5 Q&A With Pent Up!
How does "Be There Soon" reflect your musical journey and growth as a band?
Brendan, Nate, Nick, and Matt: “Be There Soon” is a sea change. Pent Up! began back in 2021 with DM between two strangers (Nate and Brendan) who met at an open mic, and it’s been evolving since. We started out loud and punky with the goal of making simple, fun songs to play at ear splitting volume. Nick brought his savvy guitar skills and careful knowledge of melody on board in 2023, and we released a few singles that showed off a lot of new musical interplay. We took a hiatus at the end of that year, but when we returned in 2024, Matt’s keen sense of rhythm and compositional skills on bass had been added to the collective. Mixing Matt and Nick’s talents with my rhythm guitar work and Nate’s articulate yet forceful style on drums has helped us reach new heights; we’ve built a “post pop punk” sound that grafts our furious original edge onto sharper arrangements that expand on all those hummable melodies that started our journey. “Be There Soon” is a culmination of 3+ years of growth, and we’re pumped for people to see the fruits of our labor.
Could you discuss the lyrical themes or messages conveyed in this song?
This song started as an experiment in stream-of-consciousness writing. At the time, I had been thinking a lot about how emotions, doubts, and thoughts can crash over you like a storm surge. The verses came from the point of view of trying to untangle those feelings at the moment, like trying to fix your hair in a hurricane. The song ends with calm, hopefully reinforcing that things can always settle down once you’re able to find your center.
What did you enjoy most about making "Be There Soon?"
Playing everything live in the room! Outside of vocals and additional percussion, everything on “Be There Soon” (both the single and the EP) is recorded live in the room without a click track and minimal overdubs. Our producer Michael [Springer of Peel Studios] sets us up and just lets the tape run until we create the magical track. This gives the music a lived-in quality that helps the songs sound alive and fresh. It also leads to a lot of goofy adlibs between takes, because we're always making stupid jokes and faces at each other between (and sometimes during) takes to get each other to crack and laugh. Michael sometimes sneaks the results into the final masters, so it's always worth looking for a little Easter egg here and there.
Can you walk us through your creative process when writing and composing music?
Chaotic collaboration is key! A lot of our melodies start with my scratch demos, where I start with music before slowly crafting lyrics and vocal melodies. I think of it like gardening; I might plant the seed, but the song doesn't grow until Nick, Nate, and Matt have had their chance to add water, sun, and soil. Each song has to survive hours of repeat performances, improv jams, and demo recordings in our practice space before we lock down any live arrangements. There’s a jazz-like quality to it, as sometimes it leads to interesting mutations in melody and song structure that can happily and widely diverge from my original ideas. I think that process creates stronger songs and tighter hooks that we all believe in, and “Be There Soon” is a great example of the results.
What do you enjoy most about performing live and connecting with your audience?
Seeing people move to our music has always made me feel so excited! In the band’s first year, I remember playing a show at Seattle’s famed Central Saloon to a pretty packed house. When we started the first song (called “Self-Titled” and available on all streaming services!), I saw the faces in the crowd start to bob along to Nate’s beat. As the bass and guitars slashed in, the head bobbing turned into dancing along to the beat. I’ve always had some level of stage fright whenever I go up to perform, but I remember all of my nerves melting away as I saw those people moving in time with us and cheering once we finished. That day, I knew I never wanted to do anything else.
