The band's frontman Aaron Bruno describes the song as a "self-empowering anthem" that was inspired by a guitar given to him by his dad. "I wrote (the song) real late at night," Bruno continued. "At least the intro, the first verse. Didn't think much about it, and then months later we listened to my phone recording, my voice memo, and heard that initial idea and thought, OK, this seems cool, let's work on this. It kind of wrote itself and was a pretty easy song to write. That's usually a good sign for me."[2]
The song was written in a key of E minor and has a tempo of 130 BPM.[3]
Remixes
Steve Aoki Remix
American DJ and producer Steve Aoki released his remix of "I Am". It was uploaded to his SoundCloud account on June 23, 2015 and it was available for free at Red Bull Records' official website.
Another remix of the song by American hip hop band Beastie Boys member Mike D was released on November 12. “When I heard ‘I Am,’ it had the anthemic dynamics that we associate with Awolnation. I had a different version in my head of what the song could be, so was happy to be able to manifest that” he quoted.