Imber – Fresh Act June 2015

Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, those ladies have everything to offer a Metal Fan wishes for. Powerful songs, a singer that got more balls than a guy and sexappeal which is anything but cheesy. Imber are definitely an all girl band to look up to and to keep in mind, because they got everything to compete even with Arch Enemy. So check out these 4 ladies we introduce to you now.

Hey ladies, how are you doing? Could you please first of all introduce yourselves? Who are the members of the band?
Hello Sandy, we are all good and right now thrilled of our EP release that´s been set the 11 th of June! PRETTY DAMN AWESOME! Lea: drummer, Madde: guitar backup vocals, My: vocals and Libban; guitar 2.

When was Imber founded and how did each of you end up in the band?
Lea started the band a few years ago with the hope of “Sweden has to have at least ONE kickass all female band, it can´t be that hard right?” She searched and tried out members that came and went for a long time, and when she were about to quit, she did one last try and tried out a guitarist (she was not the one), but the girl who tried out guitar knew a girl named Madde Ceder, who played very good guitar, so Lea called her and took her to Imber directly! Now they were a complete band with Lea, Madde and bass and vocals. My was at that point singing/screaming in a metalcoreband named Untold, and they were recording in Maddes studio where she worked part time. Imber had an Southsweden tour upcoming, and the vocalist dropped because of personal reasons and they had to fix a vocalist very fast… Madde got to think of My, a girl she recorded that sounded “quite okey back then” hahah and called her immediately for a audition. After that day My was the lead vocalist. Later on it was only My, Madde and Lea. They started to search for another guitarist, just when they´ve finished their hope, Madde and Lea went to a concert with a band with a female guitarist (Libban) that they knew would split up after that gig , and after this gig they told her “YOU ARE OURS!” We had an audition and everything felt perfect, so she was a keeper!

Is there a special story behind the band name? Why did you choose the name Imber?
Its an old swedish female name, but the main reason is that it sounded pretty fucking awesome, so nothing more really. Means rain in Latin and it´s also an old war town.. cool! haha

You are now a four member band but still looking for a bass player, is that right? What should the future bass player have to fit into your band? Should it be a man or woman?
We do not prioritate to find a bass player atm, but of course we have our ears and eyes open.. But we feel like we are 4 solid members and we work very well together, so why try to find a 5th. We have a really great friend of ours that helps us play bass live and that works so far 🙂 But who knows, maybe a fifth member is out there somewhere!

You had an four song EP “The Breaking Point” released in 2012, I have seen that you’ve been often recording new stuff lately, can we look forward to your debut album anytime soon? Or do you just plan a release of another EP?
An album is upcoming, we are writing a lot to make that happen anytime soon, but first of all we release our ep now 11 th of june! 😀 EPIC!

You don’t have a record deal right now, but if I understood correctly from your website you are looking for one. Do you think nowadays this is still necessary, as many bands do everything themselves?
We are mostly doing everything ourselves and we´ve learned a lot by doing that! We don´t think that you need any kind of record deals nowadays, the main reason to have a record deal is that you get help with ideas and marketing and pr and economy, and you can just focus on writing the music and that would be great. But the old school thoughts of having a record deal to be successful has died a bit.

You are an all-girl band, which is quite unusual in the metal scene. How have your experiences been so far, do you have the feeling you have to work twice as hard as for example male bands to get respected in the scene, or is it easier because girls have some “special assets”?
We always feel that we have to work harder.. People have a sort of “all female metal band sucks” attitude so the most of the times people come to see us to judge “are they really that good? can they really play their instruments?” and listen extra clearly. So we always have to work ourselves up in peoples eyes. Even before gigs on stage, the sound techs treat us differently than other bands, they think that we don´t know anything about our instruments and sound. Of course it´s something different, something unusual with only girls in a band, but mostly it´s the not positive that kinda stings in peoples eyes more.

You look like very tough girls (well-dressed but not almost naked and still sexy) and the music you do sounds like you really know how to handle your instruments. In some other bands one could think the ladies just make it with their looks instead with their skills. What do you think about bands like for example Huntress or Butcher Babies who obviously play with their feminine charms? Does it just belong to show biz as a woman or is it just too much?
We really wanna focus on the music, so that part you got totally right. We think that it´s sad that the only female artist/bands nowadays work so much on their sexuality.. what kind of role models are that for young girls? We think sexy for us is knowing your instrument and playing it till your fingers bleed with the passion for the music, and that is what we wanna bring out to the world.

You played at the Outcast Festival 2015 in Falun, a charity event, is that right? What is it for and what does it mean to you to perform at such a festival?
It was a charity event for alienation. Tattoo artists, Cirkus artists, grafitti artists, and of course stages with different type of bands, a lot of fun being there!
It meant a lot for us being there, cus we´ve all experienced/experience alienation! With our different kinda style for being a girl, piercings/tattoos, being a female musician, you been put in alienation, but also cis of our sexual orientations. And for us to be there we also show people that we do fight against it and we can all do it together, bring the subject up, talk with people, share our stories with others, to make it a better world, it means a lot!

We often see in your videos a baby joining you on rehearsals and other vids. Who is that little fellow? Is it you child, Madde? And if so, how do you get a balance between band and the baby?
We found him at the supermarket and thought he was really cute, so we took him home :)! HAHAH kidding! It´s Madde´s and Lea´s baby boy Tintin! But we all feel like it´s our baby, auntie Libban and My is a part of the family as well haha
It works really fine, he joins rehearsals, sleeping with headphones on and also during gigs we have a nanny with us that supports during live act..
My: “I can´t wait until the first live show when i can have him in a baby harness while i sing! that would be epic!”

What are the plans for the rest of the year? Any plans to play in the rest of Europe?
Of course we wanna play in Europe, but right now we wanna focus on writing a lot of new material so that we can release our first album. We are actually building our own studio right now, so that´s what´s up and of course play a lot of live shows in Sweden.

And last but not least: Concerning the band, what would be your biggest dream? What do you wanna reach?
Just playing and writing music full time, all the time and flying around the world!

Thank you so much, ladies, for your time. I wish you the best of luck and you’ve got all my respect for what you are doing!

More information:
photos: Mathias Blom, The Happy Creative


Sandy Mahrer

Sandy Mahrer


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