In early January, Jake Longhurst talked to Dom Moss, the bassist for hardcore heavyweights Ithaca.
Sat down in my room in Nottingham, having returned for the new university term, I’d been back less than 24 hours before I got the privilege of talking to half of the rhythm section of one of the most exciting bands in metal. Dom tuned in around the early hours of the afternoon and we got chatting, first about the stellar reception that the band garnered around their absolutely sensational release last year, They Fear Us. He stated early that “it might sound arrogant, but we knew it was a good record. You spend so much time writing it, that when we were recording it we knew it was really good, but even so, the reception has been bonkers.” Bonkers is one way of putting it: the album was credited amongst numerous rock and metal magazine heavyweights as a potential Album Of The Year upon release, and come December, this was proven fact with They Fear Us landing firmly amongst the highest-rated albums of 2022. The most obvious accolade may well be Metal Hammer naming the record as not only the third best of the entire year but as the best metalcore LP of 2022, with Kerrang naming them number two for the entire year. The nostalgia factor of having bought these exact magazines hit home for Dom, saying how surreal it was to be named by these massive names, however as much of the excitement came from being included in so many Album Of The Year lists by individuals (myself included, it snuck in as my second best of the year) as it did from the big name publications.
We then discussed how popular they’ve become and talked about the writing process, specifically about how the band managed to connect to so many people. Dom credits lead singer Djamila [Yasmin Azzouz] with a massive amount of the success from that front, directly calling her a “brilliant writer” (a point with which I enthusiastically agree) but also how the message and themes of the album have changed dramatically with Djamila’s growth over the past few years. Naturally, COVID-19 is still a sore subject and one I’m as excited as anyone to be able to forget about, but the influence it had on the band and the writing/recording process is clear to see. As the pandemic’s grip lessened, Dom remarked that he could hear the lyrics the band used getting less introspective and vicious, and more reflective of the situation the world found itself in, even. I made a comment about how much the sound has evolved since the group’s apoplectic debut The Language Of Injury, which Dom then commented about how marked the lyrical difference is. To quote, “if [Djamila] had still been writing that kind of stuff, I’d have sat her down and checked she’s ok.” The new album shows the mental growth and remarkable fortitude of Djamila more than any of the band, as the foremost lyric writer; however, each and every member has had their say and all of them have had integral parts to play in putting together this modern masterpiece.
Furthering the talk about the pandemic, I asked how exactly the writing process had been affected, and straight away I was greeted with a slightly wry smile as if to say how frustrated my fellow conversationalist was with it, much like the rest of us. As a group of friends who’ve known each other for years, the inability to meet in person to write material really jarred the band. They were instead forced to send each other things from the confines of their own houses. Once the virus lessened its grip on us all, they set aside a few days to “head to the seaside, crack a bunch of tins, go down to the beach and then go and write some stuff together.” Dom’s topic of conversation slightly shifted to suggest how, in the future, people will look back on this era of music and look at anything released after the onset of the pandemic with a different viewpoint, judging how the state of the world was at the time, because of “the profound psychological impact… the mental fatigue of staying inside”, and “not knowing what’s going on or going to happen in the world.” He clarified that he didn’t know what Djamila’s original intent for the album was, but did go as far as to say that “if we’d put it out earlier it would’ve been angrier.”
“People will look back on this era of music and look at anything released after the onset of the pandemic with a different viewpoint, judging how the state of the world was at the time”
I then asked a question I’d been dying to know, namely the influences that had been brought in by each member of the band. Sam [Jones, guitar] brought “loads of jazzy chords” and also got some samples from Indian music that ended up on the record. Dom himself played in hardcore bands, so he “might do a different drum beat than [James] Lewis [drummer], who’d been listening to loads of djent.” This isn’t immediately obvious upon the first listen, but “it influenced the way he would write fills, and it also meant we wouldn’t fall into the same thing, when there are syncopated guitars, of following with double kick.” There were plenty more, such as Prince, some gospel and some disco influence too, which made for a metalcore record that felt open to change and more welcome to the idea of fluidity between genres, rather than sticking too firmly into one conceptual sound.
The aesthetic of the LP was a key part of the whole concept for this release, and upon me questioning the thought process Dom was more than happy to delve into plenty of the reasoning. It’s inherently a very anti-hardcore/metalcore aesthetic, deliberately so, and part of this came from the desire for increased cohesion onstage. The group have taken to wearing slightly oversized suits onstage which really adds to the vibe they can bring, and it looks awesome! It was a group decision to stray from the standard aesthetic of the genre, so by going with a muted pastel orange and a murky green as two of the prominent colours, they’ve successfully created a look that is completely their own, not just within the subgenre but frankly within music (to my knowledge). Dom was thrilled with the public reception to the look of the album, saying how rewarding it was that such a potentially risky choice paid off so well.
“It was a group decision to stray from the standard aesthetic of the genre, so by going with a muted pastel orange and a murky green as two of the prominent colours, they’ve successfully created a look that is completely their own, not just within the subgenre but frankly within music.”
I then asked about Dom’s personal favourite song on the album, and he said that this album is actually the first he’s ever been on that he isn’t bored of after touring it, which says a lot in and of itself! At the time of the conversation, his favourite song was The Future Says Thank You, in no small part due to how much fun he finds it to play live but has cautioned that this will absolutely change on tour, so there’s no concrete way of telling exactly what Dom’s actual favourite song will be at any given moment without asking. The spin of the conversation then swung towards the future, as I inquired into any plans that I may be privy to (the answer was none that we’re not already aware of) however Dom did slip that there are more announcements to come, as was certainly expected with the monumental success of the album. With any luck, the residents of Nottingham may even be lucky enough to receive another visit from the London firebrands and get a proper mosh on.
As the interview wound to a close, I had to finish up with the two most important questions in any interview I have conducted. As always, the first of the two that I presented to Dom was “if [he] could create a supergroup, of any number of members, alive or dead, any genre, who would be included?” The man with the best moustache in UK metal took a moment to mull it over, exclaiming at the difficulty of it, then decided to go with a bold yet entirely understandable selection of the Ithaca line-up but with guitarist Will Sweet on the bass “so [he] could watch them play live again,” which is as good a reason as there could be. Finally, the most important question of the whole conversation came up, as I posed the conceptual dilemma of “in a world of anthropomorphic biscuits, what biscuit would [he] be and why?” This is a perpetually perplexing question, as it generally takes a significant amount of processing to truly consider the right option. He again took a second, then came back with a party ring, because “[he’s] trashy, but [he’s] fun, good with kids, a bit of a guilty pleasure as well, [he’s] sweet but a little bit flaky,” which whilst I couldn’t have confirmed all of I can certainly testify the fact that he’s plenty of fun and very sweet.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the wonderful Dom Moss of the brilliant Ithaca, but not for too long, as with any luck he and the rest of the lively cohort will be back in Nottingham soon.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by Roxann Yus
Cover image and in-article images courtesy of Ithaca via Facebook.
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