In what has been a flagship 12 months for hardcore, there are few bands which have reaped the rewards fairly like Pace. Although, saying that, there are few bands which have caught to their weapons within the face of essential acclaim fairly like Pace both. Beginning 2024 because the scene’s finest saved secret and seeing it out as award winners, future Coachella performers and viral sensations, it’s been as loopy a 12 months as any band may ask for, not to mention one which by no means anticipated to make it out of Sydney.
However it’s of their honesty, integrity and sheer love and adoration for this music that the band have discovered their manner into so many individuals’s hearts and headphones. In selling every thing that hardcore must be about – expression, group and tolerance – they’ve confirmed themselves to be worthy flagbearers for the scene, and it’s nonetheless solely simply getting began.
To aim to sum up every thing up, Rock Sound have been fortunate sufficient to seize vocalist Jem Siow for a chat throughout a second of downtime…
Rock Sound: First, it’s honest to say it has been a frantic 12 months for you. How has it been conserving the identical vitality flowing all through every thing you could have accomplished?
Jem: “The factor is, we’re a hardcore band. As intense as this 12 months has been, that is what we do. It’s the essence of what all of that is. If there may be one factor that Pace can depend on, and the components of Pace that I can at all times vouch for, it’s the vitality and the fervour. I can’t say that we have now essentially the most authentic music or we’re essentially the most technical musicians, however each fucking night time, irrespective of how drained or jetlagged we’re, we are going to at all times go arduous as fuck. There’s just one mode, with out being tacky about it. Additionally, so as to add to that, as overwhelming as all of this may be, it’s additionally the factor of desires. As a hardcore band from Sydney, enjoying exhibits like we have now around the globe is insane. We’ve been on tour for six months out of this 12 months, and we’re very conscious that it is a place that no different Australian hardcore band has been in. We really feel chargeable for delivering while flying our flag and representing our scene. Doing the chance justice. So, there isn’t any different selection than to go as arduous as we are able to for so long as you may.”
RS: How do you now look again on the start of the band’s story and evaluate it to the place you could have been in a position to go from there? What do you keep in mind about that point?
Jem: “We began this band with such pure and humble intentions, born out of the potential that we thought we had. We began with the ambition to only be a hardcore band in Sydney and to have the ability to placed on hardcore exhibits. Combine that in with the time in our lives that we began issues, me being 27, able the place we have now discovered from quite a lot of errors and discovered lots about ourselves, and also you see that we began from a spot of simply eager to champion true authenticity. Hardcore wasn’t thought-about cool round our buddies or individuals in Australia after we started. However we noticed it as the good factor ever and needed to champion it. It made it simpler for us to just accept issues as a result of we have been already on the again foot as a result of it meant that we may simply double down. We may do every thing we thought it must be accomplished and be precisely the model of ourselves we needed to be.”
RS: If you happen to aren’t beginning one thing with pure intentions, you’re already setting your self as much as fail. This has resonated with so many individuals as a result of they’ve seen simply how sincere it’s to who you’re and never you making an attempt to be one thing you’re not…
Jem: “This entire band has been an unimaginable journey, and so many classes have been discovered. About myself, one another and how you can strategy and navigate this world. After we launched ‘WE SEE YOU’, that was a tune based mostly solely on our friendship group and the way we noticed hardcore by means of the lens we had in Sydney. After we filmed the video for that, posted on avenue corners, I may see individuals strolling previous and thought, ‘We’re going to finish up on Catatonic Youths, bro’. But additionally, who actually provides a fuck? That is what we do, and I believe it’s recent. And each single factor we have now accomplished, we consider with our total being. A few of it’s tongue in cheek, and a few is fairly obnoxious, however seeing the way it has been obtained so positively has taught me a lot. If you happen to settle for your self and are on a journey to search out your self and put that out into the world with none restrictions, that’s the place you create your finest artwork and essentially the most significant message you may discover. I’ve spent a lot of my life looking for myself, of ticking bins I assumed wanted ticking to get to a sure place. There are such a lot of causes behind that, however with this band, it was the primary time I attempted to just accept myself for who I’m and need to be. It has come again so feverishly and so intensely.”
RS: What has it been wish to navigate individuals eager to be part of what Pace is?
Jem: “I see what is occurring with Pace no longer simply being a Pace factor. It’s a hardcore factor. We pinch ourselves daily and course of it whereas nonetheless asking ourselves why it’s taking place. Why has hardcore blown up so insanely right now when it had each motive to fail? It’s purely a testomony to the entire assemble of what this subculture stands for. With that, it provides us much more duty as a result of with this sea of newcomers flooding into the scene, they need to perceive the essence of it. It’s a tough place. The discourse for ten years main as much as Pace again residence was, ‘How can we get youngsters to return to exhibits? How can we get individuals to begin bands? How can we get individuals to care about this for the best causes?’ Now it has turn out to be, ‘How can we guarantee that the tradition doesn’t turn out to be diluted?’”
RS: That occurs in each native scene, the doubt that comes with whether or not it’s important to chop and alter issues to maintain up with demand. However the actuality is that you just obtained there from marching to your individual beat, so why would you ever cease and alter that
Jem: “This band began with a mission assertion and that was to have fun and promote hardcore tradition. That’s been the defining guideline, the metric, the goal from day one and it’s what we use to navigate each circumstance that we discover ourselves in. This band has been making an attempt to embody the spirit of hardcore as purely as we are able to from the start, and after I take into consideration what meaning, it’s about humanity. It’s about realness. That has made it simpler for us to exist inside this. We’re not good individuals or these pop stars or manufactured rock stars who’ve a handbook for appearing and behaving. We don’t have many figures from Australia which were on this place earlier than us. We’re simply buddies which are in a challenge collectively. We don’t declare to know every thing; we all know what we all know. That has influenced each resolution we have now made, from how we rolled out our album and the way we have now curated the exhibits we play, the charities we donate to or the shirts we put on on stage. Every little thing is one thing we take into consideration and deliberate while falling again on the information that we have now. That, to me, is what hardcore is. Channelling what I do know to be actual into what we’re making.
“We’re nonetheless rising and studying, however what you see is what you get. That’s why we put a flute in ‘THE FIRST TEST’. I’m a flute participant and a flute instructor; I’ve performed for 14 years earlier than this and have a level in flute efficiency. I did that as a result of after highschool, I didn’t know what I needed to do other than music, however I couldn’t play guitar, and I may play the flute. I’m an Asian man with no tattoos. I’ve a group of plushies on my couch at residence. I educate youngsters to play ‘Sizzling Cross Buns’ daily. I put on ramen socks. Individuals say that we’re the toughest hardcore band on the market proper now, however you don’t even know, you realize? Individuals will make up issues to criticise us about as properly, and that’s wonderful as a result of I don’t count on you to grasp for those who’re not on this. To be hardcore is to not be afraid of who you’re, and you place it on the market. And we are going to double down on that as we carry on rising.”
RS: You end up having to double down on that extra so when what you’re doing stretches outdoors of the viewers you have been initially focusing on. You point out the flute solo in ‘THE FIRST TEST’, which has now been seen by individuals who don’t even know what hardcore is. These moments are vital but additionally aren’t what outline you, and so they by no means ought to…
Jem: “It’s surreal to see that. It’s surreal to see this band be in conversations that it by no means ought to have been. I’m grateful, but it surely’s so humorous. On the identical time, some individuals aren’t going to grasp what any of that is. I don’t count on them to grasp it. It’s arduous to grasp all of this. However the one factor that may at all times be the guiding mild will probably be our mission assertion. Individuals could make up no matter they need and take all of it nonetheless they need, however I’ve by no means ever as soon as accomplished one thing and felt like I’ve compromised my values. It’s at all times there as a result of we care and know what we stand for. Individuals are reacting to 10 seconds of a reel or a headline of an article; that’s all good with me. I’m fascinated by this 24 hours a day, seven days per week. I’m considering every thing to do with Pace and to do with hardcore each second of daily, bro. I’ve in all probability thought of this longer than anybody else, and even then, I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine it out though I’m dwelling it. However I belief that the story we’re telling, after we look again on it in 5 or ten years, will probably be made extra sense of as time goes on. However one of the simplest ways to speak it’s going to at all times be at a present. That’s one of the simplest ways for somebody to get what Pace is about.”
RS: How has it been seeing individuals take up Pace from completely different angles? From supporting Knocked Free within the US to seeing the expansion at Outbreak within the UK, what have these numerous vessels for channelling Pace taught you?
Jem: “Actually, it’s a loopy factor to mirror on as a complete. With out sounding overly assured or cocky, the truth is that Pace seems to be a gateway band for lots of latest individuals. The people who find themselves coming present from everywhere; that is their first-ever hardcore present. They’re telling us that is their first hardcore present, and we’re having conversations with individuals who would by no means have heard of our band in any other case. There are individuals who like Pace who additionally don’t find out about different hardcore bands. So we have now a duty to nurture the tradition in the best manner due to that. That’s been an important factor. The primary live performance I ever went to was Parkway Drive. I used to be a metalhead with facet fringe and checkered Vans. That they had three hardcore bands supporting them. The primary time I noticed a spin kick. It was the primary time I noticed individuals dressing as regular individuals enjoying energy chords on stage with none theatrics. That shit ruined my life, I used to be a hardcore child from there. So now I’m in a hardcore band opening for a metalcore tour, and children are going to return and expertise the identical issues I did for the primary time. If 5% of the viewers walks away liking it, then I would like to point out them what it’s all about. We have to present them how you can carry themselves on this tradition in the best manner. It’s so vital to us that folks know that this isn’t about any type of clout. This isn’t about cash or fame or any type of rock star bullshit. We obtained into this as a result of my buddies and I liked the music and elegance and needed to make good recollections with that love.”
RS: That’s the place longevity comes from. It’s why you’ll nonetheless be right here in 5 years, and so many different bands disappear into the ether. You’re simply doing what feels proper, not letting any second cross you by and having fun with the trip as a result of with out that, what’s the purpose?
Jem: “The aim of this may at all times stay the identical. Despite the fact that we have been rocking as much as 100 cap rooms in my $1000 automotive a few years in the past, and now we’re hitting venues in a bus with a driver, the foundation continues to be the identical. Wherever we’re in a 12 months’s time, if this retains on getting greater and larger or the momentum stops, it doesn’t fucking matter. We’re simply going to be a hardcore band. This band was solely imagined to play to our friendship degree; it was by no means meant to succeed in additional than that.”
RS: So, what would you say you’re most pleased with that 2024 has represented for Pace? From the songs you’ve launched to the locations you could have been to the issues you could have achieved, what stands out?
Jem: “I’m pleased with the religion I’ve in my buddies and the religion that I’ve in myself. All of us give up our jobs on the finish of final 12 months to completely decide to this as a result of we knew we had a lot touring forward. It was nearly do or die for us due to that, we had no different selection. And for all of us, that required a lot belief in one another. The longest tour we had accomplished earlier than this 12 months had been two weeks. This 12 months has been six months of being on the highway. The primary tour of this 12 months was three months straight. We didn’t know what it might be like leaping into this way of life, even with how we’re finest buddies. We’ve lived again residence, and we have now households and plans for the long run that aren’t meant to be wrapped up inside being a full-time touring hardcore band. However life takes you the place it desires to, and it’s important to belief in your values and what you realize is true in your coronary heart. And that has been essentially the most vital lesson I’m most pleased with. As a result of, thus far, it has labored out.”