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Alt-rock duo divulge on the tough road that led to their latest LP, 'You Can't Kill Us.'

 

Their fans came through more than they could image and raised $127,200 — becoming the biggest Kickstarter music project in 2016. "We needed a minimum of $30,000 just to make the record, minimum," Ariel admits. "And we were hopeful to hit that, but we also didn’t know. They just surpassed our expectations. I can’t believe it."

Shawn adds, "It’s incredible. They changed our lives. That’s why we called this record, You Can’t Kill Us, because it's a big middle finger to the record deal, the industry and all these people who were trying to hold us back from reaching our fans."

But the fan support didn't stop there. During their financial hardships, Shawn turned to alcohol to suppress his feelings and eventually became addicted. After their run on the 2015 Vans Warped Tour, he, with the help of his team, sought out treatment.

"With my treatment, I kind of did that with a leap of faith," Shawn begins, "and now I have people coming up to me at shows and saying, 'I've been sober for a month.' And I have no issues with alcohol. Alcohol is just a problem with me. And when we were doing the bankruptcy stuff, I couldn't stop drinking. It was hard. It was really hard. So when I got off Warped Tour, my team helped me get treatment for two months. But I wanted to get it out there as a message of hope. There is a light at the end of things that may be holding you back."

Shawn's been receiving AA chips from fans who have been on the road to sobriety with him. "It's great!" he exclaims, "and people are staying sober with my fans. It's a huge united thing; so that people who are struggling can come onboard, and we can go through this together."

Once plates overflowing with tuna rolls and other pieces of sushi arrive, Ariel makes sure to point out that they aim to express this sense of hope in their music.

"We try to be honest and vulnerable in our lyrics," she explains. "We try not to sing about surface-y, plastic stuff. We try to go as deep as we can. So that's been a practice of ours from day one. We want to be authentic, honest, sharing and really getting through to people. So it was just an extension of that."

She continues, "I'm in the music industry because I was really fucked up as a teenager, and it was the only thing that got through to me. All I'm doing is recycling that gift that somebody gets me. So when you're going to that depth of emotion, aggressive music has aggressive lyrics as well. Often they go hand in hand."

She also revealed that through her weekly YouTube show, The REL Show, as well as an upcoming book, Turn Your Pain Into Art, Ariel not only hopes to help others find their self-worth and love themselves but also encourage her to be happy, too. And on this other mission to help others, they will always welcome those who aren't part of the in crowd.

"We're kind of attracting the outcasts, especially the messed up kids are our favorites," she says with a chuckle. "That's what we want because maybe we can be some kind of help to them."

Despite the hurdles Icon for Hire had to jump over to get to this point, it was all worth it.

"Honestly, we got through most of the cons," Ariel says. "The cons were fear, 'Can we do this on our own?,' and 'Can this support us?' And now we're on the other side, and it's all awesome. I'm not even kidding. Being independent is amazing, and I don't know if it would work for everybody, but our fanbase is supporting us 100 percent. They've got our backs. And as long as they keep coming to the shows and buying our music instead of illegally downloading it, we're going to be able to keep doing this."

 

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