E: Guilt Like Gravity is a band that can easily be classified by its sound. What sort of energies do you try to harness and emit through your songs and live performances?
Pete: Well, as a band, I know for a fact that everything we write is honest. We play what we like, and the vocals are honest as well. I pretty much write about things that mean a lot to me at the time, or things from the past. The honesty in our music, I think, is what gets people when they see us live, because I think the emotion shows in our live set.
E: Is each live show a whole new experience? Or do they start to become redundant after a while?
Pete: So far I have never felt that playing live becomes redundant--every show conditions change, and every show your environment is different. Playing locally still hasn't even come close to feeling redundant, because of us just recently releasing our EP. Kids are picking it up every day, or getting into our songs online and whatnot, so more and more kids are becoming familiar with us. So at home, every show just gets better and better, and the crowd's participation and energy also gets better every show. As for touring, the crowd we play to is different every night... speaking for the band, I can say that we love touring so much just because of that; the fact that there are surprises every night... it keeps things exciting.
E: Do you think that the new EP was something overdue for the band?
Pete: Not really. We worked really hard for a few months, writing with the new lineup change and getting the new name out there. We were basically a new band. We chose to put the songs online first and then sell the EP when we felt it was ready to be released. Once we saw the reaction that we wanted, we decided to release it, and recently we have been selling out of them at every show, which we are very happy about. People say we were foolish for putting most of the songs online first and then selling it at shows, but we felt we didn't want the kids to buy something they didn't like, so having them online let them hear us first.
E: How much unexpected change has the band gone through since its creation?
Pete: I could go on forever to answer that question. To sum it all up, we used to be The Prizefighter. There were so many lineup changes in The Prizefighter, and I was one of them. I stepped in as the new singer and we toured as TPF for a bit, and when we came home from the From Autumn To Ashes / Every Time I Die tour, we realized that we wanted to make changes, and members realized they wanted to pursue other things. So we weren't going to stop making changes until it felt right, and when it finally felt perfect, we decided to change our name to Guilt Like Gravity and write new material with the new band. Here we are now.
E: Do you think that an album is usually at it's best when all the tracks have a consistent style and sound?
Pete: That could go either way. I look at some of my friends' bands, like From First to Last, and they have a really consistent style and sound... hard hitting and pretty straightforward for the most part... but I can honestly say that what they do, they do so well. I love their sound, and to be honest, their release is going to do really well. On the other hand, other friends of ours, The Sleeping, their release is going to be really good, too. There isn't a song on it that follows a pattern of another song on the album, but yet, even though each song is unique, it is equally amazing. Both bands' style of writing is different, but I love them both equally.
E: Do you think that certain lyrical styles belong exclusively to certain genres?
Pete: Not at all, maybe because I don't prefer one genre over another. Most people like to label everything and pass judgement without trying to understand where the artists are coming from personally. If someone wants to sing about a past relationship, they want to label it emo, but the same lyrics that "emo" bands have can be easily compared to lyrics from any other genre of music. As long as there is honesty in the music and the lyrics, then I don't think that there should be constraints on any aspect of the finished product. Especially questioning whether or not an artist should have done this or that, or if this belongs or that belongs.
E: When you're writing a song, where do you look to find the lyrics?
Pete: Mostly from poetry I have written or words from things I have written in the past, or even for a specific song. It all depends. They could also just come from a feeling that the song gives me. There is no specific place that they come from, and no specific place that they come from, and no specific formula used every time.
E: Is the amount of time it takes for a song to be put together generally consistent from track to track?
Pete: I wish it were that easy. Either we are done playing what we think is a finished product and we say "okay, it's a keeper," or we spend time just changing things around or adding/dropping parts; whatever we feel makes the song best in the end. When we are happy with it, we move on. Then in the studio we always make slight changes, because when you get to hear your songs over and over, you can pick things out here and there easier than hearing them on a simple recording or playing them live.
E: What type of sound or energy did the band hope to have on the EP?
Pete: Our live show is really energetic and passionate, which in effect is entertaining. We wanted our live show to come off the same as on the EP. We are pretty happy with the finished product.
E: Well, thanks a lot for the great interview.
Pete: No problem, my pleasure. As a quick plug, make sure to check out our website: we have info how to get your hands on a copy of the EP. We carry them at every show, also. Last but not least, make sure to chek out a few really good up-and-coming bands, Hope for the Best and The Sleeping. Thanks again! |
