THIS IS ME BREATHING
1. Welcome, and glad to have you here with All the Cores and More! To get us started, would you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band?
My name is Jace FitzGibbon and I play guitar in This Is Me Breathing.
2. Would you please provide some background basics on the band in case readers aren’t familiar with you—where you’re from, when and how you formed, etc.?
We are proudly from St. Louis, Missouri and we formed in 2014. The band started via Craigslist and happenstance with other members. We solidified a line-up that we deem as the “start” of This Is Me Breathing in 2019.
3. Serenity in Suffering dropped in late June—what’s the reception to the album been?
So far, everyone that has listened to it has given it great reception! People have commented that it sounds like a big step up in songwriting and overall arrangements. It sounds the closest to our live sound as you can get on a recording.
4. How do you feel your sound as a band has evolved from the beginning to now?
We started as a metalcore band, but we didn’t do it very well. Some of us kind of felt like posers as we were more interested in playing heavier music. Once we got our lineup in 2019, we have been straight deathcore with elements of slam and beatdown. Since then, we’ve gotten more technical and try to spice up breakdowns with the writing and vocal structure.
5. Walk us through the writing and recording process if you would. Did you have a particular “mission statement”? How did it all unfold?
When Paul (vocalist) and myself were talking about it, we just said we wanted to write songs that didn’t fit into a particular mold. The album was written over the course of a year, so some of the songs are inspired by the bands we were listening to at that time. As an example, “A Hill to Die Upon” was written as I was listening through Korn’s discography and re-discovered my love for Limp Bizkit. Paul and I just kept getting together to work on it and then our other guitarist (Collin) had two that he wrote. Our producer (Jack Daniels), helps write in the studio as he really helps the final product.
6. What have been the major highlights of the band’s existence so far and what’s coming up for the band that you’re excited about and we should be keeping an eye out for?
Major highlights have been playing a sold out festival in Santa Cruz, CA that was headlined by Bleeding Through and getting to open for pillars of the deathcore scene (Suicide Silence, Chelsea Grin, Spite). Opening for Suicide Silence and having them call us out while they were playing (with highly positive remarks) was a dream come true. You should keep an eye out for more touring next year as we’ve been wanting to get out a lot more than we have been the past few years. Who knows, you might get some new music!
7. Take us back to the beginning: what was your introduction to heavy music?
The first band that I started listening to that had some screaming in it was Story of the Year. You kind of had to like them as they were local and were actually good. The first [releases that were] heavy that I listened to were Bring Me the Horizon’s Count Your Blessings and The Devil Wears Prada’s Plagues. From there, I started listening to Suicide Silence and Whitechapel, and then discovered Every Time I Die, which changed my life and they became my favorite band (RIP Andy Williams).
8. ETID is my favorite as well! I actually have a kind of funny Story of the Year story (of the year?). Years ago, maybe 2016 or 2017, I was working part-time at this gym in a complex near the mall in Natick, Massachusetts, and as I was locking up and heading out I saw this tour bus in the parking lot with a lone figure leaning against it having a cigarette. I just started chatting with the guy, asking who they were, et cetera, and it turned out it was Story of the Year’s bus and he was the guitarist! I told him I had actually seen them with a girlfriend of mine in Portland, Maine back in maybe 2004. Not exactly an interaction you’d expect at midnight in a strip mall parking lot, but a fun and cool one. Anyway, back to you—do you ever find it surreal going from being that kid in the crowd to being the one on stage?
Majorly. I remember many times standing in the crowd thinking “I want to do that.” I didn’t know anyone that played music in the Saint Louis scene, so I didn’t know where to go. I remember watching Suicide Silence, when Mitch was still alive, feeling motivated to do it. The next day, I went out and bought my first 7-string guitar. Jump forward over a decade, I’m sharing the stage with them and talking to them as peers. That was a pinch me moment.
9. This is a fun hypothetical question: there’s a tour package being put together and you are going to be on it. What would be the other three current bands you’d most want to tour with (dream as big as you want haha!)?
Ohh, I might piss off some members of my band with that haha. Doing a full run with Whitechapel, The Acacia Strain, and Knocked Loose would be insane. Playing a show with any of them would be a dream come true as well.
10. Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions! Any shout-outs or last words for the readers?
I’ll shout out my band mates as we’ve been put through the ringer the past couple of years with things working out. It will hopefully pay off in the long run! To any person that thinks they’re not good enough to play in a band, just do it. Go to shows and talk to people, search online, anything to find people to jam with. If you want to play in a band, take the leap to do it!