Diving In With Pentimento

I had a chance to sit down with Mike Hansen and Lance Claypool of punk/emo band Pentimento at the Hartford, Connecticut date of A Loss for Words’ final tour. We discussed their recent signing to Bad Timing Records, the value of social media, the band’s upcoming album and more. Keep your eye out for Pentimento as they have a lot going on and are sure to make a big splash in the scene very soon.

Good Night Magazine: You guys just announced your signing to Bad Timing Records. How did that come about? I know Thomas [Nassiff] was the one who signed you to Paper + Plastick – did he reach out to you once he started the new label or did you guys reach out to him?
Mike Hansen: When Thomas and Zack [Zarrillo] put Bad Timing together, they reached out to us and just kind of said, “Hey, we’d be happy to work together if you guys are interested.” We just weren’t ready to release anything at that time, though. So once we got the record together and started getting mixes back, we sent it around to different labels, and Thomas and Zack expressed a lot of interest pretty much outright. So we just felt like since we’ve had such a great relationship with them the whole time that we’ve been a band and they’ve been a huge help, signing to Bad Timing was the right thing to do. The good fit, the home for the record; it just felt right.

How does it feel being part of such a new label rather than a more established one?
Lance Claypool: I don’t think it really matters what label we’re on as long as there are good people working at the label that care about what you’re doing and where you want to go. And they’re definitely people that can help us so we’re stoked.

MH: He’s absolutely right, it’s just the people behind the label are what make it strong. And the size and the clout or whatever – that shit comes later. We’re excited to grow alongside Bad Timing and be a part of what they have going on because they’re doing it the right way, for the right reasons.

For the last album you guys obviously had some issues and ended up releasing it for free before you got the physical release sorted out. How do you feel that worked out for you and how has it changed what you’re doing now, in the future?
MH: It made me wish that we could issue our stuff digitally for free every time. We actually, for quite a while, when putting together ideas for future releases after that, thought long and hard and had many conversations about doing exactly that: trying to work into a deal with a label where they would let us do digital for free completely – or trying to figure out a way to just get a label to fund vinyl and CD release so we could do our digitals like DIY.

Other aspects of that that we took away were just like: careful when you sign a record deal. And I don’t know if it’s changed anything else. We’re definitely more aware of trying to make our decisions based on what’s right for the band and not trying not to jump the gun on stuff.

Going along with that, it seems like you guys put a lot of effort into building a fan base and maintaining that relationship with fans. I know social media is a big thing that you guys do. Has that always been something you guys have focused on and put more value in over other aspects of the band?

LC: That’s the instant gratification part of it. Like as long as people want to connect with us, they can. And it’s awesome to see that that’s growing, which means, potentially, that the band is growing. It’s tough to see growth from inside the band, but people tell us we’re like a “Tumblr band” or something. And whatever that means is whatever you’re talking about so apparently we have some clout on social media.

I know I found out about you guys from the Brand New “Daisygate” show; all the tweeting from that. I followed you for entertainment and a couple months later I finally made the plunge into the music.
MH: And that’s great because that’s just that’s a very fun example of how social media is put to work in today’s society. Like, that’s really cool man, because you checked it out if you thought it was funny. We’re a band, though, so you then took it a step further and checked out the music after that initial icebreaker. And now we’re in the same room together. And we’re boys and we’re hanging out and that’s awesome. I think that’s pretty cool that social media has that sort of staying power because now this is a lasting relationship. I mean you and I have each other’s phone number, we exchanged a lot of information in order for you to be able to be present here. So all of that leading up to this is the beauty part of social media.

LC: It’s all because of “Daisygate.”

MH: Yeah “Daisygate.” I didn’t even know it was called “Daisygate” either so that’s pretty cool.

I don’t know if that’s an official thing or just me playing a role in it.
MH: I appreciate it. Because it’s cool that if something like that ended up getting circulated and taken into different directions by other people: that’s the game. Because it’s just a bunch of goofy shit on Twitter and it doesn’t mean anything so I’m glad that other people kind of use it like Play-Doh and make their own fun with it, that’s cool. But then, of course, the important part is for all the people who have ever seen all that garbage and got a chuckle out of it – even if a percentage of those people then turned around and decided to check out the band or whatever, we did it! It’s like you used social media right. You did the right thing.

I mean not that we know how, but my nine to five at home is to be a market research guy. And I wouldn’t know anything about market research if it weren’t trying to do stuff for the band. And a lot of that comes from social media because we are present because that’s where people are. When people are there, you want to be there as well. I mean the number one rule of business is “location, location, location,” right? So if there are people on the Internet then you should be there, too. And I feel that we all are pretty frequently interacting with our personal social media all the time – I mean we as people in general, you know? We’re all guilty of it to some degree, but being in a band it’s your responsibility to kind of not take yourself too seriously sometimes, to let people know that there are real guys behind what’s going on, and to appreciate the music that much more after the fact or to put that together is cool.

In the vein of not taking yourself too seriously, it’s kind of in contrast to your lyrics, which are pretty emotionally hard-hitting. What would you say is the balance with this relationship? I mean it’s two different sorts of sides, which is kind of interesting.
MH: That could be just a testament to personality in general. I probably default to humor a lot more than I default to writing sad things down when I’m trying to deal with a problem.

LC: That’s why we’re a rock band not a goth band.

MH: There he goes. There he goes with the fucking icing on the cake.

LC: The subtle difference!

MH: That’s the fine line right there. We are so close to wearing eyeliner and shit. And drinking clamato juice every day. But what sets us apart from that is trying to be funny on the Internet. It rarely works out. The Brand New thing was just – truthfully, let’s examine that for a minute: like none of that shit was actually funny, it was just topical. People just like to talk about Brand New so I was just putting my two cents in. I’m glad people thought it was funny though.

The point is that I just think that the dichotomy between the serious side or the emotionally charged lyrics, the sincere or honest path that we try to take in that direction, certainly mirrors the idea that you can do the same in a different way being funny. Comedians talk about this all the time. A lot of their most hilarious moments are coming from a place of them trying to deal with something or some sort of heartache or tribulation. So it’s really incredible how people can find inspiration in those ways and outlet it in so many different colors. Like writing a serious, emotionally driven song, playing it onstage – yeah, that’s definitely serious. I wouldn’t make fun of that or make fun of the way that people mean things that they say.

But I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a dude that’s like that all the time... hopefully. Hopefully you don’t have too many friends who are just bummed about whatever constantly. Hopefully there is like a balance. And I think that’s maybe what it is, maybe it’s just our effort to try to maintain a balance. You have to take both sides and equate that to the personality that we as a band try to project. It’s the four of us, you know. Or the five of us really – our merch guy is definitely a part of it just as much as we are. So it’s everybody’s personality involved in there. And I think it is a pretty accurate representation to show the serious side and the not serious side. What you see is what you get I suppose, you know?

I think it’s interesting too how a lot of people find connection to the lyrics even though they’re sad lyrics. And then it’s like people getting something good out of it even though it comes from such a bad place.
MH: Yeah, I totally understand what you mean and, just to relate it back to the comedy world, it’s the same thing, man, you know? Again, most comedians talk about this super openly that they’ve all been through just fucked up shit. I think about a guy like Jim Carrey and his whole story – living out of a truck and stuff. And not only is he famous, but he’s famous for making other people feel good. And his motivation came from just necessity, you know, doing what he had to do to survive. And it was hard and it’s terrible to think that anybody would have to go through that, but here’s a guy who made himself successful because he wanted to make others feel good. But it came from a very dark place. So I guess you’re right, it’s a great point to make that it’s really cool that people can kind of salvage something else out of that whole burning pile of shitty feelings.

You write all the lyrics for the band, at least up until this point.
MH: Our past releases, yeah. And then on this new one Jerry [Pauly, vocalist] and I collaborated on some stuff, so that was really cool.

I feel like for a lot of bands it’s easy to tell when the vocalist doesn’t write the lyrics. How would you say your relationship is different with Jeremiah that he is able to say your feelings in such a good way?
MH: I think that like him and I are just – we have a relationship. And the relationship that him and I have allows us to freely share ideas. So when lyrical content comes into question or it’s like “Hey, I have this thing to go with this song,” what he wants to do is talk to me about it. He wants to dig in about what made me say these words. And then it’s almost like now that he knows that, now that he doesn’t have to wonder, he can ignore it. And he is able to just do this thing where he puts himself in place of the song so it’s no longer like, “Okay, what was Mike thinking about when he wrote this,” it’s like, “Well what does this make me think about now?”

And that’s from a listener’s standpoint, too. That’s a great thing. My goal is that everybody takes away a piece. And that includes Jerry, that includes the rest of the guys in the band, that includes all of us. Just because I’m the guy that puts the pen to paper doesn’t mean that I get the final say about what it means because that’s total bullshit. It’s in the mud. Whatever I’m doing can be manipulated by other people in the way that they’re allowed to now take something away from it that maybe I wouldn’t even think of. And I’ve definitely had conversations with people where they say, “I feel this thing from this line or this song.” And I’m like, “That’s the absolute opposite thing of what I was thinking about at that time.” And that’s amazing. That’s why it’s art. That’s what makes it art in my opinion as a writer, if I’m allowed to consider myself that.

It’s a beautiful thing and it puts me beside myself a lot when I have these thoughts because that’s such an important thing to have in the world in general. And for me to be a part of that as a band member and be able to channel stuff and then put it through somebody else who really cares about it. He’s broadcasting it to a bunch of these people that really care about it. I mean he’s in the front of the stage, he’s seeing the crowd, the crowd is seeing him. He’s the singer. So if he doesn’t mean it then we’re doing something wrong. I am so lucky and so fortunate to be with a dude who we’re close enough with that we relate on so many levels so well that his delivery is a definite channel or representation of the lyrical content in such a way that now he’s able to be sincere. Maybe I was having a sincere moment writing the song, but after that it just goes through a different process where it’s not mine anymore; it’s ours now. And that’s what I love about being in a band with these guys in particular.

One of the reoccurring things is the ocean, in a lot of your lyrics and artwork, merch, your logo and stuff. Is that going to continue going on with the next album? And what does that symbolize for you?

MH: I can say yes, for sure. I don’t know to what capacity though. I don’t know if it was ever a planned thing. None of us ever sat down and said like, “Let’s make water just a thing and everyone will just get it, let’s just go with it.” It was just what felt natural and we started seeing design work and stuff. And then it was relating to lyrical content almost fractally, like it was supposed to go together. And without realizing it we just kind of adopted the idea that it was going be part of what we use to represent the lyrical content.
So what it means to me? It just represents the ocean of what you deal with as a human being: the absurdity of life, the uncertainty of everything. The ocean is just this gigantic, powerful machine, but not necessarily a machine because it’s not predictable. You’re totally powerless against something like that. But the fact that anybody would involve themselves at all with a beast of that nature – whether it’s sailing a ship or fishing or swimming or building a fucking house or whatever you do near the water – the fact that you would do something like that as a person – it kind of like represents this defiance. Even though there’s this giant thing that can fucking absolutely blow me to smithereens at any moment – totally obliterate everything I know as reality – but you’re still there. And maybe you get away with it; maybe you come home from the beach, that day. But maybe you don’t. You never know, nobody ever knows.

For me that idea that idea carries over in so many different ways and when I write about the water I think I use it to represent like a lot of the struggle or whatever that I’m trying to get at lyrically, whatever the subject content might be. So that’s probably why it pops up. It just is an easily relatable metaphor for me and just seemed like the right thing to do so. If it’s our thing, that’s cool. Capitalizing on it would be nice, but I’m sure we could only do it for so long. It’s hard to tell when it would become cheesy.

I guess I’ll wrap it up. The album is coming up – when should we expect a tour and who would you like to ideally bring out?

MH: We’re doing a 7” in the summer of a single and a b-side and then the album will be out in fall. Our plans right now just include a lot of festival stuff, but I’m certain that we’ll do something over the summer and then certainly in the fall. Who would I like to tour with? I mean... loaded question. I mean there’s a lot of friends’ bands that I would love to tour with and bring out and just have fun with. And then I would also really like to tour with like Queen or something. Like, that would be really cool, so I don’t really know how you want me to answer, but I’ll say Queen.

LC: Fat bottom girls! They do make the rockin world go ‘round!

MH: Indeed!

They make the 7” vinyl go ‘round.
MH: Yeah, they make the 7” vinyl go ‘round. That’s what’s up dude, this guy knows his shit.