Today, I got the opportunity to chat with Matt Kessler, vocalist of the NJ melodic hardcore band Provenance. We talk about the meaning of each of their songs on their EP ‘Low Spirits’, which released earlier this year, and more. Check out what their vocalist has to say about the band and their future after the jump.
1. First off, I’d like to say thank you for your time for this interview. Provenance is a very young band, in terms of age and years active. What made you and the members decide to start a band?
Matt: Around the beginning of our junior year of high school is when we decided to start the band. Me and our rhythm guitarist (Kevin) were chilling at his house and we just decided, “hey let’s start a band.” We texted our lead guitarist Josh and our bassist Paul, the rest is history. We had an original drummer, but we parted ways with him after a few months and picked up Jason. Me, Kevin and Paul had been in past bands, but they always bottomed out and never went anywhere.
2. There are a ton of genres to choose out there for a new band to pick, what about melodic hardcore appealed to you and the band over other genres?
Matt: All of my favorite bands are roughly considered melodic hardcore (Counterparts, Hundredth, Being As An Ocean, etc.) and the genre appealed to me due to the amounts of passion that are put into each song. I did a Climates – Three Years vocal cover to convince Josh to join the band.
3. Can you tell me what bands inspired you the most to start a band?
Matt: Oh, god. Counterparts is definitely a HUGE one to me. Brendan Murphy is the only reason I am even a vocalist, his vocals are impeccable and I always wanted to follow in his “footsteps”, if that makes sense. Them and Being As An Ocean, for sure.
4. The one thing that sticks out a lot from the EP is the beautifully written and deeply emotional lyrics. Since you are the primary writer, I’d like to hear the meanings behind the songs, as personal as they may be. Let’s start with Hopebringer.
Matt: Hopebringer’s lyrics were written when I was about 15 or 16. This song was generally meant to be that there is going to be someone in your life who will bring you hope and make you see that the future isn’t as bad as it may seem (makes sense, right?). My favorite line from Hopebringer is probably, “A promise of hope for the heavy hearted, looking to quit life before it’s started.” I’ve always been a strong advocate for suicide prevention and that line is one of my personal favorites that I’ve ever written.
5. Have you found someone who you would consider your Hopebringer?
Matt: I’ve had multiple people come and go from my life who I thought were my ‘hopebringer’, as it’s called. It doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who sticks around for a while, it’s just someone who gives you the motivation to move forward with your life and make something of yourself.
6. Hopebringer is one of my personal favorites from Low Spirits. Now let’s hear about the lyrics from Here With Me.
Matt: Here With Me is one of the more personal songs on our EP, it’s about my best friend who passed away about 3 years ago. I wrote it a little after I found out that he committed suicide. There were so many things left unsaid, so many things that I hadn’t even gotten to do with him and boom, he was gone in an instant. The song is about everything that I wanted to say and do with him if he were still alive today, that I would have listened to his problems and maybe changed the course of life for him.
7. How about Dejection?
Matt: The EP is sort of like a storybook about my emotions after he had committed suicide, every song describing a different emotion that I felt throughout the 2 years that I wrote all the lyrics in. Dejection was the song that described the anger I felt, the despair and difficulty I felt with accepting that he wasn’t here anymore. I was so angry that he would just do that, without saying goodbye or without even giving me a reason for doing it. You can even tell by the feel of the song, the vibe of the song matches with the flow of the lyrics.
8. And finally, You & I.
Matt: You & I is the song that ties the whole story together. This song is the final acceptance of his death, that I know he’ll always be with me everywhere I go. The line “I can see your face everywhere I go, I just plan out my days and take it slow” is something that I still live by to this very day. I always remember to take things one step at a time and no matter how hard things get, he’ll always be there to guide me down the right path.
9. It seems the EP ends up becoming positive by the end, especially after you explained your acceptance of your best friend’s death for this last song. Would you consider this EP a memorial to your friend?
Matt: The EP was written with the idea in mind of it becoming a memorial in his honor and memory. I ordered the songs, wrote them and we constructed them with the thought in mind that this would memorialize him forever.
10. Overall, do you want people to learn from your experiences from listening to this EP? Not everyone can relate to it, but I’m sure a lot of people can.
Matt: I just want people to understand that they aren’t alone in what they’re feeling due to the loss of someone that they really cared about. We’re all human, we go through stages of emotion and some people think that they’re alone in their fight. The EP was never designed to just throw music at people and say “HEY, LISTEN TO THIS!” It was more like, “Hey, feel this.” If that makes any sense.
11. With this EP releasing earlier this year, what are your plans as a band for the rest of the year and onwards?
Matt: We’ve got one or two shows planned out from now (July) up until the beginning of September. We’re planning on taking a break from shows in September – December to finish up writing our full-length album. We’re then going to try and hit the studio in mid-2015 with a release of late 2015/early 2016. Our touring schedule got skewed due to some van troubles and a line-up change, our guitarist is joining the Air Guard so we’re going to be a member short.
12. What are you working on for the new music that you think stands out compared to your already released music?
Matt: Our new music is a lot faster, more technical and will cater to a wider range of people. For fans of Counterparts, Napoleon, Expire, etc. A lot more hardcore influence, more 2-steps and punchy riffs for sure. The lyrics are taking a darker vibe, we’re sort of dropping the whole ‘positive’ spin on things. Becoming realists. Positivity still plays a role in the full-length, though.
13. Do you have any favorite live experiences as a band you would like to share?
Matt: We played a hometown show with Adaliah and Barrier back in January, that show was nuts. Stage dives, lots of pit and plenty of pile-ups. We’d never experienced such a response from a crowd before, so it was definitely an experience.
14. what is your goal with this band? Do you have a message you’d like to share with your fanbase?
Matt: My #1 dream is to tour Europe. That’s been a goal of mine since I was like 13. This is such a long-term goal that it keeps me motivated to do the things that lead up to it. We’ve spread a lot of messages in the last year or so. It’s pretty cliche, but just be yourself and don’t let other people lead your life in the wrong direction. We’ve also been pretty open with letting people message us if they’re ever feeling alone, depressed, etc. At least once a month we give an open invitation for people to message us with their problems and we message them pretty much immediately. We’re just dudes trying to make an emotional impact on kid’s lives, that’s all.
15. I wish you guys the best of luck in the future. Thank you for doing this interview.
Matt: No problem, man. I enjoyed doing it.
Overall, this EP is a great release for melodic hardcore listeners. The emotion that comes from a band this young is astounding. The lyrics immediately had a hold on me, and the vocals fit them perfectly. The instruments do a great job at bringing out the emotion that the lyrics set out to, and all these elements together really set this band on solid footing in the melodic hardcore genre. There are obviously some flaws with the EP, one being that the song structure on certain songs aren’t the best, but it didn’t bother me at all. The main thing from this EP is to show the potential this band has in the future, and the fact that they released such a solid EP this early into their careers opens up their future for a lot more music to come. This EP should be listened to by every fan of melodic hardcore, and I expect this band to set out everything they want to accomplish in their future. Look out for their new album coming out late next year.
You can listen to a stream of ‘Low Spirits’ on YouTube or their bandcamp page, where you can also buy the EP. Also, like them on Facebook because they deserve more fans than they have.
