It’s hard to believe that The Saddest Landscape have been a band for 14 years. So often do punk or hardcore bands release a handful records, then decide to call it a day. In fact, there’s dozens of bands that have formed, broken up, and then announced a reunion again in the time that The Saddest Landscape have been an active band. They have been intensely prolific, with more than 20 releases in their back catalogue, and have been universally acclaimed for their powerful live show. Last year, they expanded on their own brand of emotionally charged punk with the excellent ‘Darkness Forgives’. After being a band for so long, and while some of their peers changed in sound or move on, what could possibly drive them to keep doing this?
“How we write and play is based on emotion,” says vocalist/guitarist Andy Maddox. “That release is a part of the reason as to why we do this.” That is an accurate summarisation of what you get when you listen to The Saddest Landscape. You feed off the caustic intensity that resonates from the band, and the moving delivery of their songs. “I believe that the same is true for the people who come and see us,” he continues. ”There is something so powerful about a room full of people screaming the lyrics back at you that is extremely cathartic. That feeling never gets old.”
Of course, this journey hasn’t been an easy one for the band. Multiple line-up changes have plagued the band, and with a three-year gap between ‘After The Lights’ and ‘Darkness Forgives’, the vocalist insists the band are much stronger now. The current line-up played a big part to the power their latest record. “The biggest difference between the two, is that we wrote this one as a full band,” explains Maddox. “We had a bass player the entire time who contributed some killer parts, and having Dan join on second guitar helped shaped things in a different way as well. It really just feels like a full band making a record together.”
For all of the intensity, the larynx shredding vocals, and the jarring rhythms on ‘Darkness Forgives’, Maddox confesses that The Saddest Landscape are in fact pro-melody. “I actually think we are quite melodic,” he says, telling us how he finds himself humming parts of their songs that get stuck in his head after they are written. “Would we drastically soften up and write a different type of song? If we thought it would be a good song, maybe. I think as a band we never want to feel too boxed in. Ultimately the four of us need to feel good about what we are writing, whatever type of song that may be.”
It is something that is noticeable, not just on ‘Darkness Forgives’, but on each one of the band’s releases, how it’s almost impossible to predict what comes next. This unpredictability clearly comes out of the bands growth over time. “We have definitely grown as people, I mean it would be rather disappointing to not change at all in 14 years,” laughs Maddox. “However, the line-up changes have led to the most noticeable changes within the band. Having Andy #2 and Dan in the band now has unquestionably made us better.”
Naturally, with time, comes experience and patience, which has led to the constant high quality of output from the band. “We are a little more deliberate when writing songs and spend more time really thinking out each part,” says Maddox of the bands current writing process. ”For the first couple records there was a lot more instinct, and simply playing on feeling. While that has its charms, it isn’t always the best way to do things. We have grown to be patient and more open to other ideas, it is an exciting time for us.”
With more EPs to their name than full-length albums, it makes you wonder if the band prefers the instantaneous aspect of writing an EP rather than a full length. However, Maddox tells us that it really just depends which direction the music heads in, and what cohesion is there when it comes to making the decision as to which release format they go for. The proclivity of The Saddest Landscape is also derived from a combination of constant creativity, and a conscious decision to keep a steady flow of material. “A large part of why we started a band was to write songs and release records,” explains the vocalist. “We try to do that as often as we can. Also we are limited on how much touring we can do, so releasing records gives us an outlet to still stay busy and creative.”
This rather fittingly leads into a discussion about how we, as punk community ingest our music. “I prefer the more substantial aspect of a full length, and being able to get lost in a band’s recording for 40-minutes or whatever, there is something enchanting about that experience,” admits Maddox. “That said I do still really like the 7″ format, though it has somewhat changed over the years. When I first started collecting records in the 90’s, 7″ was the go to format. They were inexpensive, and often contained a lot of information about the bands, lyrics, label catalogs etc. They were also sometimes the only way to learn about a band. The 7″ acted as a great gateway to a scene, and it wasn’t that much of a risk to pick one up, it became an almost secret language amongst those who were into it.” For all its good points, the advent of the Internet somewhat changed that for Maddox, which he admits disheartens him. “It saddens me that has sort of been lost over the years,” he continues. “Its easy to blame that on Internet culture but it is more than that, and $10 7″s with limited content isn’t really helping either.”
In terms of direction, there’s no mistaking that The Saddest Landscape have a lot in common with pioneering bands such as Orchid, and City Of Caterpillar. However, the band released a cover of Zack De La Rocha’s pre-Rage Against The Machine’s band Inside Out in 2014, and Maddox explains that they draw more influence, in terms of ethics and directness, from traditional hardcore and punk than one might think. “When I think of hardcore/punk bands in a traditional sense it invokes this immediacy of bands playing as part of the crowd,” he says, remembering growing up in the Connecticut hardcore scene. “Going to shows really shaped how I connected to bands. It made me feel part of something, it got inside of me and helped inform how I viewed the world around me.”
It doesn’t start and end there for The Saddest Landscape, as Maddox confesses how they show admiration for some of today’s current hardcore bands. “Modern Life is War are one of our favourite bands of the past decade, and I think they exemplify a lot of that passion and spirit of the traditional hardcore/punk bands you speak of. Also, if you ask Aaron, he will tell you all day long about his love of Incendiary. It is definitely something we are into.”
As we start to wrap things up, we take a glimpse into the crystal ball, and look at what The Saddest Landscape have planned going forward, and what they have left to achieve as band. “More shows, more releases, more hanging out, more record shopping,” laughs Maddox. “And yes, there is still more we would like to do. We hope to get to both Australia and Japan this year, ideally make it back to Europe as well. We will be busy. I am looking forward to what the future holds.”
‘Darkness Forgives’ is available now via Topshelf Records.