In what has been a flagship yr 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 little thing that hardcore ought to 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 try to sum up every little thing up, Rock Sound had 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 yr for you. How has it been retaining the identical vitality flowing all through every little thing you may have finished?
Jem: “The factor is, we’re a hardcore band. As intense as this yr has been, that is what we do. It’s the essence of what all of that is. If there’s one factor that Pace can depend on, and the elements of Pace that I can all the time vouch for, it’s the vitality and the eagerness. I can’t say that we’ve got probably the most authentic music or we’re probably the most technical musicians, however each fucking evening, regardless of how drained or jetlagged we’re, we are going to all the time go exhausting 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, taking part in exhibits like we’ve got all over the world is insane. We’ve been on tour for six months out of this yr, and we’re very conscious that it is a place that no different Australian hardcore band has been in. We really feel answerable for delivering while flying our flag and representing our scene. Doing the chance justice. So, there isn’t a different alternative than to go as exhausting as we will for so long as you possibly can.”
RS: How do you now look again on the start of the band’s story and evaluate it to the place you may have been capable of go from there? What do you bear 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 simply 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, ready the place we’ve got realized from a number of errors and realized lots about ourselves, and also you see that we began from a spot of simply eager to champion true authenticity. Hardcore wasn’t thought of cool round our associates or individuals in Australia after we started. However we noticed it as the best factor ever and wished to champion it. It made it simpler for us to just accept issues as a result of we had been already on the again foot as a result of it meant that we may simply double down. We may do every little thing we thought it ought to be finished and be precisely the model of ourselves we wished to be.”
RS: In case you 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 trustworthy it’s to who you’re and never you making an attempt to be one thing you’re not…
Jem: “This complete band has been an unimaginable journey, and so many classes have been realized. About myself, one another and easy methods to method and navigate this world. Once we launched ‘WE SEE YOU’, that was a tune primarily based solely on our friendship group and the way we noticed hardcore via the lens we had in Sydney. Once 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 offers a fuck? That is what we do, and I feel it’s recent. And each single factor we’ve got finished, we imagine with our whole 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. In case you 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 probably the most significant message you possibly can discover. I’ve spent a lot of my life looking for myself, of ticking packing containers 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 wish to be. It has come again so feverishly and so intensely.”
RS: What has it been prefer to navigate individuals eager to be part of what Pace is?
Jem: “I see what is going on with Pace not 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 presently when it had each purpose to fail? It’s purely a testomony to the entire assemble of what this subculture stands for. With that, it offers us much more duty as a result of with this sea of newcomers flooding into the scene, they have to perceive the essence of it. It’s a difficult place. The discourse for ten years main as much as Pace again dwelling was, ‘How will we get children to come back to exhibits? How will we get individuals to begin bands? How will we get individuals to care about this for the proper causes?’ Now it has develop into, ‘How will we guarantee that the tradition doesn’t develop into 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 acquired 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 rejoice 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 will from the start, and once I take into consideration what which means, 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 have been on this place earlier than us. We’re simply associates which can be in a mission collectively. We don’t declare to know every little thing; we all know what we all know. That has influenced each choice we’ve got made, from how we rolled out our album and the way we’ve got 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’ve got. 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 trainer; 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 wished 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 set of plushies on my couch at dwelling. I train children 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 understand? Individuals will make up issues to criticise us about as properly, and that’s effective as a result of I don’t count on you to grasp in case you’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 had 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 essential 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, however it’s so humorous. On the similar time, some individuals aren’t going to grasp what any of that is. I don’t count on them to grasp it. It’s exhausting to grasp all of this. However the one factor that can all the time be the guiding gentle 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 finished one thing and felt like I’ve compromised my values. It’s all the time 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 serious about this 24 hours a day, seven days per week. I’m considering every little thing to do with Pace and to do with hardcore each second of daily, bro. I’ve most likely considered 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 the easiest way to speak it is going to all the time be at a present. That’s the easiest way for somebody to get what Pace is about.”
RS: How has it been seeing individuals soak 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 varied 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 in every single place; 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’ve got a duty to nurture the tradition in the proper 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 aspect 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 taking part in 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 come back 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 easy methods to carry themselves on this tradition in the proper manner. It’s so essential to us that individuals know that this isn’t about any form of clout. This isn’t about cash or fame or any form of rock star bullshit. We acquired into this as a result of my associates and I liked the music and magnificence and wished 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 all the time stay the identical. Despite the fact that we had 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 basis remains to be the identical. Wherever we’re in a yr’s time, if this retains on getting greater and greater or the momentum stops, it doesn’t fucking matter. We’re simply going to be a hardcore band. This band was solely speculated 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 happy with that 2024 has represented for Pace? From the songs you’ve launched to the locations you may have been to the issues you may have achieved, what stands out?
Jem: “I’m happy with the religion I’ve in my associates and the religion that I’ve in myself. All of us give up our jobs on the finish of final yr to totally 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 alternative. And for all of us, that required a lot belief in one another. The longest tour we had finished earlier than this yr had been two weeks. This yr has been six months of being on the street. The primary tour of this yr was three months straight. We didn’t know what it could be like leaping into this life-style, even with how we’re finest associates. We now have lived again dwelling, and we’ve got households and plans for the longer term that aren’t meant to be wrapped up inside being a full-time touring hardcore band. However life takes you the place it needs to, and it’s important to belief in your values and what you understand is correct in your coronary heart. And that has been probably the most vital lesson I’m most happy with. As a result of, to date, it has labored out.”
