In Her Own Words – “Steady Glow”
In Her Own Words is a Rock/Alternative/Pop-Punk band out of Los Angeles, California. The band consists of Joey Fleming, Ian Berg, Eric Ruelas, Omar Sultani, and Andretti Almalel. They released their first full-length album, “Unfamiliar” a while back and are back with their sophomore album, “Steady Glow”. Along with producers Cameron Webb, In Her Own Words perfected their sound on this album, crafting 12 awesome songs that their fans will fall in love with!
“Steady Glow” is a 12 track powerhouse album. The listener is immediately drawn into the album the instant “Out of Focus”, the first song, begins. The vocals of Joey Fleming are perfect here. “What if we’ve been wasting all our precious time? We tried to stay between the lines. And what if this was for nothing at all? For nothing at all.” This soft introduction leads into the full band instrumentals that are impossible to resist moving around to!
In Her Own Words continues on with “Seratonin”, one of my favorite songs! The fast paced drumming and upbeat guitar chords hooked me right away. The chorus on this one is a song that you won’t be able to help but sing along too. “I’m watching from the window of my room, pretending to be okay without you. But it’s like I’m never enough, never enough, and you’re always giving up, giving up. I’m more than you can carry.”
As I said before, this entire album is amazing. There isn’t a song on it that I haven’t become obsessed with yet. Out of the 12 songs, there are 4 that stand out the most; “February Weather”, “Steady Glow”, “Right Now” and “Disaster Case”. “February Weather” is the third song on the album and it is a bop! It reminds me a lot of the songs you would hear during the 2000’s Pop-Rock scene. I really like the raw emotions that you can feel through Joey Fleming’s vocals. “Where are you gonna be when I’m already gone? You’re stuck on everything, and I’m so sick of February weather cause I’d rather burn that freeze. Where are you gonna be when I’m all gone?”
“Steady Glow” is the album titled track, and I think the perfect one. This was a song where each member of the band was able to show off their talents. It takes a much slower, softer approach in comparison to the other songs, but it still packs a punch. There are portions of the song where Joey’s vocals stand out a little more and the other members did an amazing job of matching him with their respective instruments. The first verse of this song exemplifies this perfectly!
The other two songs that stood out to me are “Right Now” and “Disaster Case”. I particularly enjoyed these two because they have a much heavier feel. This is that classic, hard-hitting Pop-Punk sound that everyone loves! “Right Now” is the song that I can never decide if I should sing at the top of my lungs, or dance around like crazy. “You said ‘what am I supposed to do? Because I’m drowning in inches of water with you. And what am I supposed to say? You know you’re the reason I’m acting this way.’ And you weren’t there when I was in over my head. The room spinning around again, and I’m working on my ways. Because I haven’t been very honest lately.” “Disaster Case” starts off with the soft strum of a guitar and Joey’s pristine vocals. I love that way In Her Own Words started the song off with soft undertones and transitioned it into a song that you could go wild to!
In my honest opinion, In Her Own Words threw a challenge to all current bands/artists in the scene when they released “Steady Glow”. This album is one hell of a banger! In Her Own Words is currently on tour with Stand Atlantic in the UK and Europe. Fortunately, they took time out of their busy schedule to sit down and answer some questions for us all! Check out the interview below, and check out music from “Steady Glow” on the blog’s Spotify playlist: After Hours Review!
What genre of music do you consider your work to be? Who are your major influences in the genre?
“We don’t like to consider ourselves specific to a certain or single genre, but most would label us as pop punk or emo.”
When did you first take an interest in the music scene? What inspired you to make music?
“It was the early teenage years for most of us. After going to local shows and watching video performances of bigger bands on the Internet it inspired us to do what we do today. Family has also played a large role in most of our inspirations to become musicians. We all stem from families being heavily involved in music.”
How has your music evolved since you first began making music?
“There is a greater understanding of what we are trying to accomplish with our music than when we started. We also play to our strengths as individuals and as a group and try to highlight those in the songs we write.”
What has been your biggest challenge as a band so far?
“Keeping 5 guys on the same page and dealing with 5 different personalities and 5 different body odors while we’re on tour. It gets dodgy but in the end we are all here for the same purpose and it helps that we can all laugh and cry together when we’re on the road.”
What can you tell me about “Steady Glow” ? What was the writing process like? Are there any themes you tried to touch upon with this album? How would you compare this album to your previous releases?
“Steady Glow represents a never ending force. As a band it represents our perseverance in the music industry. On a personal level we like it to be ambiguous to the listener. Specifically for Joey it represents his experience carrying on the legacy of his father after his passing. The writing process was much different than any past release. We had all the material we considered for the release and went off on a writing retreat in the desert to solidify everything before locking up in the studio for a month. We also had the pleasure of working with Cameron Webb as a producer and he brought another mindset to the entire process that we feel furthered the record in a huge way. We may be biased but we think this release was a major step forward for us as musicians and we are proud of everything we have done before but could not be more happy with how this record has turned out.”
Do you have any upcoming tours/promotions for the album?
“We are currently on the road with Stand Atlantic in the United Kingdom and Europe. When we get home we have two release shows in Orange County and Los Angeles CA April 18th and May 3rd. We will be announcing a Summer tour for July/August that will be hitting most of the East Coast in the US. Other than that we will be working on music videos, live performance videos, and other material constantly in promotion of the record.”
If there is anything else you want to add or touch upon please feel free to share!
We just want to thank everyone who has ever supported us in any way no matter how big or how small. You keep us afloat and keep us doing what we love to do. We love you.