We’re Face Of A Stranger is a 5-piece hard rock/metal band from Birmingham UK. We talk with the band about their new EP “Monsters Among Us”
TELL US ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE
(Joe) Artificial Life is the first single from our forthcoming EP “Monsters Among Us” which will be released on in Feb 2024. Artificial Life is a song that's been around in various forms for a few years now, we’ve recently spiced it up a little and it will be released on the 1st of December. It's a straight-up hard rock track with energy, melody and some really cool riffs which makes it a favourite of ours to play live. We’re really proud of how it's turned out in the studio and can't wait for people to hear it.
WHICH SONG WOULD YOU SAY SUMS UP YOUR SOUND THE BEST?
(MITCH) Probably House of Bone and Flesh, or Artificial Life. They're 2 songs from the new EP with a lot of crunch and melody, plenty of Darkness and feel-good kind of mixed up together. It really is a mix of everything we are. There are some gritty aspects, and the content is a commentary, and also a fantastical element there.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO MUSIC?
(Joe) I think like alot of people initially when I was about 12/13 I would hear my parents playing their music in the car and on the stereo. They would listen to things like Appetite for Destruction by Guns N Roses, Nevermind by Nirvana and By The Way by Red Hot Chilli Peppers which are still to this day some of my favourite albums of all time and I was all in from then, I must have listened to Appetite for Destruction a million times since then. From then I started hanging around people at school who liked similar music and who played instruments and then it just went from there.
WHAT DOES TYPICAL WRITING AND RECORDING DAY LOOK LIKE?
(MITCH) Well, we sit about, poke fun at each other, joke around, make references to Family Guy jokes and The Simpsons, and make some sweet tunes, haha! We don't even need to try to make it relaxed, it just is. We're all really good friends in FOAS, and we wouldn't have it any other way to be honest. With Elliot Vaughn, out producer on the recent 2 EP's, he's a really good guy too, and he makes the whole process very chilled while at the same time getting the most out of us.
HOW DID YOU GET YOUR BAND NAME/ STAGE NAME?
From a lyric in an Alter Bridge song called “Find The Real”, a really awesome song. I was listening to it one day back in about 2012 and we all agreed on it there and then. We felt the name change represented the direction the band was heading.
WHAT HAS BEEN THAT HARDEST THING ABOUT YOUR MUSIC JOURNEY SO FAR?
Probably as cliche as it sounds but the pandemic. We were just getting back into things after a long lay off so to then have to have another 18 months waiting around was tough. We were so eager to get back into things and start meeting up and writing. On the other side of that the pandemic meant we all had more time to sit around and write stuff, for one had at least 100 voice notes of guitar riffs from 2020.
WHAT'S BEEN THE EASIEST?
(MITCH) The easiest part of the journey is getting to make our music with mates. It's not like any of this is a chore, making the music we make and spending time together is the easiest thing to do. And we love it. Also one of the easiest things is when we really find a groove for a song, it tends to flow like a river and before we know it every piece has fit together beautifully.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T MAKING MUSIC?
Probably just listening to a lot of music and wishing I could make my own music haha. I'm actually awful at most other creative stuff such as drawing and stuff like that. I’d probably be pretty bored or who knows I might have found a hidden talent in knitting.
WHAT IS THE BEST ADVICE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN?
Make the music you love. Don't ever do something that makes you uncomfortable or something that makes you feel unlike yourselves.
WHAT'S NEXT?
For the next 6 months or so we’ll be promoting this new EP by doing gigs across the UK leading into the summer where hopefully we can pick up some festival shows in the UK. By this time next year, I anticipate we’ll be itching to get back into the studio and will have to start filtering through the hundreds of voice notes of guitar riffs.
(MITCH) Yes, actually earlier I flagged a few voice notes that I can't wait to get cracking on, haha!
PLEASE ADD ANY SOCIALS SO WE CAN SHARE
our instagram is @_faceofastranger_
We can be found on Spotify and all streaming platforms.
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