Forming a band in the summer of 2011 with three musicians in a basement hasn't proved to be much of a challenge for Those Are Them, a melodic hardcore band from Edmonton, AB. The band fuses together elements of different genres such as metalcore, rock, dub-step, and more. With lots of song writing to figure out exactly what direction the band wanted to take, they went from a group of friends practicing in a basement to a six piece energetic band, playing shows and getting known in the western Canadian scene and also on the internet. Thus a new band has been made and will continue to expand it's musical talents from here on out. Bassist, vocalist, and keyboardist, Khalid Hamir discusses the band's latest release "Episode One" the band's debut EP as well as plans for the very near future.
1. Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Those Are Them, and how long the band has been together.
Khalid: I’m Khalid Hamir, and I play bass and do vocals in the band. The band has been around since the beginning of 2012.
2. Can I get a backstory on the band/ band biography?
Khalid: Our drummer Brayden, myself, and one of our guitarists Daylan started jamming together in the summer of 2011 just writing stuff and putting everything together on what we wanted TAT to be. We went through a few member changes before we had a solid line up, a couple people came and went, but that was all part of the building process. We've progressed quite a bit since then but at that time we were still learning quite a lot about being in a band... we’re still learning a lot about it too.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
Khalid: We’re based out of the Edmonton, AB area here in western Canada. The scene here is awesome. We unfortunately don’t get lots of bigger tours that come through here but the people and the promotors and other bands are very great to work/connect with. Some cool bands in the area I’d recommend are Fall City Fall, Icosian, Slumlord, Contention, The Red Threat and Greater Than Giants.
4. You guys are currently a DIY type of act why did you want this path in particular? Do you want to eventually get signed with a label or stick to the DIY thing?
Khalid: It really depends on the offer, we've gotten a few offers from a couple smaller labels and a few management companies but nothing that’s really stood out to us. For now we just feel as though the more we can do on our own the better until something better comes our way.
5. You released your EP Episode One will we be seeing a series form here with Episode Two, Three, etc as far as new material?
Khalid: No, we don’t plan on doing that sort of series. Our next release will be titled something different for sure.6. Who produced Episode One and what was it like working with them?
Khalid: Episode One was recorded, mixed and mastered by Greg Wright at Hillbilly Wizard Sound here in Edmonton. He’s an awesome guy, great friend and he’s very well known here in the local scene. It was a great experience working with him and we look forward to working with him again in the near future.
7. Is there any story or concept behind the Episode One title?
Khalid: We named it Episode One because of the fact that it was our first release, and our first big step forward as a band so we found the name fitting.
8. Who did the cover art for Episode One and how much input did you have on it?
Khalid: Benjamin Mota from Axis Design, and we had 100% input on it. We gave him our idea and he went from there, he was also a great guy to work with!
9. Select two songs from Episode One and what inspired the lyrics.
Khalid: Jeeps Creeps: the inspiration would be breaking apart from the norm, not being afraid to explore something in life that's considered different, yet abstaining from the wrong paths.
Brightly Coloured V-Necks: as just an inspiration/tribute to what a group of guys can accomplish if we try hard enough. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything.
10. What lyrical theme do you guys use in your music? What message do you want to send?
Khalid: The main message we’d like to portray, is perseverance through any and all hardships, there is always a solution to any problem. You can always find a light in the darkest places.
11. What bands have influenced your band and its sound?
Khalid: So many artists have influenced us as musicians, I could literally go on forever. We’re all into different styles of music which is cool too. Our influences range from Mumford & Sons to Volumes... those are just two of our MANY influences.
12. You will be going on tour soon what do you hope to accomplish from this run?
Khalid: Yes, we leave at the end of this month to go on tour with The Body Politic and Icosian throughout western Canada. We’re excited to play in new cities and meet new people and also see some familiar faces we've met and played for in the past.
13. What have you done to prepare yourselves for the tour?
Khalid: We've got some new merch available for this tour as well as we've prepared a couple new songs to play that we’ll be recording at the end of this year.
14. What are you looking forward to about working with the other bands on this tour?
Khalid: I’m personally looking forward to learning from them as to how they do things and how they perform live. We've never actually been on a full tour before, both the other bands are more experienced than us and older than us as well since we’re all still pretty young.
15. What could one expect from a Those Are Them show?
Khalid: High energy and lots and lots of fun.
16. Describe your show, visual and musically for us.Khalid: Like I said, lots of high energy, we've been complimented a lot for our stage presence with everything looking and sounding “in-sync.”
17. What do you do to get ready for a show?
Khalid: Just the usual things like tune our guitars, do vocal warm ups, make sure we have enough merch to sell etc.
18. What else do you guys have planned for the remainder of this year?
Khalid: Tour with The Body Politic and Icosian at the end of September/October and then more writing and recording.
19. Any final words?
Khalid: Please go check out our debut EP “Episode One” and pick it up on iTunes!
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