Prior to co-headlining the Key Club stages alongside Boston Manor at Slam Dunk Festival, guitarist Scott Carey and Drummer Ashley Green were kind enough to take the time to chat to us about the return of live music and their experience of bringing new album The Greatest Mistake of My Life to the stage this festival season.
Bit of an obvious question to start with, but how does it feel getting back to playing live?
Scott: “Obviously it’s everything we’ve kind of dreamed of for the past two years, I know every band is going to have the same kind of answer. But we all have jobs and it’s nice to have something to look forward to again and do what we were born to do!”
Ashley: “I think sitting on the album for so long as well, it was nice to have that as a distraction and to work on something. But as soon as it was out it was like ‘I can’t believe we have to wait until November to play some of these songs.’ So being given the chance to play some festivals, it’s banging mate, it’s really nice.”
Back in April we had all of these restrictions, how did it feel putting the record out during such an uncertain time?
Ashley: “We had initially planned to do everything about six months earlier.”
Scott: “The record was meant to come out November 2020, we made the decision to put it out as close as we could to when live shows were returning, we didn’t know when that was so we just said ‘let’s put it out next summer.’ It gives us more time to make sure the record is finished, all the mixing, all the visuals are really good and up to the standard we want. It was a good decision all round.”
So was the record recorded after the pandemic had started?
Scott: “No, we recorded it in February 2020, literally we were in the studio and we watched the lockdown announcement in the control room. We left the studio and went home into lockdown, it was crazy.”
It’s funny how things work out, the opening lyrics of ‘I’m Alive’ feels so triumphant in the context of what’s happened in the time since…
Scott: “It wasn’t the intention but it took on a whole new meaning for us especially, listening to that album for a year, a year and a half in lockdown it took on a whole new meaning.”
“The holy trio of festivals is really Download, Reading and Slam Dunk. To do those three in a year where we didn’t think we’d be playing shows at all, it’s amazing mate.”
In terms of the album are there any particular tracks that you were especially excited about playing live?
Ashley: “Whenever I heard ‘Beyond Belief’, I think back to listening to the demo we had on Google Drive. We knew before we recorded it was going to be the first single, it set the tone, it set a standard really. Lucas really stepped up the songwriting from the first record, and I think it does show. ‘Beyond Belief’ really was magic for me.”
Scott: “I agree, considering our first shows back we played at festivals, it’s such a festival song. We didn’t expect the crowd response to that song specifically to be as good as it is but it just goes off.”
You guys did Reading and Leeds last weekend, how was it?
Ashley: “Banging, really cool. It was one of those that Lucas can attest to, he’s been going for ages. Me and him went one year, I think 2017, and the holy trio of festivals is really Download, Reading and Slam Dunk. To do those three in a year where we didn’t think we’d be playing shows at all, it’s amazing mate. It was so good and its really nice to think we can fit in the middle of that triangle.”
Related: Holding Absence – The Greatest Mistake of My Life | Album Review
Reading and Leeds have shifted their focus slightly in recent years, do you think there’s still a place for up and coming rock bands there?
Ashley: “Yeah definitely, the fact that Loathe played probably the heaviest set all weekend and it was still mad busy, popping off for them. It’s testament to the fact that that kind of music can still exist there.”
Returning to Slam Dunk, have you guys got much of a history with this festival?
Scott: “I’ve been most years since like 2014, 2015, it’s much smaller than your Reading and Leeds or your Download but everyone who comes here is here for the same thing. Everyone loves alternative rock music essentially, if its heavy bands, bands like us, pop-punk, even one of my good mates Lizzy Farrell who’s a straight up pop artist. Everyone appreciates the music for what it is, whereas at some other festivals its less so about the music and more about the experience. Everyone here is here for the same reason, its wicked.”
Ashley: “We were just saying, last time we were here we opened the Key Club Stage and now we’ve gone from being that rotating first three bands and now we’ve been given the chance to headline.”
“It’s like writing music with your friends, but with your favourite band as well.”
You spoke about Beyond Belief earlier, saying it set the bar for the new material. Do you guys feel like this album is a step up?
Ashley: “Yeah 100%. I feel like I can speak from like, I’ve been in the band since the first song, we’re at a stage where we’re putting out records and music that I could see us putting out when we were releasing like ‘Dream From Me’ and ‘Heaven Knows’. This is exactly how I’d hoped this would go. The fact we’re already working on music again and the form that its taking, it totally makes sense, its different but its still in that branch that I think we can fucking smash. It’s really exciting and this record, again it sounds well cliched, its the best stuff we’ve probably written but it feels like one step on the diving board.”
In terms of the songwriting process, is that a very collaborative thing for you guys?
Scott: “Most songs start out as a demo that Lucas and I will have worked on for a while. Everyone listens to it, has some opinions, we move some stuff around. Greeno obviously has a very distinctive drum style, so a Holding Absence song isn’t a Holding Absence song until Ash pops his drum sound on it. It is very collaborative, but we’re not the kind of band where we get in a room and jam an idea out, I don’t think that would work for us.”
Ashley: “There’s quite a lot in the songs, in that vein where its trying to set a tone for the song which Scott and Lucas do. There’s nothing that is brought forward unless it’s something that could be on the next record, could be the next single. That’s the most exciting part about the writing process where we get the message and Scott’s like ‘I’ve got some songs here.’ It’s like, ‘oh fucking brilliant!’, it’s class man. It’s like writing music with your friends, but with your favourite band as well. It’s really cool man.”
Holding Absence will be embarking on a headline UK tour this October and November and will be supporting Creeper on their UK tour in December.
The Greatest Mistake of My Life is out now via SharpTone Records. Purchase the record here.