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Holding Absence are currently supporting Funeral For a Friend on their sold out UK tour, and Darkus magazines Steve Harrison, caught up with Lucas Woodland, vocalist from the band a few hours before they hit the stage at Sheffield's O2 Academy.
‘We're having the best time’ says Lucas ‘…..when you're in the size and position that we’re in as a band, every ticket feels like you fought for it you know’ talking of their own gigs and referencing the importance of opportunities to be able to support on tours like this, Lucas continues ’…….and then we go out evnight and play to 2500 people with Funeral For Friend……every night is a complete and utter dream basically’
‘I’m scared of the future you know so much that can go wrong, so much that can go right’
The last time Holding Absence played in Sheffield, was part of their own headline tour and a banger of a set at the Leadmill. Lucas explained the approach to their performance on this tour supporting Funeral For a Friend ‘I kind of view it as a bit of a different mission statement, like when it was the headline run it was ‘we haven’t toured for 2 years, we’ve written an album we’re really proud of, we wanna play it all, be the best band we can be’… and then I view this tour, is kind of like the first ‘back to the office’ tour, not in a bad way.. but there's no more euphoric wow! I can’t believe we’re back vibes, whereas now it's just head down, these crowds are here to be won over let's be the best band that we can.’
Asking Lucas about Holding Absence receiving 3 nominations this week for the Heavy Music Awards,…’ its crazy man you know…the Heavy Music Awards, it's funny we watched its inception and it's become like part of our kind of underground scene and the culture really, going from being nominated for best newcomer twice to be nominated for best album, best single and best production those are…. I feel like no categories in this award ceremony are easy….but best album, best single, best production!’ exclaiming with some amazement at receiving those nominations ‘ those are really in my mind three of the highest kind of compliments you can get, to even be nominated you know and honestly, you know hands up, we've never won a heavy music award so this is technically the 3rd 4th and 5th nominations we had…. just being on the website having your name next to all these genuine world beating bands and just knowing that you’re even in competition with him you know yeah… brilliant!’
‘…a lot of what we do is rooted in luck and I can work as hard as I want but you know lady luck needs to meet me on the other side and there's always that fear you know, so I promise to keep working as hard as I always have’
With the release of ‘The Greatest Mistake Of My Life’ continuing to receive significant acclaim, Lucas and the band are never ones to sit back. With the return of live music in 2021 and their many festival appearances, headline tour, support slots, upcoming 2022 US and European Tour dates as well as more festival appearances, they're still finding time to develop their musical ideas.
‘We are really, really furious and hungry creators’ says Lucas ‘ it's always what can we make next? and how can we make it different? you know that's always been as fun for us as playing the shows you know, so yeah so we've got a nice Google Drive full of tunes now and I don't know which ones will make it or which ones won’t you know’ Lucas starts laughing out loud.. ’ and the boys will tell you I've been stressing to the point of being a bit of an arsehole sometimes’…. ‘I’m scared of the future you know so much that can go wrong, so much that can go right’… ‘ but in all honesty you know we're essentially just writing music whenever we can now, you know you look at the next nine months and we've not got much time to write music, you know which is great but I need to keep myself humbled about that as well, but you know new music's always on the way and new music on top of that is always being written as well!’
Continuing with that theme, looking at the past to determine the future, and the massively increasing support for Holding Absence, I ask Lucas about that dichotomy of the demands, being frightening in one way, yet satisfying in another. ‘..ultimately you know I am generally a pessimist, as somebody who has gone through life having to learn from my failings and I think when there’s something as special as this and I’m at the helm you know of course I'm gonna be scared to death of anything going wrong’ he laughs..’ but you know I'm hopeful as always, I think more than anything though I think it's rooted in the gratefulness, you know I'm so grateful of how fortunate we’ve been,…. a lot of what we do is rooted in luck and I can work as hard as I want but you know lady luck needs to meet me on the other side and there's always that fear you know, so I promise to keep working as hard as I always have, and harder for album 3, but it’s all positive you know and I guess it's my job to be scared’ laughing Lucas continues ‘and I was scared of album 2 and that's why it became better than album 1 so I'm hoping album 3 will be better…..’
For our readers in both the UK and the USA, there is still plenty of opportunity to see Holding Absence on their current UK Tour before they travel to the USA in April. Head to the bands official website to find out more.
Article By Steve Harrison
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