Pressure 4-5's major label debut, "Burning
the Process", sticks to what makes a rock band truly rock. The formula:
two grinding guitars (Mark Barry, Joe Schmidt), a pounding drummer (Tom
Schmidt), thumping bass (Lyle McKeany), and a lead singer (Adam Rich) Hailing
from Santa Barbara, CA, Pressure 4-5 has managed to carve themselves their own
admirable little niche in the past few years, making for a blisteringly
aggressive slab of melodic modern metal. Headed by vocals frontman Adam Rich,
the music settles into a fairly timid, yet explosively dynamic pace as Adam's
performance is rich with polished melody, hitting with a harmonically detached
charm through the verses that eventually funnels off into vivaciously potent
choruses. The guitar work is full bodied with the tones and overall aesthetic
tends to draw from the alternative rock/modern metal field in the long run. The
riffs played however are quite large and driving, generating enough energy to
singe the listeners ear hairs, while also soothing them afterwards with some
dizzying effect tinged harmonics and ambient styled plucking. Meanwhile, the
bass lines played are empowering and full of aural electricity that helps to
bolster the tracks with a punchy energy. Drum wise, the effort is littered with
a vigorous display of off timed hits and generally hard hit percussion that
capitalizes upon thunderous rolls with a spacious playing style that generates
intrigue and heady grooves. Making the CD "Burning The Process"
created a sound that feels fresh in contrast to their contemporary peers, a
feat which almost always deserves instant recognition and admiration.
INTERVIEW WITH Adam Rich of Pressure 4-5
Q: How long have you guys been
together?
A: We've been together four years.
We started like in early '98 in Santa Barbara. Me and our guitar player Mark
(Barry) actually went to high school together. And he went down to Santa
Barbara to go to school and then I kind of followed him down a couple of years
later an we hooked up again and just sort of met some people that we played
around and we put some flyers up for like a drummer and that's kind of how we
formed. Then we just wrote some songs and practiced and we just decided like
three months after we started that we go together that we wanted to be serious.
Q: Did you play club's their?
A: We toured around California real
hard for a couple of years. We had a couple of EP's that we would sell and
stuff and somehow we got our name out there. The Internet helped us out a lot.
All those fanzines and stuff really helped us out and web sites and stuff.
Q; How did Dreamworks notice
you?
A: They just got ahold of one of
our demos. I'm not sure how they got a hold of it. They came to one of our
shows and they were showing interest. I don't know how they got ahold of one of
our demos - but they got it.
Q: Four years is not a long time
for a band to be playing and getting noticed.
A: Oh yeah. I know. We got lucky
real soon. We got a great opportunity.
Q: How do you classify your music?
A: I'd like to say that we're like
a heavy rock band with introspective and somewhat like intelligent lyrics.
We're not chanting the next rap rock tech phrases in our songs. We're trying to
go for something more meaningful and a little more personal. I mean, we're not
trying to put out this heavy metal facade that we're all like these tough guys
like a lot of the guys are doing nowadays like in bands. We're not trying to go
for that whole aggressive negative vibe but we are definitely an aggressive
band that plays aggressive music, but we're just doing it in more of an
empowering way. We don't like to think of it as a negative
thing.
Q: So what is your process of
writing ?
A: I draw inspiration from
experiences I have had in my life and I just sort of go with them. And if it's
a negative experience, I talk about how you work through those experiences and
like they change your life. I don't talk about just how horrible they are and
that they want to beat up the world, but I want to destroy everything because I
am so mad. I don't talk about that kind of stuff. I talk about things like
frustration, how you can work through frustration with perseverance and things
like that and whatever it might be about.
Q: But a lot of heavy rock bands
talk about terrible things in their Songs !
A: It loses its authenticity when
everybody does it. It doesn't feel like it's real. It seems like they're just
putting on a fake show.
Q: Your song "Pieces" is
a slower song, then the rest of the Cd?
A; Absolutely. We try not to write
the same sounding songs. We try to
write different sounding songs and
that's a challenge for every band, but every band doesn't want to undertake
that challenge. They find a sound that works for them and write all their songs
accordingly. I mean for us, we try to make it so there is a variety of textures
in our music.
Q: So how's is the tour going so
far?
A: Well I've been touring solid
since June and a week off here and there. We did the OzzFest and we toured with
Alien Ant Farm and then it's just been great. When you're on the road all the
time it gets tough and there's things that you miss. You miss your friends and
family. Not being in one place for more than two days can just drive on you
after a while. Basically, we're still having a great time with it you know. We
still enjoy ourselves. If you don't enjoy this lifestyle, than you shouldn't be
doing this. This is what a band has to do to get fans and this is what you have
to do to make this happen. If the radio's not going to play our songs all over
the country than we are all about getting the fans ourselves. Most of the songs
on the radio suck anyway. I don't expect them to play something cool now.
Q: What bands do you like
?
A: I think that the only band on
the radio that's cool now is the System of the Down. The System of the Down is
the only cool band on the radio right now and Incubus. I like Incubus
too.
Q: The singer Brandon from Incubus
has a good voice.
A: He just has a really big voice.
He just gets it out there and projects it like a singer. I draw inspiration
from him. Just from that first album Science. All these rap rockers at that
time were doing their thing and then he just came out singing his own style and
I thought that was really amazing and a real cool thing. I want to try to
emulate that a little bit.
Q: Are you able to write on the
road?
A; Absolutely. We have like a
little recording studio set up in the back lounge. Anytime you want to pound
something out, you just come back and write down your ideas. It just makes it
that much easier when we go to write songs you know. We just have like a little
digital track recorder. It's like a digital 8 track. We just come back with the
acoustic and just lay down riffs.
Q: Are you working on your next
album?
A: We already have songs written.
When we go into preproduction for the next album, we'll already have a bunch of
songs down. We'll just have to kind of throw them together.
Q: Have you done any radio shows?
A: Yeah. We did a couple. We
haven't done a ton. We are doing one big one this month in Cleveland with like
Blink 182 and 311, Adam. I love 311. They're great.
Q: When you did the OzzFest, were
you on the West Coast?
A: No. We were just on the East
Coast and a couple of Midwest states.
Q: What's been your favorite place
to play so far?
A: Probably New York City. This was
post-9/11. It was just a real - the energy coming from the crowd was something
really special and it was just a really great show that night. There was just
something about that show that I can't put my finger on that was really
amazing.
Q: What was the name of the venue?
A: We played at the World - it's in
Times Square, like the WWF World. There's like a venue there. It was one of the
shows with Alien Ant Farm and it was like a 2000 capacity and it was totally
sold out and it was - I don't know man - something coming from the crowd that
was doing us like this energy man. It seemed like they really needed some kind
of positive release and the music at that time is what did it for those kids
that were there.
Q: How long is this tour?
A: We're on tour until Christmas
and then we're slated to go back into the studio actually and maybe lay down a
couple of songs that we've been writing we've been working on. We have some
ideas that we really want to get out and we don't want to let them get by us
right now and we'd like to make songs out of them right now and maybe see what
we can do and release a single. So we're going to go back into the studio in
January and just record a couple of songs. I don't think we're going to do more
than one or two.
Thank you "Keep on
Rocking" |
