We're Trouble Bound

Jaime isn't your average girl on tour and definitely not one of those typical tour whores. In fact, she's in a band that is steadily gaining popularity. Keep Your Composure is Jaime's heart and soul, not to mention the most fun she's ever had.
Oliver doesn't know what to make of her. She's loud. She's funny. She's in a band that's heavier than his. She can out drink ninety percent of his friends. She's fucking fit. And she doesn't even look twice at him.

....

Introduce yourself.
My name is Jaime. I'm in a band called Keep Your Composure.

Tell us a little about your band.
We're from the Steel City... Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We formed about a million years ago while we were all still in high school. We play loud music. Uh, we're on Epitaph Records with a bunch of really awesome bands.

What makes you guys different?
I think the most obvious difference is me. Having a girl in a heavy band like ours is always gonna be a big focus. Not that it's really a big deal. We're just doing our thing. But to have two vocalists like we do, one girl and one guy both doing two kinds of vocals, screaming and melodic... that's different.

Is the screaming hard? How'd you learn how to do it?
It is the most physically demanding thing I have ever done. It was so challenging. I learned how to do it the only way you can learn... by practicing a lot. Every day, as long as your throat can take it which at first isn't a lot. At some of our first band practices, I could barely get through a whole song without having to take a break and get some water or whatever. I gradually got better.
At one of our first shows, I think it was the second show we ever did, about halfway through the set, I went behind Troy's amp and threw up into this plastic container thing that was back there. No one saw it but our drummer Sean who freaked out, for good reason I guess. But I just swished some water in my mouth and finished the set. I was so sore and miserable after the set but everyone thought it was really cool so they all bought me drinks.

What's the best compliment you've ever received?
When we were getting signed, Mr. Brett, Brett Gurewitz who is in Bad Religion and who owns our label... he told me that he'd "never heard such an evil sound come from such a little girl". That's what he said about my vocals. That's when I knew I was doing okay.

What's the hardest part of being a girl in a metal band?
People expect me to be a certain way.
What way?
Well they either a) think I'm gonna be this bad girl: tough as nails, tattooed, drinking more than the guys, using drugs, beating the shit out of dudes that piss me off or b) think that I'm this supreme high maintenance girly girl that thinks she should be treated different just because she's a girl.
In reality, I'm a little bit of both. I'm girly but I'm definitely not soft. (I can out drink my bandmates but that's just because they're pansies.)

Do you think that a front person should be cocky or arrogant?
I don't really consider myself the front person because Gavin is front and center too... But yeah, I think that in order to go out there you have to tell yourself "I'm the best motherfucker ever" or else you won't go out there at all. You have to be confident or else it's impossible. Being shy just doesn't work.

What's the real deal behind the big fight with Oli Sykes [of Bring Me the Horizon]?
Oh my god, people are still talking about this? Ha!
This is funny because there wasn't any fight. I guess I should probably just tell the whole story so it doesn't get all blown up again.
About a month ago we played the Reading Festival, which is this really awesome festival show in the UK. Before we played our song "Fucking Smile", I said something about Oliver being a mother fucker or some shit like that. We'd been on tour with Bring Me the Horizon all summer right before Reading and we would play a snippet of their song "Chelsea Smile" in the middle of "Fucking Smile" as like a joke thing and we'd been saying that kind of foul mouth stuff to each other for months. He was actually standing on the side of the stage then and he laughed at it. All of us hung out later that day and stuff. It wasn't even a big deal.
But the next day, the internet like exploded or something. Everyone was flipping the fuck out. Our MySpace comments were flooded. Half of them said that I was a fucking bitch and Oli was a million times the vocalist I was. The other half were telling me right on and that Oli is such a douchebag. And all this other stuff. Everyone was speculating that we'd gotten into some sort of altercation while on tour together or that we were dating and broke up or something. It was pretty ridiculous.
I called him a couple days later and was like "You know I don't hate you, right dude?" and he was all like "Aye, love, s'cool" or however he talks. We had a really good laugh about the whole thing. We're actually pretty good friends... good mates as he would say. We're going back out on tour with them later this month. It should be good times.