Meet Panama's Heaviest Asset, Watch Me Face It in New Single 'Moving On'

Before becoming a writer at Wall of Sound, I spent alot of time living inbetween Australia and North America looking for the brighter side of life. As an avid traveller in pre-COVID times, one of my favourite things about visiting new cities and towns was immersing myself in its local music scene. Some of my favourite heavy music secrets have been found in the most unlikely places, from the frozen isotopes of Western Canada (Stasis) to Australia's Northern Territory (Tapestry, We Burn Bridges).

This next band we're debuting on WoS for you all hails from a tiny country in Central America known as Panama. They're called Watch Me Face It and while I'm yet to physically explore their part of the world, their music makes me feel otherwise. The band's newest single 'Moving On' transports you immediately to a dingey dive bar in the tropical streets of Costa Rica. The song draws us in with a deafening bass line, and smooth melodic cleans (a first for the band!), before a storm of riffs hit you staggeringly.

'Moving On' marks Watch Me Face It's new endeavours into melodic metal and will take you on a whirlwind of heavy emotions. After listening, I'm into it and kinda want to know more about where these guys came from. The band are also huge fans of the site and so, we couldn't be more stoked to give them a spot and widen their fanbase to our home in the world!

Welcome to Wall of Sound, legends! Tell us a little about how you guys came together?

Watch Me Face It is kind of an evolution of a high school band in which Cleveland Beckford (drummer) and Jean Michael Cheng (scream vocalist) were together and used to play covers of bands like Avenged Sevenfold or A Day To Remember, a few years after high school, Cleveland started making original music and met Alfredo Noriega (guitarist) and Hellbassist (bass) which has been the core line up since 2015. Since then, other roles like a second guitar or singer have been occupied by several past members over the years.

What metal bands are you guys inspired by?

Watch Me Face It has been inspired by many bands, but a few special ones would Periphery, Code Orange, Traitors, Jinjer, which are not only within our favorite bands, but we admire the way they have made their careers take off each in a particular sense of working hard to get where you want to be, and probably you would be able to notice some of the aspects of these bands in our sound as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymkhyA5jQoA

Your new track, ‘Moving On’ isa super bassy tune, with some manic breakdowns thrown in. Tell us in your own words about your newest release?

'Moving On' is our third single and it will be the first one featuring a male clean vocalist, thanks to our dear friend Leonel Osorio. It will also be our first song to have an official video, the whole process took a lot of time since we recorded every instrument and vocals several times, as we were still learning our way in the studio and had several line up changes within this time, we are proud of the results and if you like heavy, melodic and riffy stuff this is the song and we are the band.

Being an Aussie-based publication, we don’t really hear a lot about the Central American/Panama heavy music scene. Give us and our readers a mini guide please!?

We haven’t gotten the chance to visit other countries in our area. We have opened for international bands like “Lost in Hate” from brazil or “Miseria” from Costa Rica, but we do have amazing metal bands in Panama like “Nightwalkers”, “Berserk”, “Athica”, “Myria”, “Fourier” and many more. Also a lot of incredible artists in different genres.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOTDmhHFNVQ

What makes heavy bands in Central America stand out in the Americas?

We don't know to be honest! Most bands we listen to are either outside Central America or inside Panama itself. We believe it's an area that has a little amount of bands and public at the moment, sadly. As far as we have seen, even big metal acts tend to avoid countries around and concentrate on Mexico and Costa Rica.

Would you guys ever consider moving to a bigger city say, Mexico City or San Diego, if Watch Me Face It gains momentum in the future?

We actually believe that if we get momentum enough to move into a larger city to work hard on our music and shows, it would be nothing but a great opportunity. If we can work it out to survive, there’s no doubt we would make it count as much as we can and either way, touring different countries is still on our to do list.

What’s the main goal you are currently trying to achieve as a band?

Currently our main goal is to spread the word, not just make people listen to our music, but actually find people who love our music and if possible, connect with them. 

Describe in 5 words what your live set is like.

energetic, heavy, groovy, powerful and fun.

Thanks so much for stopping by – any final messages you’d like to send us and our readers?

We are working not only to get our music out, we are working to fulfill the dream of doing what we love, something that is fun for us, something that help us feel free from the weigh sometimes life puts on our shoulders and that may do the same for others too, be proud someday we can be as good as the ones we look up to.

Watch Me Face It are:
- Cleveland Beckford (Drums/main composer)
- Hellbassist (bass/networking)
- Jean Michael Cheng (vocalist/artwork designer)
- Alfredo Noriega (Guitarist)

Listen to 'Moving On' here

Follow Watch Me Face It on social media: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram