We Came As Romans Look To Break Adelaide Curse After Attempted Robbery
We Came As Romans return on their Because We're Doomed tour this February. The Note spoke with Andrew Glass, bassist and songwriter, about getting robbed in Adelaide, rewriting their album twice from scratch and why death is just as important as birth.
Words Thomas Jackson // Image supplied
We Came As Romans are returning to Australia with their epic new album ALL IS BEAUTIFUL… BECAUSE WE’RE DOOMED this February, supported by a massive lineup featuring Caskets and Headwreck. The Note spoke with bassist and songwriter Andrew Glass ahead of the metalcore monolith’s performance at The Gov on Thursday, 12 February.
At this rate, We Came As Romans are becoming honorary Australian citizens. They were here in 2023 for their Darkbloom headline tour, they then came back to support The Amity Affliction on the Let The Ocean Take Me 10 year tour, and now they’re coming back just over a year later.
Like true locals, Glass already has a favourite haunt and is particularly excited to return to Adelaide to see his friends at Cry Baby Bar. But the band haven’t always had a good time on tour. The five-piece have had varied luck as a band, and when on tour, there’s always something that happens that “would not happen to any other band.”
It’s a running belief within the group that they might be cursed. One of the shining examples of this curse is when they returned to their hotel room in Adelaide in 2023 and caught someone red-handed breaking into their room.
“It was the most insane thing ever,” Glass remembers. “We played a sold-out show in Adelaide and then in the morning we had to go down to the lobby. We're all sitting there and Josh [Moore, lead guitarist] comes down a little bit later and he's just like, ‘Someone knocked on my room, then when I opened the door, they pulled me out, they jumped in and locked themselves in it. You got to call the cops.’
“There's just a bunch of us knocking on this door. We eventually got these bolt cutters, we cracked it open, went in there and the dude was nowhere to be found. I'm looking out to the balcony [thinking] there's no way, dude. The door is cracked and the curtain is floating in the wind. We opened it up, we looked down and the dude had jumped. He survived, but he totally messed up his leg and smacked his head. We got down there and the cops were there and he survived. Thank God.
“He had Josh's passport in his pocket and then other people's belongings from other rooms he was breaking into. So they found other people's wallets, credit cards, phones and then another pocket with some drugs in it. They asked us if we wanted to press charges and we're like, ‘Dude, this dude just jumped out of five stories. He's on drugs. He just needs some help. We're good. We have our stuff, we can get out of here, we can make our flights. We just hope this guy gets the help he needs’.”
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We Came As Romans wrote ALL IS BEAUTIFUL… BECAUSE WE’RE DOOMED from scratch two times over in the studio. This is in part due to being scarred after hating their 2015 self-titled record. It was an album where Glass says they lost their sense of self and were being something that they weren’t; it ended up being a self-proclaimed radio record. It resulted in the band being in a dark place and messed with them psychologically.
“So now we really take our time with trying to make something that really speaks to us. Because if we're not playing something that doesn't truly mean anything to us, then we're missing the entire point. I just don't really want to be one of those bands who [are] writing just to write. I want to have fun, and I feel like there's so much purpose in this. We’re so blessed to be in the position that we are in. I want to inspire others and do things that will really make a change on the earth. It's really hard to hear your voice out there and when it does cut through, you should have something very important to say.
“I think a lot of those same things that we were feeling on that record, when we were just not being ourselves, were starting to come to life and finding the identity on [ALL IS BEAUTIFUL]. So we had to just kind of pull the plug on a lot of these songs and go back and start from the beginning. It was an absolutely horrific, terrible process to move everything, especially when you have a timeline laid out for tours and different things. It really halts your whole business.
“So there are a lot of things and a lot of pain that came with that. In doing that, we had to pay more and we had to put in more time and we pissed some people off. But at the end of the day, it was so worth it. I was so glad because the songs turned out just the way we wanted them and I feel like if we didn't take that extra time, we would be sitting in a very different position. We're very happy we did, but it's always making sure it's right and it's done right for us and no one else. Because at the end of the day, it is art for ourselves.”
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One of the standouts on the album is the song ‘circling a dying sun’. It’s a song that puts the band centre stage, as a person and a character and questions how long the band will continue to exist. Glass thinks it’s interesting how a lot of people think about when they will die, what it feels like when they do and how different cultures interpret the journey of life.
“I think it's important to think about those things because, as scary as they are to think about, they're all a natural thing that will happen eventually. So in that thought it almost makes you enjoy the band more or enjoy what you're doing more, enjoy that person's company more or celebrate more or even understand it more. I think we have such a very bleak outlook on what death is. Death is actually just as important as birth. It should be celebrated if anything of a long journey and finally, the peace to rest and let go. I think a lot of people don't know themselves, and they are so afraid to die because they don't know themselves or are being quiet with themselves. In a lot of other cultures, it's not the case at all. It's really funny how we view death.
“I think that even with the band, I would celebrate even the day that the band does end because it eventually will. That's the thing to look back on. Just enjoy all those crazy things because my life would not be anywhere near what it would be without this piece and it's amazing. I don't need it. I don't have to have it, but it is something that has brought me so much joy. So much pain. So much everything and you know it's just important to think about it in that kind of light, having its own heartbeat.”
Catch We Came As Romans performing at The Gov on Thursday 12 February. Tickets on sale now at oztix.com.au
