Holding Absence: “COVID underlines the fragility of everything”
Holding Absence frontman Lucas Woodland reflects on his personal trauma ahead of the band’s K! Pit stream.
Words: Phil Alexander
COVID has affected us all in different ways. In the case of Lucas Woodland, the singer with melodic Welsh post-hardcore crew Holding Absence, he has felt its impact on both a professional and on a deeply personal level.
“If I’m completely honest, the whole experience has been really bad,” he says candidly. “For me the fact that live music has stopped has been a really negative experience. Who I am day-to-day and who I am in Holding Absence are different people, or at least different sides of me, and having the Holding Absence side of me stripped away has felt weird and horrible. But you have to do what you have to do to get through this, and we have to wait for life to resume. At my age, that’s just hard to do because you want to be out there grabbing life.�
Post-hardcore crew Holding Absence reveal uplifting new music and K! Pit show, in association with Nordic Spirit.
Words: Phil Alexander
Recording new music during a global pandemic comes with its own challenges. It’s something that rising Welsh post-hardcore outfit Holding Absence narrowly avoided as they began work on the follow up to their acclaimed, 4K-rated debut album that they released back in March 2019.
“We were quite lucky because we recorded just before COVID really hit,” explains frontman Lucas Woodland. “Not one single lyric on the album was shaped by COVID. Instead, it was shaped by sheer existential dread! I suppose that’s what we’re all living through right now too, actually.”
Palm Reader: “2020 has made us more hopeful”
Nottingham heavyweights Palm Reader embrace the future as they announce their K! Pit stream, in association with Nordic Spirit.
Words: Phil Alexander
Photos: Esmé Surfleet
Necessity is the mother of invention. That has certainly been the case as far as most musicians are concerned during the course of 2020, when the global pandemic has challenged their very livelihoods.
Nottingham heavyweights Palm Reader have met that challenge head-on, releasing their acclaimed fourth album Sleepless into an uncertain world. Unable to play shows, the five-piece also embraced livestreaming in an ambitious manner, hiring St Edmunds Church, Rochdale, for a special performance to launch the record in late November.
Svalbard: What lockdown has taught us
Svalbard look back at the lessons of 2020 as they prepare to unleash fury in The K! Pit, in association with Nordic Spirit
Words: Phil Alexander
Photos: Esmé Surfleet
“I’ve been writing solo black metal record. It’s nearly finished and it’s coming out next year,” says Svalbard’s Serena Cherry. Like most musicians facing down the pandemic, the guitarist/singer has been left to her own devices during much of this year, navigating periods of lockdown by finding new ways of expressing herself.
“I didn’t know how to use recording software or how to programme drums, but I learnt how to do all that,” she says. “Not to sound mean, but writing all the stuff myself, means that I don’t have to compromise. With the band, we all write together and you have to learn that if someone doesn’t like your lead part then it won’t be part of the song. This has been different. It’s been really indulgent and great!”
Svalbard: “When shows come back, they will be different”
Svalbard’s Serena Cherry looks forward to post-pandemic gigs as the band announce their K! Pit show, in association with Nordic Spirit.
Words: Phil Alexander
Photos: Esmé Surfleet
Serena Cherry is standing in front of a film crew in an empty venue with tears in her eyes. Her and her bandmates in Svalbard are ensconced in Blondies, the fabled East London dive bar, where they are being filmed for our internet-shattering live series, The K! Pit hosted in association with Nordic Spirit.
One song into their 30-minute set and the singer has clearly been hit by a wave of emotion. The reason is simple enough: this is the Bristol metal crew’s first show since February and their first since the release of their third album, the universally acclaimed When I Die, Will I Get Better?.