Since most of us get our music digitally nowadays, it's easy to jump online and find new bands. Facebook has become the newest home to discover up and coming groups and, when you are checking out one band, another one can come into your line of vision. Enter Iridescence, which means "an optical phenomenon in which hue changes in correspondence with the angle from which a surface is viewed." That definition might as well apply to their musical style, because they don't just subscribe to one type of sound; they merge two or three different types and create songs that have a strong build with vocal aggression and then a clean release. You can think of both sides of their music as Post-Hardcore and Experimental crashing into each other. At the time of this article's publication, Iridescence has a song playing on their Facebook page entitled "Stop, Drop and Roll Won't Work In Hell."

This band of five hails from Covington, LA., and I was recently fortunate enough to conduct a Facebook interview with them after talking with Noel Pilie, the guitar player, in the chat box just a day before. They were kind enough to sit down and answer a few of my questions once the band gathered together.

Rough Edge: Okay, here we go! Let's talk about influences. I know you list a few on your Facebook page but feel free to list more and what do you pull from those bands: the sound, the vocals, the guitar?

Iridescence: Underoath, Our Last Night, The Great Commission, Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Silence (Mitch Luker), Miss May I.

Rough Edge: How does the band write music? All together or does somebody come up with an idea and you roll off that?

Iridescence: Noel writes the whole layout of the song on guitar then he brings it to the whole band and they take it from there

Rough Edge: Do you guys have a lot of demos lying around or do you like to finish a song that gets started?

Iridescence: We like to get every song completely done and work with it for a while then go record it and release it.

Rough Edge: Very cool! You said you guys have an EP. Is there a full length disc in the works?

Iridescence: We are begging to write a full length and will record it in the near future.

Rough Edge: How about song length? Do you guys put limits on how long a song should be or does being experimental give your more leeway?

Iridescence: Experimental gives us more leeway, definitely. We like to get our point across in every song.

Rough Edge: You guys look like a young band, how long have you been creating music?

Iridescence: About a year and a half. We started in June of 2010 and we've gone through a lot of changes as a band.

Rough Edge: Do you guys play any clubs in your area, are there any plans to go outside your zip code and tour the state of Louisiana?

Iridescence: We haven't toured around the state yet, but we've left our city and played all around New Orleans and the local cities around it, including Baton Rouge. We are looking at a small tour of the Gulf Coast with a couple of other local bands.

Rough Edge: Will you guys headline or has the boast of being the headliner taken the place of just playing music and hanging with fans.

Iridescence: Yeah we just headlined our EP release show. We don't let the fact of headlining get to us. We just enjoy our time playing shows and love to hang out and meet new people.

Rough Edge: I think that modesty is something that's been lacking is the music world. You guys seem down-to-earth and that's a good characteristic to have. Your song, "Stop, Drop and Roll Won't Work In Hell" is a great song title. How do you name the songs?

Iridescence: We named the new song the way we did because we wanted to make a statement of how messed up this world has become. People get in trouble because of the way they look. There are wars that are tearing people apart. People need to realize they have one chance in this life. We named the other songs after inside jokes and personal experiences.

Rough Edge: I like it, a thinking man's band.

Iridescence: Ha ha!

Rough Edge: Your band name comes from a definition of an optical phenomenon in which hue changes in correspondence with the angle from which a surface is viewed. That is pretty close to your musical style because you don't just subscribe to one type of sound, you merge two or three different ones.

Iridescence: Thanks! Especially in our EP stuff, the songs change so much.

Rough Edge: Are any of the band members married? Do your relationships influence any of your music?

Iridescence: No, none of us are married but our relationships with girlfriends definitely influence some of our stuff, especially because two of our members, Noel and Brad, are in long distance relationships.

Rough Edge: Have you guys focused more on Facebook for spreading your music or does getting out and playing seem to gain more exposure?

Iridescence: Honestly both, but playing shows exposes it more personally. We really get involved with the crowd, which makes people want to follow us more.

Rough Edge: I think music can be heard but it needs to be felt even more.

Iridescence: Exactly. People would be surprised at the difference between listening to music on your iPod or whatever and actually being at a show.

Rough Edge: I like the balance between the aggressive vocals and the clean release. Is there a struggle going on in the songs?

Iridescence: It's a build up in tension during the aggressive vocals and a release in the clean vocals.

Rough Edge: Some bands have abandoned the guitar for the vocals. You guys still incorporate the heavy guitar sound plus the aggressive vocals. It gives your music a fuller sound.

Iridescence: Yeah, we spend a lot of time writing guitar, then vocals after the guitar and they compliment the guitar.

Rough Edge: Well, I just wanted to ask you guys a few questions about your influences and how you make such heavy music. Is there anything you want to promote? Anybody on Twitter?

Iridescence: The Chariot definitely influences our stage performance and our new music and how we write it. The first major-labeled band we opened up for was the Great Commission, in the "When It Rains" tour and they influenced us big time.

Rough Edge: Thanks again, guys.

Iridescence: All right, man! Thank you so much!

Iridescence: Mike B Barreiro – Vocals; Noel Pilie – Guitar; Brad Pregeant – Drums; Jesse Waddell – Vocals/Guitar; Cristian Day – Bass.

To find out more visit their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/IridescenceBand and http://www.reverbnation.com/iridescenceband for other tidbits.

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Copyright © 2011 by R. Scott Bolton. All rights reserved.
Revised: 06 Oct 2019 11:48:51 -0400 .