photo via myspace.com/pattheabsence
Cole Dougherty: This is Cole from Mind Over Metal and I am interviewing Patrick Pintavalle, guitarist from The Absence. Before I get started here, I wanted to congratulate you guys on the success of your new album.
Patrick Pintavalle: Thanks a lot, man.
CD: It’s a big accomplishment for you guys, how do you feel about it?
PP: I don’t know. I feel like we wrote a good record. I feel like the production could have been a little bit more aggressive– it seems a little laid back. but ya’ know there’s always next time
CD: I did notice that. The production on Riders Of The Plague and Enemy Unbound are a little different. It almost seemed a little bit thrashier on Riders. Was that something you were going for?
PP: Yeah its a little more aggressive on Riders.
CD: Did you approach that album with more of a thrashy influence or was that how things just came to be?
PP: That’s just how things came to be.
CD: How was the recording process for this album? How long were you guys in there?
PP: We were in the studio for (I think it was) three weeks. Most of the time was consumed in pre-production.
CD: Right. Was it a good experience? Do you have any regrets? Is there anything you would go back and change about it?
PP: No. That was the thing about this record, the only thing I regret was not having Jeramie to play drums on it. Most of the drums you hear and all were peter and I’s ideas. Play this beat, play that beat, you know what I mean?
CD: Sure.
PP: It doesn’t really have the aggressive attack that Jeramie would have brought to the table. He does a lot of cymbal work too. I don’t know how familiar you are with Riders, he does a lot of crazy cymbal work and he actually wants to hear our guitar leads before he writes the drums and he puts the drums to the leads so we didn’t have that this time around. He’s back in the band now and I think the next record will be crazy.
CD: Awesome. Good to hear. you guys have a pretty pronounced style– melodic death with those thrashy elements to it. Where do you guys draw your influences from?
PP: Lately, it’s been classic rock bands but originally what we were going for was that European sounding melodic death metal like Edge of Sanity, Carcass, At The Gates, Arch Enemy, Soilwork. Bands like that. A lot of those bands stopped playing that style of music but that was our love for those bands when we started this band.
CD: I share that love. Melodic Death is one of my favorite genres. One of The Absence‘s specialties is the epic wailing guitar solo and you and Peter are both amazing guitarists. How do you decide who does what? What’s the approach there?
PP: This time around I wrote four songs, he wrote three songs and we collaborated on two. So, what we’ll do is we’ll leave sections open for each other. We’ve been doing it together so long now, we just know what to do.
CD: What are you guys listening to now? Do you get to keep up with the Metal scene? You just mentioned “classic rock” as well.
PP: We keep up, I guess. I’ve been listening to a lot of crazy shit lately, like Animals As Leaders. When I say “classic rock” it’s probably because when I get into the car I just put the radio on oldies or whatever, so I think we drawn influence from songwriting from that. The structure of the songs definitely comes from more poppy pop rock culture than it does death metal but its still death metal music. *laughs*
CD: Definitely! So aside from Animals As Leaders, do you have anything else new that you’re listening to and do you have any feelings on the new trends that are in Metal right now?
PP: I’m not really crazy about the new trends in metal, I guess. I mean, I think most of the bands that are popular right now—I try to listen to them and they just don’t do anything for me. I still can’t stop listening to Opeth, that’s like one of my favorite bands. I like Devin Townsend, I think what he does is pretty cool. I’m more of a Strapping Young Lad fan, but his new stuff is pretty cool. It’s pretty poppy, some of the songs I skip.
CD: I had the same feeling about one of his new ones, I think it was Ki—it had some poppy moments on it that I couldn’t really deal with.
PP: Yeah, the chick singer throws me off a little bit.
CD: Right, right.
*laughs*
PP: I think we all like a lot of different stuff. A lot of different kinds of music. I don’t want to just listen to Metal.
CD: Sure.
PP: I’ve been listening to some older stuff like Queensryche and I heard the new James LaBrie is really cool. I heard one song and it was really cool.
CD: We’re two months from the new year, what’s in The Absence‘s future?
PP: Well for the rest of this year we got a tour with Firewind and when we come back we’re going to shoot another video. This way we can have a video for the new year.
CD: Awesome! Do you know what song you’re going to be going with for the video?
PP: Yeah, I believe we’re going to be doing “Deepest Wound”, the third track on the record.
CD: Excellent. I am a big fan of you guys so I have to ask you, if you could play with any three bands, active or inactive, who would you pick?
PP: Oh wow. *laughs* I wasn’t prepared for this one
CD: “The nerdy fan-boy question”
PP: Well, do you mean play with a band you like or play with a band that would help you get successful?
CD: Good question! There is definitely a difference.
PP: I guess I could have two different answers. laughs. So if it was us and three other bands I’d have to say Evergrey, Arch Enemy and Opeth. That would be a cool tour.
CD: That would be awesome.
PP: To tour with bands that would make us successful, I’d say Metallica… Slayer would be a great band to tour with because you know there would be people there. Testament would be a great band to play with as well.
CD: Yeah, you guys do a great cover of “Into The Pit”.
PP: Thanks.
CD: Here’s another nerdy fan-boy question: Would you ever consider or have you ever talked about a concept album? I’m a big fan of concept albums and is that something you would ever consider?
PP: That’s an excellent question because our next record is going to be a concept album.
CD: Fantastic.
PP: We’ve already talked about it. We already have the concept and the title of the record. We just have to start writing to it.
CD: I can see through a lot of the lyrics Jamie writes that you guys could be going in that direction.
PP: Enemy Unbound is kind of a concept record. The “enemy unbound” is us talking about the music industry. Every different song is about how being the music industry reflects your life. It kind of is a concept record but we didn’t really go crazy about promoting it as a concept record and I think the next album that we’re talking about now will be promoted that way. We have a lot of good ideas.
CD: Glad to hear it! Well, that’s about all the time I have. Is there anything you wanted to say to your fans before I wrap this up?
PP: Aw, hell… keep it Metal, I guess. *laughs*
CD: Always good advice and thanks a lot, Patrick, I appreciate you taking the time.
PP: Thank you, man!
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