Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Selden.
Hi Tim, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
For Fear Itself is something that originally came to be back in 2011 when I was only 15. Starting as a band of high schoolers who were obsessed with bands like Asking Alexandria and Attack Attack!, we recorded our debut EP “Infinite” with Imad El Amine in 2012 (who would go on to work with acts such as Oliver Tree, Panic! At The Disco, etc.) and were quickly picked up by a small label.
My mom was a local promoter at the time, and though she wouldn’t give us special treatment necessarily, I DID have the opportunity to know about what shows she was working on before other locals and would try to get the band on shows that we fit on. Between my mom and a few other local promoters giving us opportunities, we were able to open for bands like The Browning, Ice Nine Kills, Lorna Shore, etc. during this period. The band saw some success from this release and stint of playing local shows, but before things could progress any further the majority of the lineup disbanded to attend college.
Being the way I am, I never had any college plans. The band had been the only thing I cared about since I joined and there was nothing else I’d rather be doing, so I fell into a bit of a rut and began using opiates to numb the way I felt. Before I could dig my way out, my mother passed away at the end of 2014 from drug-related heart failure leaving me completely devastated and craving some sort of outlet more desperately than ever. After that day, I never touched another opiate, and in the back of my mind, I knew I needed to let others know the pain I’d had to witness and endure at their hands. Through the following years, I worked constantly to try and find another band to front, but the pieces never seemed to fit right. I wanted to create something specific that I could hear in my mind, but I couldn’t find the right project to help me bring it to life.
Fast forward to 2019, 5 entire years had passed and I’d accomplished nothing of what I wanted to. I was fed up with trying to find the right people to write new music with, so I changed course. I began working on the demo for our song “Satiate” with my buddy Orion Stephens of In Dying Arms who had been a close friend of the band, which was then sent off to Caleb Rodriguez (Roless) for his writing input and production. There always seemed to be some sort of taboo surrounding creating music with people who weren’t intended to be part of the project in the metal scene, so I was somewhat skeptical of this process initially.
After I heard what Caleb had written and the atmosphere he had created though, I knew we were on to something through this collaboration. Once Satiate was released, the matter of finding the right members to continue on the path that Satiate had started to pave was a much simpler process. Between contributions from the band, Caleb, and Josh Ang (ex-Dealer, Pincer+) we created the Continuum EP which would come out in 2022 and garner over 200,000 collective streams.
As of today, we’re hard at work on our 3rd EP “Rx” from which we released a single called “RØT” from last year, which is taking the band down a slightly more nu-metal-driven path that I think resonates with all of us because it’s what we all grew up on. We specialize in making obnoxious Metalcore for kids that grew up with Nu-Metal that we call “Nu-Core”. Not the first to blend the two, but I like to think we have a specific sound.
No matter how the sound may evolve though, we’ll always be here shouting for those who no longer have a voice to let the world know about addiction and what it does to people.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely wouldn’t say “smooth”, but at the end of the day, it’s about your mindset. If you tell yourself going into this whole process that you are going to make something happen no matter what, then you won’t let anything stop you.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the COVID-19 crisis?
COVID taught us so much. The biggest lesson is that the world does not wait for anyone. A lot of bands came out of the other end of COVID and struggled to keep going as they had been silent for 2 years and people had forgotten, while others that maintained release cycles despite the shutdowns seemed to come out stronger.
I understand the short-term financial implication of releasing without the ability to tour, but those artists do seem to be doing better now than those who chose to wait it out and I’m glad we chose to release during COVID.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://set.page/forfearitself/for-fear-itself/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forfearitself
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/forfearitself
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@forfearitselfx?si=5NIEqISjB_3fpefg
Image Credits
James, Perry, Eric, Taylor, and Parker
