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Photo from Instagram by @emily.dxvies
Interview by Brooke Vokoun
Listen to Pentire Here:
Based in the U.K.’s South West, Pentire Band is an electrifying group of guys, with an expanding discography, and a sprouting music career. Creating a wave of indie/alternative style songs, Pentire’s music is fueled by insanely rich vocals, and a solid combination of powerful guitar riffs and brilliant rhythms. If you enjoy artists like Declan McKenna, Arctic Monkeys, or Catfish and the Bottlemen, then Pentire is the next indie/alternative band that should be on your music radar.
The band consists of four friends with a mutual love for music. With impressive control over his vocals, as well as compelling moments on guitar, Jack Morgan is the frontman, lead vocalist and rhythm guitar. On the bass, there is Ryan-Luke Davies, who maintains the flow of their songs with a strong cadence and tempo throughout. Owen Seymour, lead guitarist, represents the thrilling substance and dynamic that is stressed through the different guitar riffs. Then, there is the pulse and heart of the music, Josh Blake on the drums, who creates striking beats. Pentire is not shy of talent whatsoever, and their artistry is heavily represented through the band members.
After Pentire’s debut single in June 2019, “Obsessed,” they were able to perform some of their music live, and were even featured on BBC Introducing and Radio’s 6 Music, for up-and-coming artist discovery. Other singles released in 2019 and 2020-- “Take it Away,” “Belly Dancer,” and “Best Friend’s House,”-- represent the dedication to the alternative genre, and impressive writing, producing, and recording Pentire band is capable of. Their release of singles and demos on YouTube, have only been teasing fans more and more for the possible future of a debut EP.
Photo from Instagram: @pentirebandofficial
On April 9th, Pentire will be releasing their first single of 2021. The song, “Water,” is a quality mixture of the heavy dynamic between every member of the band. The guitar riffs are innovatively designed; proving the ingenuity in overlapping tones and diverse sounds. The mixture of the bass and drums, conveys exciting rhythm and accents to control the pace and spirit of the song. There is a noteworthy bridge, consisting of an authentic sound and production, which genuinely caught me off-guard. Pentire’s, “Water,” is no doubt a banger, and a song I already added to my summer road trip playlists.
I had the opportunity to talk to Owen and Jack about the origin of Pentire band, and learn some insight behind their music and the new release, “Water.”
How did you all meet, and what made you decide to form a band together?
Owen: We both were in two separate bands, and long story short, both bands split up. We had done some gigs together, and me and Jack had nothing better to do, so we just started writing some songs together. Then we found Josh and Ryan, and started making tunes in the shed of my garden.
I know that Pentire is a place in the UK, but is there any significance to why you named the band after it?
Owen: Well, we all used to go down there, park up, and there’s like a beach there: it’s the name of a headland. Did a bit of surfing there when we were younger, so we just thought it was a cool name. There’s like a ‘Welcome to Pentire’ sign when you get there.
Are there any musical influences behind the songs you write and record, and who are they?
Jack: When we started off it was very standard indie, Arctic Monkeys. Catfish and the Bottleman was a big influence for me back in 2018 when we started. But now I think we've kind of moved on. We’re very into Inhaler at the moment, The Killers, Wallows, and all those kinds of bands.
I noticed that you’ve been selling tickets for a live show in June, and were able to perform some shows before everything was officially shut down. How was the experience like for you all as a band, to actually be able to perform in person?
Owen: We haven’t done it in so long. Me and Jack did a couple acoustic shows in August when it was just socially distanced stuff, and then it all went back to this. We haven’t performed in over a year now, as a band. It’s a bit weird, so that’ll be good to get back out and do that.
What do you miss most about performing live?
Owen: Literally, everything about it.
Jack: Yeah, everything about it!
Owen: Even driving places and just setting up, and seeing all the people come in.
Jack: Having people actually like dancing to your songs is pretty cool. We’ll have to do it soon!
When the band is able to get back on the road, do you have any plans or dream locations to perform?
Jack: We really, really want to tour. Where we go, is not really decided by us, it’s decided by where people want us to go. I’d love to go to Europe, that’d be cool! And obviously, America’s the dream, but it’s very expensive for small bands. Just hitting every city in the UK would be cool, or as many as we can.
Owen: It’s very up in the air about where we can go, and when gigs are going to be back on. We’re just looking to get in, like festival slots, so we don’t promise fans too much at the minute, because who knows what’s going to happen.
Photo from Instagram by @emily.dxvies
Most of your music is just singles and demos as of right now, do you have any plans for an upcoming EP or debut album?
Jack: We’d love to write albums and stuff, but it’s not really decided by us, it's who will listen to it, I guess. Yeah, but we’d love to write an EP. We’ve got a few songs put aside for an EP, actually.
Owen: Yeah, we’re hoping to get an EP done by the end of this year.
Jack: Yeah, but it’s not set in stone.
Do you guys write songs together, or is it more of an initial start to a song by one of you, and then work in the instruments and production later down the line?
Jack: One of us will like, come with the song that’s just mainly acoustic guitar and most of the lyrics. In this day and age, I suppose, me and Owen for ‘Water,’ just sat down and spent about four solid days on Facetime and Zoom: writing it, fixing lyrics, and changing it. So, predominantly, we all kind of write our own parts to an extent, but it’s all kind of in our heads as to what we want it to be. We’ll bring it together; we’ll make it sound like a song as a band, opposed to as one person.
Owen: Touching on that, obviously when we used to go into the studio and just work a song out then, I think the only good part about all of this Covid situation, is that we’ve had more time to perfect the song over Zoom calls. Normally, when you go to the studio, you’ve only got two days and you’ve got to get everything done. But, we’ve had quite a lot of time to get everything right for this next song.
Have there been any impacts or roadblocks on your music because of Covid?
Owen: I guess, the whole professionalism of recording, but we can do most of that now with the stuff we sort of put just in there. I mean, it’s not as enjoyable as going to the studio, but personally, I think the outcome is just as, if not better, than what we do going to a studio. We’ve had the time to perfect it.
Jack: The gigs, obviously, are the big thing that we’ve lost. But I mean, through the first lockdown and through May, we put a song called, ‘Belly Dancer’ out and that response was cool. That was when we really started actually, making music for what we wanted to make, and people started actually listening, and buying our merch, like actually listening to us as a normal band. So, that was cool because lockdown really made us focus on the things we didn’t want to do. Before, when we were able to go and play gigs, all we wanted to do was practice and play shows, and the business side of things was kind of getting brushed aside like, ‘Oh, I’ll do it later.’ But, when you’ve got nothing else to do, and you can’t play a gig, then you start doing the social media, start running the campaigns and stuff, and you start overall growing as a musician. In short, we’ve done the boring stuff, instead of the fun stuff, but it’s paid off.
In regards to your social media and the effort you’ve put into growing the fanbase through it, has the new and increasing support impacted your music and producing in any way?
Owen: It definitely drives you to do it more. I’d say we’re more driven to do it now, and it’s more enjoyable when you’ve got more people wanting it, I suppose. But, we’re writing just as much as we used to, and I think it’s just getting a bit better every time.
In ‘Water,’ it has a bit of a different feel than your other singles in regards to production and mixing. What has the creative process been like in producing your music recently?
Owen: We wanted to add just a bit more weird stuff, like we sort of dived into the synths a bit on that one. We wanted to make it sort of similar to what we’ve done, like broaden the sort of people who can and will listen to it. Yeah, we just stuck a few weird bits in.
Jack: I think we’ve got an idea of exactly how we want to sound, and how we want to look. It’s just getting there is the issue now, so I’d say we’re getting closer. I think this is the best song we’ve ever written.
Photo from Instagram by @emily.dxvies
Who are your favorite bands/artists right now?
Owen: I’d probably say Wallows is definitely up there for me at the moment. I like their recent EP.
Jack: I’d say Inhaler for me at the moment.
Owen: Yeah, definitely!
If you could open for any musical artist, who would it be and why?
Owen: Anyone? I don’t know. It would definitely have to be someone like Inhaler or Catfish and the Bottleman.
Jack: Yeah, someone playing a big show. Probably the Killers or Inhaler for me.
On your Instagram and TikTok you’ve been teasing big things are coming for the band. Other than the new single, what’s next for Pentire?
Jack: We’ve got quite a few gigs in the process and in a tour we can’t really tell anyone about yet. A lot of things are happening behind the scene in terms of music, the writing is the big thing for us. Apart from that, there’s not much we can actually say at the moment.
Owen: A few more singles for an EP, and we’ve got a lot of shows coming up, hopefully when we can.
Make sure to check out Pentire’s new release, ‘Water,’ which can be found on Spotify and Apple Music here:
Check out Pentire on social medias:
Twitter- https://twitter.com/pentireband?s=20
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