Let’s start off by giving us your name, what you do in the band and your favourite Australian bands right now.

Hi I’m Ash and I play guitar. I’m Dave I play guitar and do backing vocals. Our favourite Australian bands right now are probably, Capulet, Tonight Alive, Hands Like Houses, In League, Built On Secrets and The Mission In Motion. In fact there are so many good Australian bands right now doing great things it hard to keep up. It’s really awesome that the world seems to taking notice of good Australian talent.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you guys?

That’s a tough question. I tend to describe us as slightly progressive pop rock, we are a rock band with heavy riffs, ambient sections and big choruses. In terms of relating us to other bands people may listen to, we always seem to get compared to Saosin and Dead Letter Circus.

In recent history, you have had to deal with drummers, bassists and vocalists departing, how has that influenced the band’s sound and direction?

Although we have only been Awaken I Am for a short time, under our previous name Sleepers we went through almost a revolving door of band members. Our only direction really was to write solid melodic music with the substance that we’d like to listen to. It was really just to write the best music we could and I believe everyone who was part of the writing process wanted that. We’ve been really lucky to always find people that were looking for the same thing we were.

Last year saw you split with your previous front man, something that generally breaks most bands, what was it like having almost finished the EP and having to look for a new vocalist?

It was heartbreaking. We have worked really hard on our EP and it was heartbreaking to know that our EP was 90% done and was just sitting on a computer for over a year. It definitely was a struggle. There were times where throwing in the towel seemed like a very viable option. We have been so lucky to have find our new vocalist Adam Douglas. We looked really hard and trailed a lot of different singers Dave really put them through their paces. Adam was just the right person, he fit in with all of us and on top of that he has a great voice.

Having members come and go, has that changed the way you write songs?

We have always adjusted the process slightly when we have new members but the process tends to stay the same. It usually starts with me (Ash) bringing in the idea and direction of the song and going from there. We then generally Jam out and work and rework parts till we are happy.

What influenced the name change from Sleepers to Awaken I Am?

Honestly Ash came up with the name. With Sleepers we found that the people who were interested in finding us online found it really hard to do so. There were other bands, songs and a movie that would come up before you’d see our pages or songs. On top of that with the line-up adjustments we really wanted to start fresh.

How has the response been to the songs you have released so far?

We are all ecstatic with the response to everything so far. We’ve been waiting over a year to show our friends and fans what we’ve been working on. Right now the songs are just coming up on two weeks and we’ve had nothing but positive feedback from everyone so yeah we are very happy.

What can fans expect from the new EP?

Diversity. That was one of the big things we wanted to try and make sure we did on the EP. We didn’t want to just write different versions of the same song. We Also wanted to add a lot of energy and some catchy hooks to hopefully get people singing along. We worked really hard on putting together something really complete so hopefully everyone really enjoys it.

What are your thoughts on the local scene in Australia at the moment?

I think as far as Music goes the Australian scene is doing really, really well. There are so many talented bands out there at the moment and it’s great to see them competing on an international level with some of my favourite bands. The problem that we are all facing especially in Brisbane is that there just aren’t enough venues willing to host local live original music. Rosie’s closing, The Fort Closing, it just seems to be never ending. For us It’s all about getting the name out there and getting your music to anyone who is willing to listen. Everyone just needs to keep coming to shows and supporting local bands. The best thing about the Australian scene is the support from other bands.

You have already supported some pretty big names, are there any bands you would really like to tour with?

Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, Karnivool, Anberlin, Saosin, The Mission in Motion, I mean there are so many awesome bands for so many different reasons really too many to name. If people are willing to have us on their tour we would be more than happy.

What else will this year hold for the band?

This year will see us finally release our EP “Resonance” (late June by the looks of things), shoot our first video, make our first trip to W.A and hopefully spend plenty of time in a Van, on the road in support of our release.

Thanks for the Interview guys, any shout outs or last words?

Come out to our shows, check out our songs and us on all our social networks and make sure you all come say hi when we are in your town.

Awaken I Am release their EP “Resonance” late June. You can check out two released songs from the EP and keep up to date with all tour dates here.