Being as an Ocean (stylized as -… .- .- ---—Morse code for “BAAO”) is a post-hardcore band renowned for their raw performances and the deeply personal lyrics of frontman Joel Quartuccio. They formed in Alpine, California in 2011, and have since enlisted the vocal and guitar talents of Michael McGough (formerly of The Elijah) in 2014.

On October, 30th 2021, the band released a statement on Twitter that both Tyler Ross and Ralph Sica, two original members of the group, would be parting ways with the band after a long 10 years together. Joel Quartuccio then went on to say that Being as an Ocean would continue carrying on showcasing their passions through music with the remaining members.

To date they have released five albums: Dear G-d… in 2012, How We Both Wondrously Perish in 2014, Being as an Ocean in 2015, Waiting for Morning to Come in 2017, and PROXY: An A.N.I.M.O. Story in 2019. The first three albums were released through InVogue Records, and the fourth was released independently following a mishap with their short-term label Equal Vision.

Guitarist Tyler Ross explains the meaning behind the name Being as an Ocean:

We all got together in a room and we were trying to think of a new name for this band. We had written some of the music and had our instruments together. Jacob wasn’t in it yet; it was just me, Joel, Ralph and Shad, and we were sitting in this room and we knew we had to name it something unique so that when you looked it up on the internet you’d find us. There were these names that we didn’t want to fall into that would be just so hard to find – we needed something unique. We thought maybe we could take some words and push them together, maybe make it like some kind of fake word that you could find. But anyway, Joel thought of ‘Being as an Ocean.’ We thought it was kind of long, but he showed us where it came from. It’s from a quote by Gandhi, and Joel really likes Gandhi a lot – there’s also a Gandhi quote in our album, a really long instrumental called “It’s Really Not as Complicated as You’re Making it Out to Be” and there’s this Gandhi quote in there. But anyways, the Gandhi quote is ‘You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.’ Joel is basically saying, ‘I have this idea that I see good in humanity, no matter what bad you can find, it doesn’t make humanity bad because I can still see good in it.’