I Am Abomination’s Phil Druyor on How a Cartel Song Changed His Life

I Am Abomination's Phil Druyor fronts one of the most popular up and coming acts in the post-hardcore community, but things didn't always look as promising for the young musicians. "I didn't even think I could ever be in a band. I was just a fan and wanted to be around it all," says Druyor during a recent conversation with Noisecreep.

"When I was 18 or 19-years old, my friends in a band called Living Like Ghosts were about to go on their first tour. They asked if I would go out with them and handle their merch stuff. So I jumped on that. That was the year I went to first show in this realm of music. It was a fun tour, but one day in Richmond, VA, the van broke down. So the drummer picks up an acoustic guitar and he starts playing a song by Cartel who happened to be my favorite band at the time. Anyway, I started singing along to it and I realized that I can actually do it well. From there I tried out for a local band called Allison's Hope, but they told me that I was a terrible singer and that I should run away from the music industry," laughs Druyor.

While most of us would have cowered in embarrassment after that kind of rejection, Druyor soldiered on and was determined to be heard. "That audition happened two weeks after I had even begun singing, so I knew I had room to get better. Soon after I met Nick [Sampson, guitarist for I Am Abomination] and Brandon [Good, ex-bassist] at a party at one of the dudes from Living Like Ghosts' house. They told me they were starting out a band. Nick was like 16-years old at the time. One day he came over my house and we wrote a song on the balcony. We immediately bonded and wrote something called 'Jaw Dropper' right there on a Macbook."

Watch 'Abduction' from I Am Abomination

The new project would eventually be dubbed I Am Abomination and release a critically lauded album called 'To Our Forefathers.' Earlier this month they issued 'Passion of the Heist,' a blistering EP that was recently named one of Guitar World magazine's Top 50 studio albums of the first half of 2011. "I think this new record is much better than anything we've done before. I just can't wait to see how people react to it."