I Solemnly Swear

      Not very many bands will tell you that their band name was inspired by Harry Potter movies, but not very many bands are hardcore/nu-metal band, I Solemnly Swear. "We are huge fans of the film and were inspired by the cleverness of the Marauder's Map, as well as its ability to show you everything and anything. As a band we wanted to put all of our emotions out there for the world to see while still being "up to no good" and making people mosh it up as we do for our favorite bands."
      The Rockford band came together in March of 2011 after many line-up changes. "I believe we went through about 11 different people up until our first show. Then almost immediately after, we replaced virtually everyone again and found the lineup we have today. We actually had a member from Bloom practice with us and a member from 2KL both classic punk bands so it was an awkward couple of lineups."

      The band has a wide range of influences, as each member of the band comes from a different musical background. Garret Deporter (dirty vocals), Jon Frisk (bass), and Drew Dippel (guitar) were the only members to originally listen to the hardcore genre. AJ Maddrell (drums) listened to a lot of metalcore like Avenged Sevenfold and Bullet For My Valentine while Matt Anderson (guitar/clean vocals) listened to a lot of punk and emo bands like The Used and Four Year Strong.
      With all the different influences flying around, the band found a place between the hardcore genre and metal. "We incorporate thick heavy breakdowns with fast paced metal-style riffs and drumming. I think we sound very similar to our influences and there's nothing wrong with that. We love playing the stuff we love hearing." Says the band.

      The band has played several local Rockford venues such as the Bethesda Church and The ELB, as well as some venues in the surrounding area like The House Cafe and Spurgeon's Bay. The band hopes to play shows at Mojoe's and The Metro, and anywhere else in Chicago. They also have interest in playing shows up north in Kenosha.
      Performances for the band are very in-your-face with many of their fans claiming the band's performances are better live than the recordings. "We just love the energy of playing a live show and just letting it all be seen. We have a face that our guitarist has perfected called the mean mug and he basically does it the entire show because our riffs are just so mean and he loves just getting angry and energetic when he plays them."

      The band released their EP, Believe What You Hear, in the summer of 2011. The EP was recorded with Josh Wheeler, who produced their previous EP and the full-length of fellow Rockford band, A Journey To Fall. "We really wanted to get ahead of the wave of EPs coming this fall so we got into the studio and basically recorded every song we played live and got it all in there and ready to show off to our fans. There was such a big jump between our stuff from the demo to now so we wanted to get in and show it off as soon as we could get the money together."
      The EP takes it's name from a lyric in the song "Rumors" because the band thought it was a fitting title. "We want people to literally like us, not simply click a like button. We made our title a blatant message saying we have what you want to hear and you better believe it." The EP is available from the band for $5 and includes 5 new songs and 2 rerecorded songs from the demo with intricate artwork by Johnnie Grey.