Pattern Pusher

Photo Credit: Elliot Tratt Photography

We’re really excited to be hosting you for our Provide A Pad fundraiser next Thursday. For those who haven’t heard you before, what can people expect from your sound and your performance? We’re super excited to be playing you our music next week! You can expect deep electronic textures mixed into a familiar band context. The dynamics of the music make us very energetic on stage, we love performing!

There are a lot of indie rock bands at the moment who incorporate elements of synth and electronic music but you still manage to sound fresh and original. What do you think it is that sets you apart? We all have very different musical tastes, which we hope collide in a positive way to create something a bit different. We use electronics and laptops to compose the songs, taking sounds out of context and pushing them as far they’ll go, rather than adding them as an afterthought.

Your songs are always really carefully composed and structured. How do you go about it? What’s your songwriting process like? Our creative process is incredibly painful. We pour hours into composing and structuring songs only to rip them apart days later. Every song has had a different approach thus far and are always evolving, even now. For instance Sweet Thursday started out with a melody on drum pads which later found itself removed from the track and Remember came from singing harmonies like a choir but hasn’t changed too much. Yet.

How has your sound developed since you first started out? When we first met up we sounded a bit too close to a classic rock band, something we never aspired to. It’s far too easy to fall into smashing cymbals and turning up the distortion because it feels good to make noise, but it really doesn’t sound good, it’s just noise. Nowadays our focus is on how we get you to that climax for the most emotional impact. We want it to be a glorious adventure for the listener, as cheesy as that may sound.

I love the lyrics of Layla And Madman. They’re cryptic, and yet they manage to paint such a vivid picture. What’s the song about? Are lyrics as important to you as the music? We tend to write the music and vocal melodies first, the lyrics generally follow afterwards. Alex (lead singer) is a bit of a bookworm, he often draws from literature, particularly the likes of Kurt Vonnegut. Layla and Madman was influenced by an old Persian love story.

2016 may have been a pretty hectic year in terms of political events and celebrity deaths, but some amazing music was released. What were your favourite albums of last year? 2016 saw some incredible releases from some of our favourite artists but if we all had to pick one each they would be: Alex: James Blake - The Colour In Anything Ben G: Moderat - III Ben C: Bruno Mars - 24K Dan: David Bowie - Blackstar Radiohead, Bon Iver, Yeasayer, Vulfpeck, PUP and Braids all get very honourable mentions. What a year for albums!

What are your plans for 2017? I understand you have an EP in the works? We are currently at work on our EP. We couldn’t tell you a release date, it’s close but we’re not going to put anything out until we know we’ve got the special thing we’re proud of. We’re in the middle of booking our festival season, one in particular we’re excited about is Altitude Festival, not far from Exeter. It’s run by some great guys who’ve been following us for a while.

Where would you like Pattern Pusher to be in 2017? At the end of 2017 we will have released our EP and started our long-term campaign heralding the name Pattern Pusher.

To keep up to date with Pattern Pusher go to their website.

Book tickets to see Pattern Pusher at the Provide A Pad show here.