There’s this concept that steel heads like to carry onto that so long as you like the music, it doesn’t matter who you might be or what you consider — we’re all a single tribe. We prefer to fake like we’re an inclusive group of outsiders that simply occur to like loud music. However that’s a lie. The variety of asshats that attempt to maintain folks of colour, folks with disabilities, and completely different sexual orientations or identities out of steel.

It’s a fact that Ithaca frontwoman Djamila Azzouz is aware of all too effectively. Throughout a latest interview with Metallic Hammer, the British metalcore vocalist recounted a few of the extra bullshit and scary moments the band’s skilled through the years as an advocate for illustration in steel.

“I don’t assume something I’ve ever mentioned is controversial, and the individuals who assume it’s are usually the issue. I’m not peddling excessive views. It’s extra, ‘folks deserve respect’, ‘deal with folks like human beings’.

“We’ve had a variety of pushback. I’ve been doxed and we’ve had Nazis come after us, in addition to a lot abuse in my inbox. However extra typically, it’s not about what I’ve mentioned, it’s extra about who I’m – being a girl, being an Arab, no matter. Individuals discover excuses to be shitty. However I don’t say issues for clout or to get an increase.”

Azzouz is the daughter of an Algerian man and an East London girl. As such, she mentioned she’s needed to reside this twin lifetime of types the place she’s handled the stricter aspect of issues from her dad, whereas having fun with a extra laid again environment along with her mother. So rising up, she’s realized how completely different cultures can work together and reside with each other peacefully.

Having gotten into the scene and met her bandmates whereas she was courting a hardcore vocalist, Azzouz mentioned she was fearful that she wouldn’t be taken significantly as a girl or as the numerous different of one other musician. She mentioned that kind of factor, coupled with an absence of feminine position fashions on this area, compelled her into some unhealthy methods of issues.

“I used to be very concerned in music rising up – I had plenty of buddies who had been within the trade or in bands, however when Ithaca began I used to be so nervous about issues I wouldn’t let anybody assist me. I wouldn’t play exhibits with my boyfriend’s band; I wouldn’t file with the identical individual they used as a result of I didn’t need to be referred to as his girlfriend and have folks say, ‘Oh she obtained this gig as a result of they’re courting.’ I needed to sever the notion of nepotism utterly.”

In our little a part of the music world, it pays to be as inclusive as doable, so it’s nice to see bands like Ithaca that exist and permit folks of all completely different varieties to discover a touchstone for the music. That must be celebrated.

Make sure you take a look at the remainder of Metallic Hammer‘s interview on-line or within the print version of challenge quantity 380.