“I want people to hear my take on the band:" Courtney LaPlante on Iwrestledabearonce’s new album

Tomorrow, August 6, the third studio album Late For Nothing from the metal powerhouse group Iwrestledabearonce will be released. After their 2012 Warped Tour experience took an unexpected turn for the confusing when lead singer Krysta Cameron dropped off on a day’s notice, friend and fan COURTNEY LAPLANTE permanently took her place the next day. It's apparent IWABO are growing up and finding their own sound these days. We spoke to LaPlante about the new record, her permanent position as the band’s frontwoman and the future.

There’s a lot of buzz about Late For Nothing and it’s very different than your past albums. What are you most excited about for the record?
I’m so excited for people to hear it because I’ve been singing someone else’s songs for a year, and I want people to hear my take on the band. The band itself has changed, regardless if I were [in it] or not. I just want everyone to hear it so people that talk shit about it will shut up and hopefully we’ll gain some new fans, as well.

I know you were in Unicron at the time, but after Krysta left, how did you become the lead singer? Was IWABO something you had been thinking about or when they called you did you just say, “This is what I want to do.”?
We did a press release last year and in the press release it says, “Our friend Courtney came to help us.” People figured we were friends or something, but I had never spoken to or met them. They just had heard of my band, and there are similarities [between Unicron and IWABO] and just because I’m a girl, their friends would show them my band Unicron and say, “Hey, check this out. It sounds like you guys.” Then, when Krysta quit with literally no notice—she just didn’t show up to a show—the Warped Tour rep said, “Hey, what about that chick from Unicron?” They called me and I was like, “Okay! I’ll do it.” I flew out the next day. It was going to be a temporary thing; they weren’t trying to get me to join the band. They knew that I had a life in Canada and stuff, but after about three days, it just clicked that we were meant to make music together [Laughs.]

It was a pretty easy transition then.
Yeah, it’s so strange to think about it. There was never really, like, a weird period of [whether or not] this is right or not. We just kind of did [the] first show, and they were all very supportive of me because they obviously knew I was petrified and scared. After that, we immediately started talking about the whole tour and it happened.

Where did you learn to scream?
I learned to scream when I was in Unicron with my little brother. We started out with a Rage Against The Machine-type [sound], and we kind of sounded like Audioslave. Kind of like, “Oooh, yeah!” Then, my brother started getting into heavier music. That kind of [played a role] in our music because we started listening to Protest The Hero, Between The Buried And Me and even System Of A Down. [Music] that's more of a transition band; bands with singing and screaming. There were a few really metal parts that he put in our songs and I said, “What should I do over this?” and he said, “Why don't you do the screaming thing?” I said, “Okay, I guess so.” Unfortunately, those sounds are now immortalized on our record: You can hear my first scream on it. It's so bad. Over time I got better and better, I wasn't scared to do it. Today, I think I sound good live and good on record. It definitely took a long time.

Everything I’ve heard off Late For Nothing is really technical sounding and super-heavy. How has the reception been so far?
I feel like the songs are really fun live. They’re fun to dance around to, and there’s a little more predictability in the sense that there needs to be a chorus that repeats, which I guess with our band is kind of unpredictable. We don’t usually have something like that. I think [the songs] have been received very well and lots of really positive feedback. There’s always, of course, negative feedback. But, we’ve all been really overwhelmed at how positive the feedback has been. The [fans have been] very open. Even if there is criticism, it’s constructive; people are open to it. >>>

Album Track By Track on Page Three

How was the studio process this time around?
The way that the band’s always worked is Steven [Bradley] and John [Ganey], the guitar players, write most of the stuff. They’re always recording riffs. They have literally 5,000 riffs over the last 10 years or older that they have on their laptops. The ones they like always kind of stay in their heads. Something will call out to them and they’ll create a full song. I’m presented the song once it’s completely done. They just pass it off to me, and I write all the lyrics and write all the melodies. Then, I just go up and sing what I want. On this album, everyone was in agreement.

What were some influences you guys had in making the album?
I definitely think that the guys love of Deftones and that kind of stuff that has beautiful chords and melodic landscapes rather than super riffy [stuff] shines through [on this album]. That [type of music is] kind of their first love and on this album there are a lot more pretty, down-tempo parts and you can definitely hear that we love Deftones on this album. [Laughs.]

What was something that you wanted to push for Late For Nothing that was like, “We need to do this; it has to happen.”
The thing that I really wanted was that I didn’t want to be afraid to have a chorus that was, in my opinion, accessible and ear-pleasing. We all love music like that. Sometimes “poppy” is a bad word, like it’s not creative, but I think it’s much harder to write a melody that’s the backbone of the song. I think that’s really hard to do. That was my goal for all the songs. There [are] a few that have a more abstract approach to the melodies. The singing parts are more ear-pleasing than what they did [before] because Krysta was very inspired by Bjork, and stuff like that, [which] was a little more abstract. I like singing in a more traditional, pretty way. That’s my style. It [was] very important to me to have choruses in these songs that are going to get stuck in people’s heads. I was very driven to create that and everyone was onboard with that. They’ve always wanted to do it [as] a band. It was one of their goals and they finally got to do it. I feel like we accomplished that.

What do you have planned after the release?
It’s our last record with Century Media. Now, we’re kind of like free agents. What we really want is [to] start making new songs. It’s so frustrating because we picked 12 songs, but we have three other songs that I think are very cool. They’re waiting to be polished and put on the CD. After this, we want to tour as much as we can for the next year-and-a-half to just really get this album out there because I think it’s going to need all the support it can get. When you lose a singer, that’s a hard hit to your band. We have a lot to prove right now, so we have to get out there and prove that we’re not shot. The band believes in me and I believe in the band.

Are you going to release the rest of the songs by yourselves until you figure out where you’re going?
We don’t know yet. Right now, we’re just so focused on getting this thing out and having a good first week and having fun on this All Stars Tour because it’s a blast so far. We’re just having an amazing time. It’s like summer camp or something. [Laughs.] My objective now is [to] get the CD in kid’s hands, change everyone’s minds and have a really fun summer.

How did you get Steve Vai on a track?
His son is a fan of our band and through being a fan of our band became an awesome friend. He's super-cool and he lives like a mile away from us. That's where our band is based out of [and is] where Steven lives. He was like, “Hey, maybe my dad will do a solo on your new album.” We were like, “Hahaha, yeah right.” We would never ask him to do that. He's such a busy person. He has, like, 10,000 projects going [on]. So [we] didn't get our hopes up. Then, sure enough, he emailed us back, “I can do a song on Monday.” We were like, “Holy shit.” He's a genius and made this incredible solo so quickly, and it's the coolest part of our album. He's awesome. For him to not have a certain idea of us, that we're not cool or serious enough for him to grace us with his presence, I think it's badass. He's a very open guy. He's been very supportive of our band. I think that's really cool [that] someone we look up to would say, “Hey, let's support each other as musicians.” I don't want to be a nerd, but it's an honor.