Prolong The Agony [Interview]
Prolong The Agony are a band with plenty of social intelligence. In an industry well known for selfishness, these guys are taking a stand for the underpublicised and none-more-essential positive aspects of heavy music. In the wake of TMMP’s review of their new EP All We Are, I caught up with PTA vocalist Larry Welling to talk respect, ego, and sustainability…
Hey guys – cheers for doing this, it’s much appreciated! You’re making a name for yourselves as a heavy band with a solid emphasis on positivity. Why do you think that attitude is frequently absent from metal/hardcore scenes?
We’ve all spent a long time playing shows in this scene, with both metal and hardcore bands and there are some amazing bands out there doing a lot of good!
Of course it’s completely up to each individual to write about what they want, that’s their right and many do it very well. But personally I often felt like people mistake the aggression in the music to mean that they HAVE to be negative. One of the things that really drew me to hardcore and heavy music in general was the sense of community and support within it, a hugely positive movement. And unfortunately I think this thoughtful substance has been replaced by anger for anger’s sake.
Anger in music done correctly can be incredible, but when it’s done for empty reasons it deals with nothing, addresses nothing, achieves nothing. So when I wrote for this CD I did so with a determination to try and do something positive with it, because that’s the energy we as musicians personally want to put out there.
Was there a particular event, realisation, or moment that inspired this move toward a more positive attitude?
There wasn’t a particular event, more a growing frustration.
During the time leading up to writing and recording the EP we were all growing more and more towards wanting to make a change. We’d witnessed too many bands miss the point of even being on stage, disrespecting audiences, promoters and bands alike, and a desire to distance ourselves from that had also influenced our need for a positive output in our songs and general message.
Again, it’s not for us to say how people should conduct themselves, but personally the “fuck everyone, hate everything” message was absolutely not something we remotely related to.
What are your earliest musical memories?
I very clearly remember playing a Dire Straits cassette on repeat each day before going to school. I loved it. My mum was massively into punk when she was young, and that had a huge impact on me.
How did Prolong The Agony first get started? What’s your origin story?
Darren and Jon met through a mutual love of skating and metal, and started a former band together. Over the years they developed a vision of something different they wanted to create, and Prolong The Agony was born in 2009.
Describe each of the songs from All We Are in one sentence each.
Dead Dreams is about depression, internally fighting against your own mind and realising you don’t have to do that, it’s ok to be yourself.
Counting The Days is about frustration with life, questioning your choices and making peace with them.
Loved & Lost is about the death of my grandmother and how it’s important to treasure these people while you can.
Backstabbers is about recognising negative people and influences in your life and throwing them aside.
Loveless is about the motives behind people’s negativity, exposing these reasons as a waste of life.
How would you describe your relationship with your fans?
We work really hard to connect to people at gigs. We always make sure they know that they are the reason for us being there, they are the only reason that particular show is happening.
It disgusts me when I see bands abusing this support given to them, and we all work extremely hard to be as approachable and helpful as possible to anyone who wants to get involved with the music and scene in general.
What’s the best advice (of any kind) that you’ve ever received?
Lose the ego.
A good friend of mine gave me this advice when I was playing in one of my first bands, and I think a lot of people could take this advice. In fact, I would go as far as saying ego is the biggest cause of the apathy our music scene often suffers from. Have pride in what you do, and of course no one’s perfect [and] everyone slips occasionally, but don’t let it convince you you’re better than anyone else, people see right through it and ultimately the joke’s on you.
What can metal/hardcore fans do or aim to change in order to foster a more supportive/sustainable scene?
I think the very word ‘scene’ has become a dirty word, but that’s purely because it often no longer serves its purpose.
When every band within it feels like they have to watch their back, why wouldn’t you want to distance yourself from it? So with that in mind I think the bands themselves need to help each other more. Don’t just plug your own music endlessly; it’s hard enough to reach new people as it is without the wall of silence from people in our own scene. It’s supposed to be about enjoying music, not trampling each other to get ahead.
What are your plans for the rest of 2015?
We currently have two UK tours booked, hitting up a lot of places we’ve had to pleasure to visit before but also deliberately going to places we’ve never been.
We’re very excited to be heading out and meeting new people. We’re taking some very talented bands on each tour as support (Jonestown in June and Idols of Apathy in August), but we’re also stoked to see all the local bands on each bill and hear new music each night. We also have some awesome festivals such as Messtival and Massacre Fest coming up, perfect examples of scenes working at their best.
Links
Check out TMMP’s review of All We Are here.
Prolong The Agony on Facebook and Twitter.
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