HOLDING ABSENCE - The Noble Art Of Self Destruction - Track By Track Interview

I kept saying the boys like I said oh this could be the last album you ever recorded it is hard to do it but there is a beauty in being honest with yourself and embracing your flaws and also you know discarding the things about yourself that are good do you think a relationship honeymoon period is something you know try a band one yeah yeah you're figuring out bad life you know tools this album sort of kind of represents coming out of that period generally you kind of redefined that song in my head a little in

a very in a very funny way maybe there'll be a part two on the fourth hour yeah I think the best moments in music are the ones that that are not replicable have you ever been surprised at the popularity of say Wilt which on paper it really shouldn't be like it's still one of your biggest I think you know in another planet we don't write singles and we just write six minute songs and and we're a far crueler band almost you know what I mean but we do try and have our cake foreign [Applause] he

has been a holding absence fan for as long as I have primordial radio it is release day Friday today we are celebrating a truly phenomenal album one that I am so excited for you to hear and I have no doubt the front man of the man is going to be very exciting for you to hear it as well because it's been I would say quite a bit of a long time in the making because this album really is part of a Trilogy joining me now Lucas Woodland of hauling absence dude how you doing I'm good

man yeah I'm very happy to finally be you know at the end of a very long journey like you said you know it's great so God I just can't wait for to hear people's thoughts on this new album you know how difficult is it sort of that that whole journey yeah and mentally as well with an album campaign we're like at the very beginning you're like I finally get to talk about it and then at the end you're like I just don't want to talk about it yeah yeah there is um I mean it's it's

bittersweet but I will say the more you the more you do it the better you get at answering things so at the beginning you're like fresh-faced and excited and at the end you may be Haggard but you've got all the good answers ready to go already you know and and as we're speaking it's sort of like you know mid-summer and I I feel like perhaps we're getting uh both getting a little bit of a break in the Run of festivals and shows and everything like that but it looks like it's been a great summer for

you so far slam dunk 2003s which I managed to catch you out how's all that been going yeah really good man you know we're um we're fortunate enough to be pretty much just a full-time touring band now you know so we started the year with like three months straight touring and we're ending the year with three months straight touring so it's um it's really nice to come home rest relax you know try and you know enjoy the peace and quiet for a change but then at the same time like you said you know once a

month we we had Sam dunk and then the next month we had 2003 so it's it's kind of nice because it's like I haven't completely downed downed tools if that makes sense you know I've I've been fortunate enough to relax for a month and then do my favorite thing in the world again and not be sick of it so then you know yeah you say relax for a month there I've often wondered what musicians do with like a month off because you know most folks who work in nine to five would be like oh my

God I'd love like four weeks if they get the four weeks over the 12 right um but it's different for you because you're like you know you're six months on and maybe a couple of months off but but what do you do with like a full straight month off like when what do you get up to it's a good great question because yeah you're right and the truth is it's not I don't just have four weeks off I've had like three months off yeah right right uh the the brutal answer is sit down and try

to write album Four right yes so it's not that much which is not much of a switch off no no honestly no it really isn't you know and I think as well especially you know technically now I'm I'm completely off clock you know because it's like nobody's rushing me for an album now but you're right you know when you're as we were last year you know we we came home for like three months in the summer but we were we were doing five Day writing weeks you know and so yeah it's hard I think there's

a lot of people don't see but at the same time to answer your question I'm a very geeky dude I like watching television I like playing video games and uh you know collecting Pokemon cards reading manga you know doing all the all the geeky cringy stuff that you know almost makes my other life seem so much cooler you know yes yes I know exactly what you mean so we are going to be playing the new album in its entire today which I'm so looking forward to the noble art of self-destruction it is out now via

Sharpton records and as I mentioned earlier so this is this is like out like feels like album three of a trilogy but I I don't feel like maybe that that was intentional When You released album one like when you released album one I don't think it was set in stone that this was going to be a Trilogy so so how has that been sort of uh building a Trilogy as it's been going yeah well I think you know um I think the moment we realized this was a Trilogy was when we started writing album three

actually so we there was no talk of the trilogy for the first two and I kind of like the way that shaped up uh because it just meant that you know I think you know this this band will continue to to hopefully do fun and exciting things for people but you know at the same time I want to make sure we're always staying fresh and and I I think we we decided at the beginning of this album that we still had one more album of like oh gee holding absence in us you know um and

and I think you know we really want to grow and progress over time but I think at the same time we love what we're doing so much we knew this album had to be a mixture of the first and the second album you know and more stuff on top you know so so yeah it was it was fun kind of thing to hang over our heads almost because it meant that we wrote this album in a far more retrospective kind of respectful way almost you know because we weren't trying to reinvent the wheel we were

just trying to put the final wheel on the vehicle okay yeah got you right so we're getting to track on there head Prison Blues and I quite like that this one wasn't put out as a single but yet it was the opening to the album because usually a lot of opening tracks tend to be as single so what was it about this track that you sort of maybe wanted to hold back a little bit well first thing I'll say is you know we have quite a strict rule with this band we're album one and the

closing track should never be singles in my opinion like when you know when you think about the art of an album you know I think the best moment should be the singles you know like welcome to black person to the Black Parade for example but then at the same time you know when you when you listen to you know the first song of an album that should feel like just as you know just as epic as the Epic singles you know and I think for us it was like I think we wanted this song to

be like a Hidden Gem that you know you have to click yeah and you had to click the play button on you know rather than we wheeled this out to you a couple months ago and here it is again you know um and to explain this song A little better as well nothing too crazy but um you know the last two albums have started with epic minute long swells into like you know big half-time choruses and we felt like with this album we wanted to do something different so this song is not the typical holding

absence opening track you know it's like heavily inspired by like Taking Back Sunday and stuff like that there's a lot of up-tempo energy to this oh you mentioned Black Parade MCR and that was really what I was feeling and vibing with with this track is you say that Up Tempo feel like that moment that you know the black gray you know kicks in I I yeah I'm not saying that it's life for life but I could definitely because I know you're a big MCR fan is is that is that more subconscious than conscious when it

comes to taking on influence like that um I mean at this point everything I do is inspired by My Chemical Romance in some way Gerard are you listening but to be fair you say another yeah you're right it's not that kind of kick into action you know which that that song has similar leaks so yeah that's the this is head prison please Prime audio radio you are listening to the album playback of the new album holding absence the noble art of self-destruction that is track two from the album a crooked Melody a massive anthem on

this song I can see why you picked it as a single but there's quite a few actually on this album there could be singles so was it difficult to to pick those tracks that you wanted to highlight as a representation of the album yeah it is always very tough um you know I think like you said though a crooked Melody is like a quintessential single really I think you you'd struggle to put a song like this on an album and not release it as a single really um but yeah you know like when you think

about the pre-album songs we we put out you know like we'll speak about them in a minute but like scissors and honeymoon for example you know they they show the complete duality of this album and they still fit into that single kind of mold I guess you know so um so yeah so you know for us it's very much about you know kind of trying to reveal your cards without showing the whole hand you know um and and I think an important thing to remember about our band is that we passionately believe that we're an

album band so truth be told there are some songs like the angel in the marble the last track I want everyone who ever listens to our band to hear that song but if we put it out as a single it loses all the magic in my opinion so it's trying to trying to understand how to package and songs and and stuff like that you know you talk about the angel of the marble there and I was thinking uh yeah have you ever been surprised at the popularity of say Wilt which on paper it really shouldn't

be like it's still one of your biggest yeah um I think you know in another planet we don't write singles and we just write six minute songs and and we're a far crueler band almost you don't remember we we we do try and have our cake and eat dinner I'm very grateful that our fans are so receptive to some of the more you know experimental lengthy tracks you know because you know when you think about a discography between Penance well morning song Angel in the marble like those songs are all like six minutes plus and

are all so emotional you know and and I think like we kind of like to write songs like that almost like a treat for the album you need to release a crooked Melody to have the angel in the Marvel the same way you need to release like a shadow to have Wilt and stuff like that you know yeah absolutely talk to me about the the title of the album The Noble art of of self-destruction again it kind of feels like it's sort of continued on from the greatest mistake yeah that sort of connection there so

just talk to me a little bit about that well that was yeah that was actually the only thing that stopped me from from one oh I didn't obviously you know but like the one thing that I was a bit like oh is it too close is because you know there's something something of something something two albums in a row is like I was like oh man are we like pushing our luck a bit with that you know but it just felt like a a grand beautiful epic yet introspective and flawed kind of title you know

it's like the The Narrative of this album is very much about embracing your flaws and coming to grips with yourself and how to be a better person and and you know sometimes having to shed parts of yourself to grow um you know and and the noble law of self-destruction you know just a mansplain it it's the idea that you know there is it is hard to do it but there is a beauty in being honest with yourself and embracing your flaws and also you know discarding the things about yourself that are good I guess you

know and this whole album is about kind of internalizing I guess my Human Experience you know more than ever before I'd say um yeah and I feel like when it comes to like that idea of Destruction actually better to do it in a way that perhaps you might be in some control of rather than going like off the because like I feel like most people probably have hit a point in their life where we've all hit that point where like the self-destruct button can be like ever so close but if you can make like these

smaller self-destructs as you say where it's like for sure for sure get rid of that we get rid of that yeah rather than like this massive thing that could just implode your life of course it's it's about managing yourself really you know and like because yeah you know I I definitely don't think about you know I don't know going out on a ranger and I don't know smashing a window and I think about like self-destruct you know what I mean like I don't mean it in like some sort of feral Outburst but more the idea

of I guess breaking yourself down and trying to understand what parts of you are the best parts you know um and we'll talk a lot more about that with Diego and the marble later but yeah cool cool let's get to the next track then another single and this sounded great at 2002's I have to say in fact I thought it sounded heavier live which is quite interesting like cheeky like screams in this track I feel like there was something going on at trees there yeah well we always we always try and I think it's just

because our drummer Ash is just like a closeted metal core drummer you know and and like I think a lot of our music I think translates far more I guess passionately right you know what I mean there's there's a visceral like there's so many more emotions that we can express live and funnily enough actually just before we play this next song you know a goal for this album was to try and marry our live show a bit more with our Studio music because people would come up we did a tour just before we did this

album and a lot of people would come up and say man you guys are way better live than you're on record you know and it's like that's that's kind of a backhanded compliment so it was a big goal on this album to make it feel you know almost like live in in some moments but then at the same time not you know yeah yeah let's get to this now this is full storm Prime audio radio that is track 4 from the new holding absence album which is out today via Sharpton records scissors now just taking

the face value of that that could be about a whole Mirage of things so yeah just to tell me a little bit about that track well yeah back to the self-destruction you know like scissors is I guess scissors is kind of a brutal take on this self-destruction theme you know if you listen to some of the lyrics are very very you know um dark man you know it's the idea of almost doing whatever you can to change who you are you know um and like I don't know I like for example with the chorus lyric

like past the elastic and rope with a dull pair of scissors I'll cut it myself it's the idea that like you know it's going to hurt but sometimes in life you need to get rid of things you know and um so yeah so this song I will say that this song has stabbed me up there in the the darker category of Holden absence you talked earlier about bringing the studio sounds to the live sound and on this album you went over to Canada to work with Dan Weller who of course you know has worked with

so many amazing bands was that the first time that you went to a different country to to go and record an album how was that yeah so yeah great question mom because um we basically you know uh being generally defeatists and trying to be humble to the situation you know it's like this is technically our last album with Sharpton you know and and this is kind of like our last guaranteed Studio experience really you know and I remember at the foot of it maybe I was just paranoid but I kept saying to the boys like

I said oh this could be the last album we ever recorded you know and and I think a big part of us going to Canada was like let's live a different experience while we record this album and it might breed like a unique sort of energy almost um so that was that was something we really really wanted to do and of course back to Dan being a brilliant producer you know he he did the greatest mistake of my life with us before so we're very comfortable with him but of course he's done loads of brilliant

albums before but I think for us it was like Dan is is kind of our comfort zone in a way you know and like we we work so well with him that we were very confident like flying him out to Canada and you know taking somebody that we're familiar with into unfamiliar circumstances might breed some sort of unique Magic I I suppose um and it was interesting because it did you know we we recorded in the same Studio that Silverstein Cancer Bats I think Alex is on fire I was gonna say so you took a

British producer out to Canada so what was it about that particular studio in Canada then that was sort of alluring you to it well um I think it was mainly that to be honest you know I know it sounds stupid as well but like uh being from Wales you know we've always viewed England is like the big the big sibling you know and I think growing up listening to scene music when I saw a band was Canadian I always just thought it was a little bit cooler you know I mean because I'm like oh they're

not American they're Canadian and I think that's kind of carried over and don't get me wrong some of my favorite but you know like all those bands I just listed there and bands like Protest the Hero as well there's so much good music from Canada so I always felt like a weird kinship with Canada and and the Canadian music scene for no reason whatsoever really but it's nice that we've kind of managed to cement that you know um so yeah let's get into track five now honeymoon so there's a lovely acoustic start to this and

then it does sort of get you know builds and builds and builds this feels like a bit of a different track for holding absence I think yes it really is you know and I think um I think it's cool because you know we could I'm not saying this is gonna happen but you know album Four could be an album full of this kind of vibe you know it's like it's weird it's like acoustic rock shoegaze almost you know and uh and I love that and and when writing this song this is one of the the

few songs that I obviously the bodies will always have input on everything but this is one of the few songs I brought the band and was like this is like something I'd been working on you know and and I I sat down with an acoustic guitar and I said to myself one of my favorite songs of all time is Where Is My Mind by the Pixies and I was like how would that sound if Deftones wrote it and I I and I sat down and I tried to find the mixture between you know where is

my mind which is this epic beautiful acoustic rock kind of Banger basically and the Epic shoegaze sort of energy of that sounds you know and um I think it was cool as well because the song sonically starts how it started in in its Inception it's just just me and an acoustic guitar just kind of strumming away you know um and I think like you said it that does very much feel like its own song on the album and and at the same time it does I don't think it sticks out in a negative way at

all no no and I feel like when I uh hear the word uh honeymoon a lot of time you can associate that with like honeymoon period And I think a lot of bands go through that and it you know there's so much that yeah if you think a relationship honeymoon period is something you know try a band one because yeah yeah you're figuring out bad life you know tours and and all that I feel like you probably come out of that honeymoon period now and this this album sort of almost kind of represents coming out

of that period that's really interesting you know because I truthfully I basically the reason this song is called honeymoon is because I think it was like honestly 2017 2018 I I I realized how Vivid the imagery is of those two words like honey you can see it straight away and the moon you can see straight away you know but I never thought about honeymoon being those two words before basically you know and I was like wow what a vivid kind of collection of words that we almost Overlook but it has never had God I've never

even thought about the fact that that honeymoon is of being an evokes of feeling before and and yeah you're right you know it's like yeah that's kind of generally you kind of redefined that song in my head a little in a very in a very funny way maybe there'll be a part two on the four foul yeah let's get to this now track five this is honeymoon prom audio radio you are listening to the album playback of holding absence the noble art of self-destruction I'm here with Lucas woodlander from the band that is track six

from the album death nonetheless now you could you could take a track like that at face value and go that's that's pretty dark um but to me there feels like there's a lot of catharsism going on here as well yeah for sure you know this album is a journey at the end of the day you know it's trying to I guess contextualize and internalize you know the way we are as people and and the flaws that we have and I think this song is the moment where it's the outer body experience where you just think

actually like who cares about any of this you know what I mean life is short life is meaningless you know and I think this song is um some of my favorite lyrics on the album for sure but it's a very nihilistic defeatist track you know and and I think um you know some of the it's one of those songs you could sum up with with a lot of different lyrics within it you know but you know there's there's one lyric where I talk about how light is just insignificant you know what I mean and it's

like who cares you know like uh and and I think there is that ironically here self-destructive energy to the song where it's like who who cares whether I live or die basically because you know all these things I think a lot of the time when people find themselves in that headspace it's because they can't handle the things that they're feeling inside you know so this song is almost the boiling point of this introspection you know it's almost like I'm actually sick of thinking about myself like I'm not trying to improve myself anymore I just want

to move myself you know so yeah I think it's where like you know uh human beings almost struggle with purpose as well because as you say yeah you you can take nihilistic years ago well you know even when the earth goes and you know there'll be the heat death of the universe and like what you know that there's an infinite Rabbit Hole you can go down I think one of my favorite quotes though is from Carl Sagan who said that uh our Consciousness is humans uh we are a way for the universe to know itself

we're not separate from the universe we are the consciousness of the universe itself uh and then that actually I think can actually give a bit more purpose to things because we think of ourselves I think as human beings we separate ourselves from everything from the universe from nature we box ourselves off and that's what can make us feel so alone and so isolated and then we start to struggle with all of these nihilistic feelings yeah yeah and I think I think truthfully you know like the quote you just said as well I think you know

it's all about zooming in and zooming out the furs are out you zoom the less it matters and actually that's um kind of where the song stemmed from there's the lyric I know someday I will be a small white cross upon a pale blue dot and it's very nice yeah well that's that's that's all the um yeah the pale blue dot is obviously that image yeah that shows Earth from millions of light years away and and how funny it is that we're the The Little Dot by there right you know and then for me I

I was like you know how do I make that seem even more insignificant and then one of the things that came to mind for me was like um I grew up in a Catholic background and like you know when you go to a Catholic bull kind of um Cemetery you know they just completely you know in Ireland and places like that they're just completely covered with just small white crosses and I always just found a bleak that like you know all these people lived lives and they had families and they had purpose and thoughts and

you know ultimately they just become another small white cross you know and back to the zooming out I think this song is about zooming out of the world and you know when you zoom out of this small white cross and then you zoom out of Earth and then you zoom out into this like we are all so insignificant when you really think about it and I think this song is essentially that idea winning in a way you know so we'll get to track seven now her wings which feels like potentially yeah could be quite a

personal song uh tell me a little bit about this one so who wins is an interesting one because you know back to um you know death nonetheless and this kind of lull that the album existentially finds itself in who Wings is a reference to the Neil Gaiman Sandman comic book and the the character death is this you know this beautiful and kind woman but obviously she she represents death you know and and I guess we've always knew death as this cold dark thing but I always found it interesting how Neil Gaiman uh portrayed her as

actually very caring you know what I mean um and and basically one of the comics is called the sound of her wings um and from there then I just basically this song stemmed from that where it was like this kind of essentially romanticizing death in a way so in The Narrative of this album like these two deaf and moles in her wings very much hold hands but I think death nonetheless is very nihilistic and very defeatist whereas I think who wins is is quite a beautiful song actually you know there's a lot of there's a

lot of love and positivity but ironically for for a negative thing you know absolutely well let's get to this now this is track seven her wings Prime audio radio that is track 8 from the new holding absence album which is out now via sharptone records I'm here with Lucas from the band that is these new dreams and Lucas one of the things that I absolutely love about this track and it's not something that you hear Too Much in The Rocker metal spaces is dynamic range you know in yeah ever since brick walled and I get

it yeah yeah you know I'm sure you're aware of things like the loudness war and you know everything just being at Peak all the times is that difficult to not fall into that trap where it's like everything's compressed everything's got to be up here but actually this is a track that audibly dips in volume which is quite nice yeah dude yeah great spot you know I think to that point just quickly before I answer the question I guess is um you know one of my favorite moments on this album is actually in this song because

I sing the chorus in a very very low kind of register um and there's a word that I I there's no Melody to I actually whisper the word you know so it's like it's it's like the most minimalistic you can get on on an album like ours I'm I'm literally Whispering over a piano for a brief second you know and I've always thought that was really cool because like you said like Dynamics you know the Dynamics are so important to our band you know because the the big bits and I guess to the point you

just made there right you know it's like if everything is a brick wall then nothing feels brick wall that's right if everything's extreme nothing's extreme exactly and and this song and generally a a trick that we use a lot is you know kind of engaging in minimalistic moments so that we can really maximize things you know um and I think yeah this song is is um is a good example of that and I think this song is also a scratching our kind of Post Punk kind of liqueur a little bit similar to how we did

beyond belief on the last album so yeah well I I think the production is is more important than evernax I do feel like there's a lot of conversation about how a lot of bands at the moment sounds emerging some sounding the same I think a lot of that can be down to presets within tools like you know like Pro Tools and stuff like that and bands may start out with just a few presets but I think it can be very easy to fall in that trap is it is it tricky as a as a newer

band you know you might listen to a band like the Cure and hear an album from the 80s with a very eidetic production and even you know you go back further some of the albums from the 60s and 70s in the recording in analog is it difficult to capture you know those beautiful moments that came in the past in a digital world man that's such a great question because you know I think you know music I mean God I I I will never find a way to word what I'm about to say so and yeah

get ready for a car crash but like you know I think the best moments in music are the ones that have no that that are not replicable because they are just uh the most perfect minuscule little detail added to another Minister little detail that will never ever be able to happen again you know and I think you're right when every piano sounds the same and when every guitar tone is the same and whatever plug-in is the same you know you do lose that kind of that kind of energy and one of my favorite things like

my parents is really big into music you know and I love talking to them about music and my dad like once a month you know he'll he'll you'll be listening to music in the house and he'll be like Oh Come and listen to this bit and and he'll kind of ask me how a noise is being made on one of his favorite songs you know it's like because back then nobody knew anything in the 80s you know and I'll say to him oh it's just a bit of speed back or he's just scratching uh uh

Reverb guitar but he's not actually playing a notes or whatever and it's like whatever but it's like I I find like there's such a beautiful naivety to that where it's like I kind of wish I didn't know how any of this stuff was made you know yeah and I think the naivety this beautiful Beauty and ignorance in a sense yeah man and I think it's funny because yeah now we're at the point where you know we me and the boys grew up demoing our songs with the Zach Pharaoh um brand new eyes drums samples and

and you think like ah man like my favorite album or one of my favorite albums and the drum sound is Sensational but kind of loses his shine now I can just click it's and make it my own if that makes sense you know what I mean so I will say though there is definitely a beauty to you know I I if you were to to talk about production the same way you talk about painting perhaps you know there is a real Beauty to listening to an album and knowing that they only use this a few

paint colors or whatever like you guys I mean like you know because I think that's something that we try and keep an eye on is you know we can you can use any guitar tone in the world right but then does the album suffer because it just sounds like a mess you know or do you use the same guitar tones and then the album sounds boring right you know so it's it's all about just trying to marry those I think so many creativity that bands can have in the studio and the more they explore that

I think the the stronger the albums will be one of the favorite things I ever did in in a studio wasn't related to music so are you aware of like what Foley is yes like a Foley artist so uh if you're listening watching this and you're not aware what a Foley artist is they recreate or they create sounds for film and TV purposes and so I did this in uni as part of the studio production course and I was tasked with recreating the battle scene of Troy where the Trojans in the Greeks yeah the meat

and the two armies Collide and so the way in which I recreated that scene was by uh I I got about 15 metal chairs align them all up on some stairs Mike did all up pushed the stairs I pushed the chairs down all they said yeah and that was then the recreation for like two armies colliding nice there's so many things that bands can explore in the studio without having to go to a preset oh man I'll never forget listening to somewhat damaged by nine of sales which is the opening track on the fragile and

and like being like hang on is that is that a saw going back and forth in the textures of this song and yeah you know he's just you know he's doing the same kind of riffs and you know all these different drum textures but there is just a saw going back and forth in the background with no regard to Thai's signature or Tempo it's just it's just a noise you know what I mean I think yeah and you're right and and I guess it sounds stupid but that's one thing I'll always commend Slipknot for is

like I know it was yeah it's a lot of crap right but you know yeah yeah and like at the time man like who on Earth was using industrial objects uh you know to as soon as you know music production right I I guess so or maybe not today you know or maybe you know when you think about like a throbbing gristle and all the industrial bands that started all that stuff you know I know sorry there's a million bands who do it but you know seeing clown from Slipknot hitting there a keg on stage

you know that's that's like that's cool as hell you know and I kind of wish more bands embraced that a little bit more yes yes so we'll see maybe a keg on stage for the next album the big shift is covered uh we get to track nine now liminal I I feel like actually this also could have been a title for for the album because this is a song that sort of to me it seems like it's all it's all about transitioning yes dude 100 this song is about you know basically just being in the

middle of everything you know and almost being frustrated by it because you know oh it's to a point where you're happy to go forwards or backwards but you're just sick of being stuck in the same place you know um but yeah this song and I like to think you know the song after this is is The Epiphany track so I kind of like the idea that this song is actually about change because this is kind of that the journey having that moment where it realizes that an epiphany is necessary I guess you know so yeah

let's get to it this is track nine liminal Prime audio radio that is track 9 from the new holding absence liminal and I've been here with Lucas album [Laughter] yes these these bloopers these this is yeah we'll leave it in Lucas we'll leave it in yeah the BT of mistakes what we're talking about yeah I will not be I I won't be a hypocrite there you go track 9 libido holding absence you know what I think it is it's actually a little tricky to say holding absence the noble art of self-destruction that is that is

a lot of syllables man yeah yeah and my name as well if you're talking to just like a um or something it's easy but Lucas album yes there we go uh dude this is this has been a pleasure I you know it's been so nice because we've got to know each other a little bit over the past few years first chat you know with the this is one EP and through this whole album journey and you know I'm really excited now for like where you go from from here you mentioned briefly about a couple of

thoughts for album four but it feels like it's going to be quite different because this is this is the end of of something for holding absence for sure man yeah and I think you know I'm glad to hear that because I feel the same way I'm excited you know like finishing this Trilogy now I it feels like liberating you know what I mean because like I really feel like this is the the end of the beginning of our band's Journey but by no means is this the end for our abandon and I just I can't

wait to see what we become and how we can you know continue to to connect with people and one thing I want to make very clear is like you know holding absence needs no genre really because who you know like you know if you've listened to the last few songs like the goal is to to throw people off a little bit and to try and write buried music but I hope everyone understands that the intention is is what keeps it like a through thread and that is you know just that human connection the emotion the

passion you know and and I think for this band we've managed to accrue a really wonderful community of people that don't care about genre that but they they do care about the message you know and and I think for me now as as we move forward to album Four as long as the message stays the same I'm just excited to see what the music will become you know yeah it's funny you say that I was thinking that the holding absence fan base is is probably one of the fewer out there that will be very receptive

to change I mean like you would have to drastically change I think in order for the whole museum yeah they're in um yeah but but generally speaking it feels like you are taking your fans with you that's not always possible for a band a lot of bands have had to have some pretty like tough breakups with their fans in order to move forward yeah you know because I think it's two things it's first and foremost you know we you know I say this all the time but Mom we we are and we always will be

seeing kids you know and and we grew up looking to all these bands and you know I I remember when bands made well I remember when this band took too long to release this album and people stopped hearing I remember when this band took two drastic a U-turn and people stopped carrying them and I think they're all lessons to be learned you know so I think you know a big thing about us is that we're aware of the pitfalls I think because we're not trying to be arrogant about anything you know it's like you know

I know some bands and good to them because some of the best albums of all time were written like this but I know some bands will disregard their fans to you know just kind of just take them on a journey that trust me bro you'll love this you know what I mean but there's we don't want that energy really I I don't view myself as any better than anyone else or I know anything more than anyone else you know I'm just lucky to be at the front of all this but and I guess yeah like

the second part you know is as well as us doing our homework is is like I just said you know we're we're very in touch with our fan base and and I want to make sure that we take it a step at a time you know we we never lead them anywhere that they wouldn't want to go um because I think you know that we've got a very very close connection with our families you know yeah yeah very briefly I've got to get my cat cause he's trying to eat my leftovers of my lunch uh

before we uh wrap up uh on the last track of the album the angel in at the marble just uh yeah tell me things are going to become I know you've got dates and then you know future festivals and stuff like that so what's uh what's next for holding absence yeah man like another it's funny to say but you know another world tour basically which is crazy but you know we our next show is in Las Vegas and we start a tour with census fail for a whole month and then we fly all the way

to Australia and we do a couple shows with Thornhill and then we fly back home and we begin the no block of self-destruction tour um and yeah that's that's in the UK and Europe in November play the biggest values we've ever played and excited to play the best set we've ever played as well you know what I mean so the end of this year is looking to be a real celebration and we as always are just inviting everybody with open arms to come and enjoy it with us you know I think Caesars even Caesar he's

happy about that he's looking forward to it he has been a holding absence fan for as long as I have yeah right we're gonna get into the angel in the Marvel now so this is uh track 10 from the album and you talked earlier uh about this track and it's important so um yeah just expand on that a little a little bit more well I think this song is is you know I for me it's the most emotional candid song I've ever written for holding absence I think you know I I listened to this album

I I've listened to this album you know obviously a lot of times but every time I'm shocked with how poignant this song feels you know what I mean so so I really hope you know this song gets heard by as many people as possible really you know but yeah a big part of this song is um to go a little bit deep you know a big part of this album was inspired by kinsugi which is you know the Japanese art form of imbuing plural with gold and making broken things more valuable um and at the

foot of this whole campaign I was doing some research on um Michelangelo and and and David and like I I heard a quote from him where he said you know basically someone said how did you make David and he said um there was an angel in the marble and I have to set it free and it just felt like so poignant to me because I I realized that you know this album The Noble law of self-destruction it is about us as people being blocks of marble and inside that marble can be anything you want it

is entirely up to you what you make of yourself so this song is is kind of about that and and the other thing you know which is another through narrative that I've spoken about a lot is you know when you think about kinsuri and you think about marble sculptures they are created through destruction you know that you cannot make a marble sculpture without breaking it essentially and that kind of empowered me because I realized that yes I I may have been hurt and broken in my life but that means that I have more scope to

to learn from and more chance to become something better essentially so it all stems from there and and I think that kind of was the precedent for this whole album and ironically this is one of the last songs that I actually finished because I knew how important it was you know so uh yeah amazing let's get into this now and dude this has been such a wonderful chat the album is out now the noble art of self-destruction at Navia shops and Records be sure to go buy it you know vinyl stream whatever I'm pretty sure

you're gonna be looking at some chart positions of No Doubt um so let's see how far we could take that for holding absence this is track 10 the angel in the marble Lucas thank you so much for your time today man thank you so much for having me I appreciate it man so pleasure as always radio