Interview: Holding Absense
Holding Absence. They’ve just returned from tours in both America and Australia; they’ve just released a new single (Aching Longing); they’ve just announced a new EP with Alpha Wolf. A lot’s been going on for the incredibly talented – and humble – Welsh band, and we were lucky enough to sit down with Lucas Woodland and Scott Carey ahead of their jetting back off on tour!
Hey guys! So -- you’ve just come back from both the US and Australia. How were they?
Lucas: Insane man! We’ve wanted to go to both places for all of our lives; to go to both of them in the space of two months was a lot and quite overwhelming but it was worth everything, it was so good.
Scott: Exactly like the kind of thing you dream about when you’re a kid being in a band, you know – going here, going there, back home, back there.
UK, Australia or America, which crowd?
Lucas: Ooo they’ve all got different merits. I feel like Australia is the most similar to the UK, and America was just… it was a *lot*. We had to learn a lot quickly, little things that you’d never think of in your day-to-day life. But I loved them all. And the shows were just universally good.
Scott: As a place, Australia definitely, but for crowds you can’t beat a good hometown crowd. We’re looking forward to today because it’s like being back home, we haven’t been here for a few years.
What I wanted to ask, and thanks for teeing me up – how was Red House? I can’t pronounce the place name!
Lucas: Ah Merthyr Tydfil! Yeah it was really good man! It’s always funny; we’re playing Tunbridge Wells tomorrow, and we’ve played Wellingborough and Falkirk, and all these places, but no-one really plays those kind of places in Wales. But because we’re from Wales – Merthyr Tydfil, that’s like six train stops from where we grew up. But yeah it was good! Our crowds are always awesome no matter where we play.
What was it like touring with Funeral For a Friends? I’ve written the words ‘hometown heroes’.
Lucas: Yeah! It was awesome. Obviously we did the tour with them in February, and Scott’s the biggest superfan.
Scott: It was just growing up with that kind of music was unreal, and especially having that kind of band be where you’re from was like an extra little air of inspiration, but also sort of fanboy-ishness, to tour with them and see those songs that I grew up loving, seeing them for two weeks straight.
I saw you guys with them in London with some friends and I remember there were some placards that had you guys crack up! You just seemed to be having so much fun.
Lucas: Ah yeah! I can’t remember what they all said. One of them was for our new bassist Ben [Elliot] – well he’s not really new anymore, but it was one of his first tours – and they held up a piece of paper with a photo of him saying “you’re doing good Ben” and he loved that!
Onto some of the new stuff. Aching Longing – how did that come about?
Lucas: We’re always writing music, working towards the future, and even just releasing music. We’ve made sure to release at least a song a year for the past six years. Split, album, double album – you name it. For us it was about keeping on it. And then Alpha Wolf – we did a split with Loathe before, ‘This Is as One’, and it worked out really well; plus, we love Alpha Wolf and are on the same label. It just made sense. I really urge other bands to do it more, I don’t know why we’re the only band that does split EPs. They’re so sick. They get the best out of both bands.
Scott: Especially with the whole genre split. I’ve seen loads of people on Twitter, minds blown by the fact that we know each other and a band like us can do a collaboration with a band like Alpha Wolf. In the real world we’re all mates. We’re friends with pop bands *and* hardcore bands. It’s just… why not? Why not play off that duality and just do something new and different?
Speaking of This Is As One, is there a possibility of another co-headline tour as with Loathe?
Lucas: Um… There’s nothing in the books at the moment. We spoke about it, and it’s one of those things where ironically our fanbases might be a little too different, and the other issue is that we’re both from very faraway territories. So it would either be us headlining in the UK, Alpha Wolf headlining with us in Australia, or trying to make something work in America – but I think it’s one of those things where it’s hard to tell what the best version of it would be, or even when it could happen. When we did it with Loathe we did a brilliant one and handpicked every support in every city and it was really cool. But Alpha Wolf are so far away that it might be tough, and our schedules are crazy anyway.
A bit more general – any bands you’re looking forward to seeing today?
Both, almost in unison: Deftones.
Lucas: And then Loathe, Funeral, Creeper… it’s just a really good day of music.
Scott: We have a lot of friends on today so we’re also looking forward to just hanging out with people and catching up.
I always love asking this – any bands you’d recommend that people might not have heard of?
Lucas: My favourite band in the world at the moment is a band called Paledusk from Japan, they’re insane. I urge anyone to check them out. And watch their videos as well, they’re a great visual band. They’re very frantic, definitely breaking into different territories. The Japanese scene is quite unique as it is, it doesn’t have much of a touring thing. With UK, Australia, America, you can tour for weeks; I’m not sure it’s the same in Japan. So luckily they’re breaking out at the moment but definitely worth checking out.
Scott: On repeat for me at the moment is Thornhill. We did our American tour with them, we’re really good friends, and they’ve just put an incredible album out. Check out Heroine!
A final one – why not. Which Holding Absence song has most changed your lives?
Scott: My initial answer is Afterlife. It’s blown up so much. But for me my answer’s going to be Wilt. First song I was part of writing for Holding Absence, and it was a moment in my life – the rest of the album was written by the old guitarist and I felt like I had to prove myself – and it’s really nice that it’s turned into a fan favourite. It’s validating for me as a musician.
Lucas: And I feel like it was really important for our relationship as songwriters. Me and Scott grew up writing songs together – we had a few years apart, and then we sat down and rote Wilt together, and it felt like “oh my God we can still do it” you know? My personal answer though would be Penance. Not many people know this but that was the first song I wrote for Holding Absence. Not the first I released with the band, but Penance represents a lot of… it was the beginning of all of it. I remember waking up hungover one day and being sent the song, and just jamming voice memos on my phone. It was really exciting me to get back into writing music.
Thank you so much – always love chatting to you guys!
Lucas: It’s been a pleasure!
Interview by James O’Sullivan
“The Lost & The Longing”, the collaboration between Alpha Wolf and Holding Absence, is out August 15, with first single Aching Longing out now. Check it out!
