The Auditory Adventures of Holding Absence

The Auditory Adventures of Holding Absence

Holding Absence is a post hardcore collective from South Wales whose mesmerizing sonnets transcend genres and set the imagination in flight.  Presenting deeply emotional lyrical content with soundscapes that soar into the stratosphere, Holding Absence recently unveiled their Self-Titled debut album through SharpTone Records.  Fans of Thrice and Deftones will surely find a whole lot of auditory intrigue when exploring the sonic adventures Holding Absence has to offer the world at large.  Here is a recent interview we conducted with founding member James Joseph to discover a whole lot more about this exhilarating band on the rise.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Holding Absence, and how long the band has been together.
Hey I’m James, I play bass and I founded Holding Absence four years ago. However, we had a fair few member changes, most notably Lucas Woodland joining on vocals, which we now consider the true beginning of the band, two and a half years ago.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?
We’re based in Cardiff, South Wales. We are very grateful to have a thriving local scene, myself and our vocalist Lucas have been playing shows in South Wales since we were 14 years old, we went on to promote lots of shows and even some small festivals. We’d like to shout out Fuel Rock Club who hosted us for our first few Cardiff shows and the majority of our former bands shows.

Who produced the Self-Titled album and what was it like working with them?
We worked with upcoming producer George ‘G1’ Lever. He was instrumental in finding sounds and helping us create some of the atmospherics on the album. He also acted like a counselor during the recording process as tensions were high. He’ll be a big name in the next few years.

What could one expect from a live Holding Absence show?
Raw emotion and honesty. Holding Absence shows are hugely cathartic to us and our family of supporters.

Has Holding Absence ever played here in the States or plan to do so in future days?
We’re working on it right now! We are very humbled to have so much demand for us to fly over.

What are you looking forward to the most about your upcoming shows with Being As An Ocean?
They’re wonderful people. We often learn a lot from touring with veteran bands like Being As An Ocean. We’re also very excited to hear their new music.

How did your shows with As It Is go and what were some of the highlights?
We were a little skeptical if we’d be a little too ‘scary’ or ‘intense’ for the As It Is demographic, but their fans welcomed us with open arms. We’re very grateful that As It Is let us support them and would love to do it again sometime.

If Holding Absence could open for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Radiohead, Thrice, Deftones – I think we will eventually. They’re all hugely influential to our sound.

How did your Split with Loathe come about and what was it like touring with them?
It was an idea we had… We thought splits were cool anyway, it’s a lot more of a common thing in the HC/Punk world and we figured it’d be a great way of introducing people to Loathe and having them introduce us to their fans. At the time they were the only other UK band we truly resonated with. The tour was great, we also got to handpick local supports every evening so had a whole host of the UKs finest up and comers on the tour such as Sleep Token, Winchester and Phoxjaw.

What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most after hearing the music of Holding Absence for the very first time?
I feel like our music has an indescribable sort of ‘weight’ to it. I would hope anyone who listens to our band for the first time can appreciate that we aren’t another trend band, we are a real band doing our own thing with conviction.

What’s up next for Holding Absence?
As much touring as physically possible. We pride ourselves on our live show and we live for the human interaction with people who come to support us.

Any final words of wisdom?
Don’t forget to be cool xo

HOLDING ABSENCE is:
Lucas Woodland – Vocals
Chris Smitheram – Guitar
Scott Carey – Guitar
James Joseph – Bass
Ashley Green – Drums

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