHN: The recording process was really cool. We are all pretty fluent song writers and we like to write by ourselves a lot. We did so much pre-production before we ever actually entered the studio that probably 35-40% of the record is from the demo. Just making the record came along really well because we worked so much before we even entered into the studio that we flew right through and we were done in about 6 weeks.

CONFRONT: Did you have experience with working in the studio before or was this your first time?

JOHN: Oh no I had a lot of experience with the studio. I worked on the original evanescence album, I’d written music for it, I’ve also done an album with Machina that’s actually in the box right now sitting on ice. I did a long stint in Tennessee working on that and I’ve just been in the studio a lot.

CONFRONT: Do you have a favorite song off the album?

JOHN: That’s really hard to say. I love all of them. The song “St-John” is probably my favorite. It’s my baby. I wrote the crap out of that’ song and I did a bunch of stuff that I wouldn’t normally have done or stuff that I didn’t even know I could do. That’s probably the strongest track on there for me.

CONFRONT: How would you describe your sound as a band?

JOHN: I would describe it as very heavy low tuned guitars, orchestral arrangements and creepy choirs. We also threw in my kids singing on the song Burn. My two year old and my 15 year old because we wanted to have a creepy kids choir.

CONFRONT: Wow, that’s incredibly original.

JOHN: Yeah and I couldn’t get my two year old to sing on key for the whole arrangement so I had to sing in the key that was next and he would do it after me. Then we pieced it all together so it sounds like he was singing all of it, which he was, just not all together.

CONFRONT: Which song was this?

JOHN: It’s in the song Burn during the bridge. It’s kind of like Lost Boys or something, it’s creepy.

CONFRONT: Well I haven’t had the chance to listen to the album yet but I’m looking forward to hearing that.

JOHN: Yeah it’s great. The funny thing is that my children are on that song and my daughters name is Bethany and on iTunes it says “We are the Fallen and Bethany” which is a mistake but she thought it was cool.

CONFRONT: Do you have any musical inspirations.

JOHN: I have such a twisted view, I have so many inspirations. With everything I’ve ever done. With this record I didn’t focus on anything. I’m constantly pulling from Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie etc. My other band I could get into a totally different mindset. It’s more hard rock meets grunge and I can look more towards Alice in Chains. It just depends on what project I’m working on and I can pull from any different source.

CONFRONT: What’s one thing you’ve learned about the music industry?

JOHN: One thing I’ve learned is that it’s a rollercoaster. When you’re up you’re up and when you’re down you’re down. There’s a lot of people who just want to hold onto their jobs with this economy and the thing with this record label, maybe not with this label Universal, aren’t willing to take a risk. If they take a risk they could lose their job.

CONFRONT: With so much competition in the industry what drives you to continue making music?

JOHN: I can’t stop. I just can’t do it. After my departure from evanescence there were a few dark years. I was working on my band Machina but I had to go back to blue collar and I had to take care of my family. It’s just rough out there. At no point did I say to myself “I have to quit doing this”. I think I may have had one little epiphany one day when I was driving down and we’d gotten investors on an album and we were 100,000 in debt and we were like “What if the labels don’t’ pick it up?! What do we do? Maybe I should just quit” and as soon as I thought that adrenaline started coursing through me and I was like “Hell no I’m never going to stop.”

CONFRONT: This is what you’ve always wanted to do.

JOHN: Exactly!

CONFRONT: What are the upcoming plans for the band? A lot of touring?

JOHN: Yeah, lots of tours. We did our debut show in London and we’re doing a little ten headline run starting tomorrow.

CONFRONT: You’re making a stop in Toronto right?

JOHN: Yeah! We’ve been through Edmonton and Calgary on our last tour and we’re going to stop up there for a few shows. We go off to Europe for all sorts of festivals.

CONFRONT: So you’re going all over the place, you’re not just staying in North America.

JOHN: We’re going everywhere. Our last band that we were in together was pretty world wide. I think if everyone gets what we were doing then, they’ll get what we’re doing now.

CONFRONT: Well I wish you guys a lot of success.

JOHN: Thanks so much!

To learn more about We Are the Fallen click on the links below:

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&tid=1308908318782#!/wearethefallen?ref=ts

www.wearethefallen.com/

www.myspace.com/wearethefallen

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