We Are the Fallen

We Are the Fallen
We Are the Fallen performing at Irving Plaza in New York City in 2010. Left to Right: John LeCompt, Marty O'Brien, Rocky Gray, Carly Smithson, and Ben Moody
Background information
Origin	Los Angeles
Genres	Gothic metal
Years active	2009-Present
Labels	Universal Republic (2009–11)
Associated acts	Evanescence
Website	www.wearethefallen.com
Members	Rocky Gray John LeCompt Ben Moody Marty O'Brien Carly Smithson

We Are the Fallen is an American-Irish Gothic Metal band consisting of former American Idol contestant Carly Smithson, Marty O'Brien and former Evanescence members Ben Moody, John LeCompt, and Rocky Gray. The band's name is an allusion to Evanescence's 2003 album, Fallen, which has resulted in criticism for their similar style to Evanescence. In a Los Angeles Times interview, co-founder of Evanescence, Ben Moody, said that We Are the Fallen differs from Evanescence in that "everyone is equal" and that it has "more energy than Evanescence could ever muster." He also stated, "We cannot try to be who we are. If there is some similarity in sound, it's because that genre was created by us."

We Are the Fallen began forming when Moody had discussions with Evanescence band members Gray and LeCompt about the band moving in a different direction than originally planned. Moody felt something had to change in order to preserve their style of music and left due to "creative differences" with Amy Lee, the band's co-founder and frontwoman. Years later when Gray and LeCompt also left the band, Moody reached out to them in attempts to continue where they had left off in 2003 with Fallen, recruiting O'Brien in the process. The band held auditions looking for a lead singer in New York City and Moody feared that the search for the band's "soulmate" was going to take a long time due to the exhaustive process. Moody's roommate showed him videos online of Smithson performing her rendition of Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" which was coincidentally the song all singers used to audition for Moody and the band. Ben was then introduced to Smithson who was developing a solo album after the tour with American Idol.

Moody and Smithson then discussed what they wanted to do musically and they discovered their needs were "identical". Smithson felt that Idol was for a family audience which wasn't "creatively and musically the best" for her at that time. She also stated that trying to make a solo album was lonely and "now there’s four other people who bring all sorts of different things to the table and musically it's like everything I was trying to do ... heavy rock with great melodies." "Everything that I was told about Carly was right. She had a great voice, but she also has an incredibly strong presence, the kind of presence that is big enough to handle what it is this band does, both musically and visually. Because of that, she was perfect", Ben Moody said later.