Iwrestledabearonce pour la sortie de leur premier EP

Aaaaahh, la mariage du chaud et du froid, du sucré et du salé, du vert pomme et de l'orange fluo, de l'hétéro et du saphique, de Christine Boutin et de Fadela Amara: autant de mariages parfois réussis, parfois complètement ridicules. Sur son premier EP, Iwrestledabearonce nous prouve que l'ultra violence musicale peut très bien faire des miracles mariée à des atmosphères soft électro-éthérées, et que les ours, quand on les chatouille là où c'est bon, peuvent devenir les meilleurs amis de l'homme.

Hi boys (and girl !) ! As you can easily guess from the review of your first EP available on this webzine (you can read French, can't you ? ;)), I've been totally blown by your first release. So I really would like to know the who, what and how behind the music: sorry for starting this interview with such a traditional question, but could you give us a hint at Iwrestlesabearonce's history, purpose, philosophy and preferred sexual perversions ?

Basically this band was started off with the idea of FUCK GENRES... we're going to to whatever the fuck we want to do and hopefully people are on board for that!


If you ask me, I'd tell you that Iwrestlesabearonce is a goddamn great name! How did you come to adopt it? Is Davy Crockett one of the founder member of the band, or did you really punch Winnie the Pooh in the honey pots back when you were in kindergarten?

Haha.. The actor Gary Busey had a TV show for a while on Comedy Central...and at one point on the show, he just said "I wrestled a bear once..." and that's how we got the name! Pretty stupid story!


How do normal people come to mix together über brutal death metal & hysterical mathcore with delicate piano parts, beautiful female voice & soft ambient moments? I guess all of you are more or less subject to schizophrenia, right?

We're all fucking crazy.. straight up haha. Basically we just want to make sure we never fit into a certain genre... I never want people to be able to guess our next move ya know?


There is a new song available on your myspace, entitled "Tastes like Kevin Becon". Is it new material that you recorded to attract label managers' attention? Is it the new single of an album soon to come ? Or the first song with really everything you needed/wanted to realise the perfect video clip?

We wanted to get a new song online with REAL drums... programmed drums are nice and all, but nothing compares to the real thing haha. And yeah, we also did it to attract more attention and all that good shit :D


Speaking about the video clip, congratulations, this one is really crazy! By the way it will definitely have you labelled as a fun, tongue-in-cheek band. What about that? Don't you fear that this 'not so serious' label might bother you in the future?

Well, we just signed to Century Media so i guess everything worked out! :] And we definitely go out of our way to be nice to people, instead of acting like assholes like most bands tend to do. We really just wanna have fun and enjoy life.. not act like "brutal badasses" all the time ya know? We take the music seriously of course, but we don't take ourselves seriously at all. woo!


Speaking about the funny side of your music, I've found it great that you adapt and incorporate the theme of "Inspector Gadget" cartoon in "Ulrich Firelord: Breaker Of Mountains ». Can we expect rearrangements of other cartoon themes, or other totally non metal pieces of music in the future?

Who knows haha... I had that idea a long time ago and finally said fuck it, let's use it! We never thought this band would get big like this, so we said why not be retarded and do whatever we want... who knew that everyone else would wanna be retarded with us!


Most of your song titles contain people names - Ulrich Firelord, Vlork (?),Corey Feldman, Kevin Bacon - some of them (at least 2!) being actors. Given that I haven't the lyrics of the songs (and that my French ear is not the best receiver as far as growled English is concerned), I haven't been able to figure out what kind of gimmick this is supposed to be ? We're gonna have "Tom Hank's socks suck" and "Bring me the head of Sean Penn" songs on your forthcoming album?

Like I said.. we're just morons! Ulrich and VLork were named by our bass player when he was wasted... and Corey Feldman Holocaust and Tastes Like Kevin Bacon were named by friends/fans of the band. We're just going to start letting people on myspace name our songs because we just don't give a shit haha.


Your EP is almost entirely available on your myspace (except for the remix). Additionally, in the booklet is mentioned something like: "Thanx for purchasing this EP. Now go burn this CD for your friends". You really don't want to make a single dollar out of your music it seems, right ? :)

We don't care about money... we just want to be able to afford gas money for tour and food while on the road! Now that we signed our lives away, we have to encourage people to buy the new CD when it comes out... otherwise our label will hate us and we will kill ourselves haha. But for the old EP, we said fuck it... burn it for everyone! We just looked at it as a way to get our name out, not to make money.


I bet you're gonna signed on Relapse Records, 'cause you really seem to fit the quality criteria this label apply when adding atypical metal band to its rosters. What do you think of my crystal ball's predictions? (later note: That it's all bullshit! The band just did its best to get signed somewhere else before sending the answers to this interview … :))

-----since we took too long to fill this out, I guess erase this question? haha ---- (Thrasho: Never! I will also do whatever I want, because I am a moron too :) !)


Minor question now: where does "Alaskan Flounder Basket" introduction sample come from? Is that taken from a movie or is it a statement coming straight from Krysta's mouth, as she lists to her victim the first foreplays she intends to go through as a good start of a long night of lust and pain ?

It's from the movie "SCARY MOVIE 2" ! one of the best movies of all time!


You are currently on tour (or you were some days ago): how was it ? Did you get good feedback from the audiences? Is it realistic in any way to hope that we will witness some Iwrestledabearonce dates down here in France?

Tour is always fun... we seem to get great reactions for the most part, but there are always those "BRUTAL METAL DUDES" who think we are fags and hate us haha. And especially since signing to Century Media, we will for sure be coming to Europe in 2009 :]


Dada Yakuza's remix is really awesome. What are your links with this project / band? Do you share some musicians?

He's just a DJ from New York who offered to remix the song! We love his work, so we put it on the CD :] As simple as that!


I only know a bunch of twisted minds of your kind playing awesome brutal weird music (Whourkr, Pin Up Went Down in some extent, ...): could you please tell me about other mutants of your friends / kind / idols that could please my hungry-for-great-&-sick-stuff ears?

Honestly none of us are up on the latest bands at all... We listen to shitty old 80s music for the most part... and then some newer bands like Necrophagist and Bjork haha. I wish I knew about more new bands, but living in a van and then coming home to an apartment with no internet access makes it hard to keep in touch with the outside world!


Can you give us some fresh news about new material to be released in a not too far future ?

We will be touring and writing this summer... and then recording a new CD at the end of the year! As of now, that's all we really know! :]


Thank you very much for having answered these silly questions. Now comes the time of the last words, so do not forget to tell the readers about the stuff you're selling on eBay, the flat for rent you'd like to find for your next holiday in Paris, or any other important message that all of us should be exposed to.

We love you all.. thanks for reading this and sorry we are idiots and give shitty answers! We will be in France in 2009 for sure, so keep in touch and let's all get drunk and piss on the Eiffel Tower!!!

Je sais pas vous, mais ce groupe a réhabilité l'expression "Ta mère suce des ours" à mes yeux ! Quoi "n'importe quoi" ? C'est eux qu'ont commencé d'abord !!