www.facebook.com/wearesovereignband
From: United Kingdom
Sounds like: Synth Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? Who thought of the name “Wearesovereign" and is there any meaning behind it?
Laura (Vocalist) - I've been in bands drumming and screaming since I was 15 and I wanted to create a band that would be fully committed to push the boundaries of the metalcore genre. Throughout my whole life I've had to really find myself and I've been through a hell of alot emotionally so I decided to start a brand new band and bring to life my experiences. By the time I met Ash in 2019 the music was pretty much all ready. He's amazing to have as a vocal partner. We clicked so well from the get go, we put our heads down and set to work on bringing the songs to life lyrically. As time went on the project sadly hit a standstill due to many obstacles we had to overcome alongside the pandemic. I had health issues and finding members who were passionate and committed was beginning to become an absolute nightmare. Finally by the end of 2020, things started to shift when we found bassist Sam Maltby and Alfie Wickham (drums) Lastly we found Guitarist Sebastian Foster who joined the ranks at the start of 2021 to complete the line-up.
The track concepts are born from the journey of how I'm still standing today haha. From a young age I went through years of suffering with gender dysphoria, which resulted in a long dark battle with mental health. Now, after a life changing operation (Top Surgery) to feel comfortable within my own skin I want to tell my story with my incredible bandmates. I feel like we don't really stop and reflect on the chapters of life we experience. We've covered Betrayal in our first single and are set to cover many more such as Acceptance, Resilience, Loss, Torment and Heartbreak. It's weird because I feel like I've known the guys forever. We all click so well like a big family and each member brings something different to the band. As much as the music and concept is based on my own real life events we all bring our part into making it work. I love every one of them for believing in my vision!
In the very early days of forming the band me and a member at the time (a bassist who never ended up in the final line up) sat down and wrote down loads of band name ideas, we had so many haha. We Are Sovereign was the final one chosen that stood out and represented the band's journey the most. The band name idea evolved from the concept of being in a load of bands previously and with us all getting older this realistically is our last shot of making our dreams come true as musicians. We are Sovereign stands for the representation that this band we feel is the highest we've ever felt musicially and visually amongst everything we've ever been a part of.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
Laura: We want people to really reflect on our music and strongly take in our lyrics. We're all human and every song is based on a true subject and event. We want to help people through the times you really feel on your own. Sometimes even though you're surrounded by people, you just feel so fucking alone. I've learnt that if you know other people have experienced what you have or you know people who are going through a similiar thing it makes it so much easier. As a band we believe if there's something you can relate to when you're going through a hard time it makes it easier to survive.
Life is a scary and unpredictable journey and we set out to cover all aspects of it in our records. We want people to feel part of our family and know life can be shit but if it wasn't you'd never be able to appreciate the good. We want our music to drive people but at the same be a comfort. We as individuals would describe ourselves as the outcasts growing up and with that we really want people to fight and stand up to be who they want to be and encourage people to be comfortable within themselves. Everybody deserves to feel comfortable within their own skin without judgement and we want people to know that. The world is a cruel place and we live amongst so much judgement and cruelty and we're set to create a family where everybody feels safe and can express who they want to be freely. We stand with our heads held high and aim to spread that powerful message for people to be themselves. Always be YOU and most importantly no matter what life throws at you, KEEP GOING. We're all everyday people who work jobs to fund the band and music has been each of our passions from a very early age. Through our own personal battles and demons we describe We Are Sovereign as our escape, our purpose and our way of dealing with our fight.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
We’d describe our music as a mix of raw story telling real life emotion accompanied by music created from every genre you can imagine blended together. It’s not just music it’s a real life story but instead of being read out it’s being sang and screamed out. We have synth, we have emotional guitar solos, we have screams over pianos, electronics and no song sounds the same. We’re a band with music you can listen to and walk away and think I’ve felt that, I’ve been at that point in my life. If you imagine a mix of 2000 metal core, elements of pop punk and post hardcore along with synth strings, gang vocals and choir you’re just about there.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Laura: For me it'd have to be Bring Me The Horizon, Statw Champs and My Chemical Romance for sure!
Ash: Bring Me The Horizon, A Day To Remember and Sleeping With Sirens
Sebastian: AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin
Sam: Enter Shikari, Born Of Osiris and Enter Asking Alexandria!
Alfie: Code Orange, Bodysnatcher and Darko US
5. How has Covid affected what you do as a band?
Laura: It definitely held us back for a long time! It was was so frustrating but I’d say it did give me and ash a lot of time to get everything vocally written and close to ready but at the same time we were struggling to find members without a pandemic, never mind when the pandemic hit. We were all locked away and we couldn't meet anybody. All we could do was reach out to people and wait until we were allowed to socialise. It was an absolute nightmare haha! It did teach us though that anything is achievable if you want it enough. We had to survive through emails and facetime until everything started to lift.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Synth Metal?
Laura: I'd love to see bands come back with the old metalcore synth sound like early AA and Attack Attack! I'll be completely honest, I still listen to the same music I did like 10 years ago haha. I haven't heard any new synth metal bands come out in a long time! I'd say a lot of bands are bringing synth into their sound more than ever which is amazing as I love synth a little bit too much!
7. What’s the current music scene like locally there in the UK?
Laura: I was originally born in Blackpool but now I currently live in Derby in the East Midlands and the Metal and Rock scene is not too bad you know. We have The Hairy Dog which is a really good venue and place to chill. There’s a few venues and bars in Nottingham that are decent. It’s nothing compared to London or Manchester but it’s pretty cool for what it is.
Ash: I’m from Derby in the East Midlands, there’s a lot of fans of the scene, just not so many bands, not that I know of anyway, but I hope to see a few more come out the woodwork.
Sebastian: I’m from Nottingham and the Metal & Rock scene is really good, we have a fair few metal and rock bars!
Sam: I'm from Nottingham and it’s quite small, we’re hoping to change that.
Alfie: I’m from Nottingham, I don’t really know what the scenes like here, pretty quiet I guess? It won’t be soon though…
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
Laura: I think they could be better haha. When it comes to Spotify, unless you're in the million club of streams you're really not making a lot. It's a tough world for musicians, especially unsigned. We work jobs in the day to fund what we do and a lot of the time people have no idea we do this. We pay for our recordings, photoshoots, videos and pretty much everything. It's pretty tough when you don't see much of a return but the main thing is that we're doing what we love and people are enjoying our music. We don't do it for the money but if we could one day do it full time that'd be incredible!
9. What’s next for We Are Sovereign?
The band itself has been a few years in the making and had many setbacks and uncontrollable disasters behind closed doors along the way but we're now ready to set our sights on conquering the music scene. The band is fuelled from what life has had to throw at us. We plan to play as many shows as we can and spread our music and message far and wide. We believe people are ready for something different and we want to be the ones to bring that.
Our next single will be released early 2022 and is called Nostalgia. It's set to take you through the emotions of finding comfort in acceptance. Accepting you can never go back to exact life moments ever again. It's really tough when you're going through a hard time and you wish for nothing more than to go back, hit a button and be where you felt safe and life was incredible. Sadly there's moments you can never get back ever again and it eats away at you. A Lot of people will be able to relate to this.
10. Any shoutouts?
We'd like to thank every single person who has watched our debut music video, left us comments, told their friends about us and made our first single special. Thanks to those who support us. listen to and share our music. We love you! Also our families as without them god knows where we'd all be. If you haven’t already check out our single Bridges Burnt Lessons Learnt (Betrayal) ft Ryan Tuck O’Leary from Fit For a King check out the video on YouTube or find us on all streaming services!
