PENTIMENTO are these four dudes from Buffalo, NY, and they recently released their second album. I, No Longer is pretty much a great effort from the band that does all the hard work. Drummer/vocalist Michael Hansen talked to us about the importance of this new record and explained the constant struggle that is to be in a band in the nowadays music industry.
How are things with you guys lately?
We are heading out for our headliner with Better Off this fall. Looking forward to that for sure, so we’ve been busy like preparing a set, getting some new merch together to roll out for the fall. Just trying really hard to practice our new songs as much as possible so that we don’t suck when we end up playing in front of people. [laughs]
In art, a pentimento is an alteration in a painting, evidence that the artist has changed his or her mind during the creative process – a bit like a do-over. Does the meaning of that word still describe the band as a whole?
Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s a good way to describe us still, you know? The definition of that definitely changes over time, but I think it means different things to us now than it meant when we were younger and starting the band. But I think it’s still there for sure and that’s something that keeps us going. Even though it is something that changes and switches on us every ten minutes or day by day or year by year, it’s still something in there that lets you know that it’s real. We still hold on to that for sure.
What do you guys strive for as a whole band, or as individuals?
I think the first thing is that we want to make sure that we’re putting out music that we believe in. It definitely starts there. After that, we wanna try to wrap things up in a package that other people can appreciate, so we certainly strive to write songs that we think are relatable but also we want write to songs that we can take things away from too, so when we are on stage it’s real. I think we are in the same position as a lot of small bands, just trying to push forward and I think it’s a really good time for music right now. There’s a lot of great things happening for a lot of great bands, so it’s very exciting to be part of it. That’s exactly what we strive for, just keep doing our thing and hope that people care about it.
Do you find it hard nowadays to get your music to more people or is it easier because of the social media like Facebook and Twitter?
Yeah, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… Those tools really help bands pushing their music, but I also think that there’s a lot going on and there’s a lot to pay attention to, so I think standing out and making sure that your message is unique is super important because it’s so easily lost in the mix of things. People are just punched in the face with media all day every day and every band is trying to do the same thing. We’re all fighting for the same spot on tours or just in the market in general. It’s definitely tough from that aspect, but in reality it should be easier now than ever for a band to put their music out into the world and connect with people because of the Internet. It’s something that I think it certainly is an advantage of what’s going on nowadays, but I also understand that the market for this sort of thing is kind of flooded. There’s a lot of bands doing the same thing and it’s very tough for people to want to ledge on things like that. A lot of convincing has to be done I feel like on our part to make people actually listen and get involved.
After the issues with your previous labels and the release of your latest EP Inside The Sea, was it easy for you guys to find the right mindset for this second album?
The new album has actually been complete for almost a year. We just didn’t have a home for it. After we did Inside The Sea, we toured for a little while and then went to the studio to do this LP. There was a whole bunch of labels that we had in mind or that we had been in contact with about putting it out, and literally everything that we were gonna do fell through. So, we were in the studio already, we were about $10000 in debt from that and we just bought a new van, that it was also about $10000, so we were looking at a $20000 black cloud hanging over our heads and we had to figure out something. We thought that if we could jump on a label, we would be able to handle that and it would be easier. It didn’t really worked out and we ended up paying for everything out of our pockets and then when Bad Timing Records came around it just made sense. They wanted to put it out and give a push, so we definitely needed that at the time. We’ve worked with those guys in different capacities ever since. Right before the summertime we got things rolling. It’s been good. They put out Stuck Forever 7” for us over the summer to kind of give people a preview of what we were working on and now we have an album I, No Longer.
“I think we are in the same position as a lot of small bands, just trying to push forward and I think it’s a really good time for music right now.”
Your new album is called I, No Longer. Why’s that?
This time around, I wanted to title the record with something… I wanted people to be able to take away something from it that I would be totally unaware of. The phrase I, No Longer obviously there’s more to that sentence, but what’s the end of that sentence is totally up to you, it’s up to whoever is listening to the record. I, No Longer can mean a million different things and I guess that’s kind of the point of titling our record that way. I wanted it to give a very broad title so that the themes on the record make sense in different ways when you’re listening to it, but it’s also something that you kind of make up as you go along. The definition of the title is totally up to the listener and my opinion of it is going to be different than all of the other people’s opinions about it. That’s the exciting thing and I thought it would be fitting for something like a title of a record to give it this very vague sort of title, but you fill in the blank, so that was the exciting part for me about the title of the record and everybody was excited about it too. I just thought it definitely sticks in a certain way, but hopefully people are interested enough to kind of take away their own meaning from it.
How did you approach the writing process for I, No Longer?
When I write a song, I usually just make a demo and send it to the other guys to see if it is something that they are into. It’s very simple ideas that I have and kind of present it to them for their approval and then we work on it together at practice from there. But this time around the studio was great. We had a lot of time. We went to a studio in Baltimore, so we were actually away from home to record it and we stayed there for a little over a month doing the record. It was great to just be in a room with those guys where we didn’t have any friends or jobs or anything else to worry about. It was just us and our instruments in the studio for an entire month and we didn’t have a choice but to do music every day. That was the only thing there was to do pretty much. At that rate, it was really cool sitting around with the guys and just talking about everything. We had huge conversations about the lyrics, about the music, about trying to create a vibe and a theme for the record. I don’t know that we made anything great, but I know we made something that we all are really proud of. We definitely tried hard to make it sound cohesive and accomplished some things on record that we’ve never done before. It’s definitely different for us. We slowed down a little bit and our songs are a little bit more thought out now, but I think it’s been a natural progression in terms of writing.
It feels like in some songs you experimented with new elements, like more atmospheric sounds, and all songs seem to link to each other making this album more cohesive. Is that something you wanted to do in your new songs?
Yeah, you definitely nailed it. That was something that we thought about have into the record. It was really fun right about the time we started finishing the record because then we started thinking about how to make these songs’ transition into one another and how to make it an experience for the record front to back. When you’re actually listening to it, it’s something that you can sit down with and when you hit play, hopefully the way you feel when you’re listening to track one is the way you feel when you’re listening to the end of the record. I was just hoping to create something that has some replay value, you know? You’ll notice new things about it every time you listen to it, so hopefully that’s there.
One of the highlights of your music is the emotional-driven lyrics, which you put a lot of passion into it and that makes the listener even more connected with your music. I read in an interview that you are the one who writes all the lyrics. Was that the case for I, No Longer as well?
On this record actually it was really cool because the singer Jeramiah Pauly and I got a chance to actually collaborate on the material. A lot of his insights and words came through on a couple of the songs which is really awesome for me, because he’s the singer of the band. He’s the one that’s up in front of everybody, so the words for him were always interpreted in a way where he would look at my songs that I would write and he had to figure out a way to make them sense for himself. Now it’s a little bit different because he can attach himself to it in a much more personal way. We had some conversations and he had some lines of his own and ended up in the actual end product. That was really exciting.
What did inspire you creatively to write the lyrics for this new effort?
I think a lot of the themes on the record have less to do with relationships and things like that like on our previous stuff. I feel like there’s a lot more life that has happened since the band started. There’s a lot of themes on the record about what it is like to be in a band specifically and all the hardship that comes along with that and all the things that are taxing about that situation and what happens to your relationships when you’re on tour – whether or not they survive – and whether or not you can keep your shit together while doing that… Now that I’m becoming older or becoming an adult in some ways, you look at things differently and you look back at the life you’ve led and the mistakes you’ve made. It’s an interesting position to be in, to have to analyze yourself that way, but I do think it’s important for growth. I think this record is just my version of recounting what’s happened since the band started and talking about the ways my life has changed and our lives have changed, then hopefully writing some things in there that people can kind of hold on to.
You worked with producer Paul Leavitt this time around. How was it like to work with him?
Paul was great. He definitely knows what he’s doing production wise. We’ve never had a recording that sounds the way that this particular recording came out. It’s super exciting to have a record that sounds like a real record. It sounds like a real band, you know? [laughs] It was really cool to hear our stuff being played back and it sounds so clear and so full, so that was really exciting. Paul had definitely a lot of insight while we were in the studio. He’s a very relaxed guy, so it was super comfortable for us. I really have no complaints. It wasn’t uncomfortable living in Baltimore for us because we were so unfamiliar with the area and with what was going on, but living in a studio is certainly an experience that I would love to have again and I hope that next time we get a chance to record an EP or LP 3 that we take the same approach, because I think it was the most productive we’ve ever been as a band. Paul certainly had a hand in that. He helped us out in a lot of ways, so we’re very thankful for the experience we had with him.
Where do you see yourselves as a band in 10 years from now?
It’s a really tough question. This album is like make a break for us. We really need to feel like our band is moving forward and moving to the next level. If this release doesn’t aid in that, I really can’t say what we’ll be doing in 10 years, probably working regular jobs and doing regular things. It’s very tough to be in a small band at this level and have to stay active so your band is relevant, but also it keeps you pretty broke. It’s just a tough life to live to, going from paycheck to paycheck when you’re not on tour and then going out on the road and living off of $5 a day. It’s just not easy, so I don’t know how much longer anybody would be able to stand it. But you know, we’re just having our fingers crossed that this record would help us move forward in the ways that we want to. In 10 years, I really don’t know… I hope we’re still around, but I can’t say for sure.