Pentire
Pentire are an Indie-pop band taking inspiration from Inhaler and Sports Team. Big on the festival sound, they are new enough that they can take risks but prominent enough to have already gained air time on Radio 6 and continue to gain wind within the industry. I had a chat with Owen (Lead Guitarist) , Ryan (Bass) and Josh (Drums) about their new release, ‘Water’.
Your new song is called ‘Water’. If the band was an element, what one do you think you’d be?
Owen: Probably water, I mean we’re named after a place in Cornwall which is by the sea. We have a song called water and so is our merch. We’ve always had our own wave.
You’ve already been played on Radio 6 and are gaining quick support. What would you say your end goal is for the year?
Owen: We’d like to be playing on Radio 1 by the end of the year, we actually made a list of things we wanted to achieve. One of the main things was 100k streams on one song by the end of the year and an obvious one would be just to get more songs out into the world.
Josh: We would love to play at festivals !
Ryan: We’ve gained a few fans over the Lockdown, but in that time no-one’s been able to see us play live, that's all I really want is to put on a show for everybody.
Where do you find your inspiration to write music?
Owen: Personal experiences, but also made up scenarios. ‘Best Friends House’ was about a party but we never want to concentrate the meaning behind a song.
Ryan: we don’t like to give too much away with how we wrote because we want our fans to be able to listen and relate with it in their own way. Especially with this new song, you can listen and think about a person, or mental health or whatever is going on - it’s transformative. I think if you tell people the meaning behind a song, it can change how someone feels about it, and we don’t want to do that.
What has this time in lockdown meant for the band, is there anything you’ve missed out on or been able to achieve more in this time that you wouldn’t have done, without it ?
Ryan: It gave us time to step back and think more about PR, in terms of how we represent ourselves and how we connect with fans. We used to just think about the next gig, but now we’re posting TikTok's and thinking more about our social media presence over all. In terms of writing new material, we’ve had the creative freedoms to dissect the songs more. Even though we haven’t all been able to get together, sending our instrument parts separately to form a song has given us more time to think about what we’re each contributing and look at it more, maybe even pick it apart a bit.
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Owen: We’ve looked at things differently and realised how helpful social media can be in terms of growth for our band. Before we just gigged, without thinking professionally about what people see outside of a show. The worst thing is that we can’t practise together. We had time to get ‘Best Friends House’ recorded in a studio and then everything shut down again, that’s the weirdest thing - not seeing each other properly to practise. Obviously people have had it a lot worse than us.
You’re known for your DIY approach to music. Who influences this within the band?
Owen: Coming from a smaller area, nothing much goes on music wise, meaning you have to travel to gigs. The only way to push boundaries in these sorts of towns is to do it yourself. I do think people respect this more, as it means we’re not getting everything handed to us on a plate.
What has been your favourite place to perform and why ?
Josh: Our last gig was a bit of a thank you. We didn’t know it was the last one at the time, but the atmosphere was crazy so we played off that.
Ryan: Mine and Jack's birthday are close in date so we had a joint party as a gig. More people than we could possibly imagine turned out for it.
The speakeasy gig in Hereford was in a sort of basement was a really noisy sweaty gig which is always good.
How does music make you feel and has it ever been your therapy?
Ryan: For sure I think it is, but that's the same for everyone isn’t it?
Owen: Even subconsciously, music has always been a big part of our lives even before we were in the band. We all listened to music growing up, therefore it became a natural therapy.