From the innards of a bear, The Bled speaks.

Credit: Ben Breier

“A wild bear came into our van and shred everything, and then ate me and now I’m doing this interview from inside its stomach,” joked James Munoz, lead singer of The Bled. “No, nothing that wild has gone on on tour lately.”

Munoz is currently on tour with Thrice, Underoath and Veda.

“It’s been pretty awesome every night. All the shows are at bigger venues and most of them are sold out. All the Thrice guys are really cool people, and all the other bands are cool people,” Munoz said. “Every night the crowds are really awesome.”

The Bled is a rock band with a harder edge. Its songs twist screaming with skilled singing.

The band recently released its sophomore album, Found In The Flood. This was the band’s first album on Vagrant Records.

“We just sat around our practice space for a month, and this was the music that came out at the time. We tried our best at the time. I’m really happy with it,” Munoz said.

He reassures fans the move to Vagrant did not change the band’s sound. The Bled started writing songs and then started meeting up with a labels, just to make sure its own sound came through.

Munoz is not a newcomer to music; it runs through his veins because he comes from a musical family.

“I taught myself how to play guitar, and then started really lame bands in high school,” Munoz said. “Now this is a totally different band then what I’ve done in the past, and I’m just getting used to. It’s just always in me. I could always play music.”

Even though Munoz is musically blessed, he tried something on Found in the Flood that he has never done before. He took lessons from a vocal coach.

After learning about posture and how every little thing can affect his voice, Munoz is now able to warm up correctly and do things with his voice he hasn’t been able to do before.

“I had two lessons with this guy in L.A., and it was fun and informative and I got the motive out of singing and screaming without hurting myself. I can actually hit notes without straining my voice,” Munoz said.

The singing coach, however, did not change his voice to make it sound different than it did in the first album, Pass the Flask.

The Bled’s current tour with Thrice is helping to build a bigger fan base.

The relationship between The Bled and Thrice is also a strong one. The members of Thrice let them sleep in their tour bus because theirs was full one night.

“Sleeping on the floor sucks because you have anxiety nightmares about crashing and sliding out the door of the van,” Munoz said. “They’re all sweet dudes and they all take care of us, and we definitely need help.”

Contact ALL reporter Erika Kreider at [email protected].