The lights dim and the band takes the stage. The first notes ring out over the crowd as it erupts in cheers. In the back of their minds they know that after this show they may not have enough money to make it to the next city and that, more than likely, they'll be sleeping in their van in a to-be-determined parking lot. But as long as they're on that stage, as long as they're playing their music, none of that matters.
Pentimento is a punk rock band that formed in Buffalo, NY in the summer of 2010. In the short time that they've had to play together the guys of Pentimento have come a long way, amassing a sizable following in their native city. Recently, though, the band managed to sign a deal with Panic Records and grab some national attention. Now, they're working on a split EP with fellow rockers Young English, planning a tour in Europe and only looking forward.
The band is comprised of Mike Hansen (drums), senior communication major Vincent Caito (bass), Lance Claypool (guitar), and Jeramiah Pauly (vocals/guitar). The four have known each other for years as part of the same local music since they were all 13.
Being a part of the band certainly has its ups and downs, but none of them would rather be doing anything else.
Coming Together
Playing in bands for so long had taken its toll on Hansen and Caito. Feeling run down and frustrated, they needed something to get them going again. Something they could take stock in. Something they could get excited about. As it turned out, this mindset was just the impetus to get Pentimento kick started.
"When this project came around it was at a very integral point in both of [Vinny and I's] careers as musicians, I guess because we'd been through so many projects that we just got burnt out." Hansen said. "A lot of dead ends, being in bands with guys with poor attitudes, or lack of work ethic and it always kind of stifled what we were trying to do. I think we came together because of the collaborative effort to make something of being in a punk rock band, rather than just playing s***** bars in Buffalo."
After coming together, the four members sat down and talked out the future of their new project. As a collective they had to decide what this was going to mean for them. They came to the conclusion that it was time for them to fully immerse themselves in a project. They were going to devote their full-time efforts to making the band into what they wanted.
Before Pentimento could make a run at becoming a full-time touring band, though, there was still the matter of what to call themselves. According to Caito, coming up with a name that four people could agree on was no simple task. They started by "coming up with every dumb thing imaginable."
Then, one day, while sitting in a mass communication class at UB, Caito noticed the word "Pentimento" on his syllabus. According to him, the definition is when an artist paints over a picture and the initial drawing bleeds through the canvas. After telling the other members, they realized they had found their name. Even if some people do think it's pronounced "pen-timent-oloaf," or something equally strange, according to Caito.
"I think when we all learned the definition of the word it was easy for us to take something away from it. Whether it's personally, or pertaining to the band, or the mood we try to create, or lyrically, whatever it might be," Hansen said. "Besides, Limp Bizkit was already taken."
Getting Signed
Once the band had a name and a sound, things started taking off. They began writing songs and playing shows at venues like the dive-bar/venue Mohawk Place. News of the up-and-coming punk rock outfit began to spread through the music scene and the band steadily became a common venuehold name.
Then the band dropped its first EP, Wrecked. The concert crowds ate it up, but they weren't the only ones.
"We wrapped up production on the EP in March and our initial idea was to put together a press kit [and] try to do it the right way," Hansen said. "We had a bio written out [and] we had promo pictures taken to send along with the EP itself. We pressed it through a company called Kunaki based out of Brooklyn, so it looked professional: shrink wrap, bar code, the whole nine. We wanted to send that out so that we could let labels know that we were serious."
The guys didn't hold anything back. They invested a great deal of time and money at Buffalo's GCR Audio to record the EP properly. They were gearing up for a massive media blitz to try and sign to any label that would take them. But they were forced to cut the process short because, as it turned out, they didn't need it.
Pentimento received an email from Panic Records expressing interest in signing the band. Through a series of emails, the band expressed how serious they were about being a band, about touring, and about putting out a full-length release, according to Hansen. The label was impressed and the band was signed.
"Even as small of a label as it is we know the steps it takes to grow this band and to become what we want to become," Caito said. "We knew that this was just the beginning of the puzzle."
Immediately after signing, Panic Records wanted to re-release Wrecked on their label in vinyl, digital, and CD formats. Pentimento was ecstatic. The members knew that it was just what they needed to spread the word and give the band a big push right when it needed it, according to Hansen.
None of it would've been possible without Timm McCintosh of Panic Records. McCintosh – and the label in general – circulated news about the band's signing to numerous websites and magazines. It got the band's name on the lips of music fans all over the nation, according to Hansen.
"It's excellent to see a guy like that working within the music industry because of the horror stories you do end up hearing from small area kind of label bands to the big leagues and stuff," Hansen said. "There's constant fall-out and war all of the time over money and sales and distribution, so it's good to call Panic Records home."
Life on the Road
At its core, Pentimento is a band that cares about one thing: performing.
"We want to be on the road," Caito said. "We want to be able to meet new fans and hang out at different places and really get to spread our music in the basements and attics and dive bars around the country. As lame as it is, we want to live out of the van. Walmart parking lots don't suck that bad."
It's not as simple as just packing up and going, though. From gas to equipment, the cost of touring adds up quick, according to Hansen. If they're able to walk out of a show with $100 in their pockets it's "golden," for the sole reason that they have gas money to make it to the next show.
But financial problems build up for them at home too. Hansen admits that it does get scary knowing that while he's on the road for months at a time at his bills, as well as everyone else's, are piling up. Everybody in Pentimento has to worry about rent, credit cards, cars, insurance, and whether or not they're coming home to an apartment with electricity. They've even had to sell the furniture in their homes at times to afford touring. But as long as they're doing what they love, they don't mind.
"Everybody has come full circle with the whole idea of being broke in a band because the passion outweighs the financial struggle," Hansen said. "So you make do with what you have and you continue to push because it is the dream. And even if the dream only ends up being that I got to see what the west coast looks like, or I got to see what Europe looks like and the only thing that put me in those places was playing punk rock, I'm happy with the struggle."
This equates to a lot of nights spent sleeping in their van and, as such, parking lots have become their unofficial home away from home. They always stay positive, though. When they leave a show, the van doesn't fill with griping and complaining about how they'll make it to the next city. Rather, it fills with excitement, talk of how crazy the crowd was, and how much they loved playing.
This optimistic attitude pays off. Based entirely on the merit of the band, families have taken them in for the night and provided a roof over their heads.
"We've met people who treat us like family," Caito said. "Like an entire family that has taken us in. Mom, dad, a young son who's like 16 [or] 17, two twin daughters at 12 years old and an 8-year-old and we know all of them personally. We stay at their house. It's incredible to have that relationship."
Without those kinds of relationships, it's unlikely that Pentimento would be where they are now. The people they meet and the connections they make is what keeps them going and helps them realize that "the good really does outweigh the bad," according to Hansen.
"You're putting your heart and soul into something that you've worked for, so the blood, sweat, tears and bulls***, it just totally pays off when you get in front of kids that are interested in seeing your band," Hansen said. "We go to other places where kids are singing the words to a song I wrote in my bedroom and it's so fulfilling that it doesn't really matter that I don't have any money in my wallet or my bank account sucks. It's OK."
Looking to the Future
Pentimento is looking to keep themselves busy over the next year or so. Currently, they're recording a split EP with Young English that's due out in early 2012 and they're extremely excited to be releasing some new music.
"Not to say we're sick of the songs on Wrecked, but it's really exciting to be putting out new music, especially on a split release because we love the guys in Young English," Hansen said. "They're a great band. [We're] so excited to be part of the Panic family with those dudes and we've never done anything like this before."
The new songs that will be on the split are a culmination of everything, according to Caito. The music is drawing from everything they've learned since they were younger to the people they've met. It all plays a role in the music they write.
As far as the sound goes, they're careful not to lose what makes Pentimento who they are. They realize that fans like they're music for a reason and they don't want to stray from it too much, but at the same time they think it's important to keep an open mind and be willing to try new things.
The whole process of working on the split has put things into perspective, especially for Caito.
"I thought about that this morning in the shower," Caito said. "[It's] my time to collect my thoughts in the morning and I [thought about how] the first split I bought was Anti-Flag and The Bouncing Souls when I was like 14, and the fact that I'm going to be part of something like that."
"I always think super deep stuff when I'm naked," Hansen added.
"Well you have to. You're the most vulnerable," Caito said.
At the end of summer Pentimento is heading out on a full U.S. tour that will last until the end of February. Immediately after that they'll be touring Europe for two weeks, and they couldn't be more excited. They're looking forward to adding the news songs to the setlist when they hit the road again and finding out what their fans think, according to Hansen.
"I spent the entire last year, from the time we came into the studio to pretty much this point, feeling like I'm 14 again," Caito said. "I feel like there's not a care in the world. I'm still finishing school, still working but I just want to be on the road. I just want to make music with my friends."
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Mhdariby / Wikimedia Commons
