A Chat with The Passing Sages (30.11.2020)
The Passing Sages are continuing to blend funky rhythms with rich harmonies for a contemporary sound full of nostalgic vibes on their EP Burnin’ Up. The 6-piece consists of Holly Clark (vocals), Carrie Forgan (vocals), Nic Holson (guitar), Mr Clyne (bass), Sean Priestley (drums) and Daniel Keay (keys). Together, they craft vibrant music with genre-blending melodies and funky bass lines. We sat down with The Passing Sages to talk about the EP, the pandemic, creative processes and much more!
OSR: How did the band first get together?
The Passing Sages: Formed in 2017, the band started as a regeneration of previous musical projects, including Sean, Nic and Mr Clyne’s alt-rock band State of Truth as well as Nic’s work with Dunfermline-based songwriter Glen Gates, who continues to write with The Passing Sages.
After a year of crafting our musical style, Holly and Carrie joined the band and our first gig took place shortly after at a packed PJ Molloys, supporting Moonlight Zoo. After continuing to develop our musical repertoire, the line up was finally established with the addition of keys player, Daniel Keay in 2020.
OSR: Your sound is a mixture of different genres, was this the sound you first had in mind or has it evolved over time?
The Passing Sages: The Passing Sages first began as Sean, Nic and Mr Clyne becoming a bagging band for songwriter Glen Gates. At the time Sean, Nic and Mr Clyne were between musical projects and were trying to find what their new focus was going to be and were creating music that was a blend of funk and rock, very Red Hot Chilli Peppers inspired.
The music they were playing with Glen Gates brought a lot more soul and disco to the table and after a while, they decided to combine all of these ideas into what would become The Passing Sages.
The sound of The Passing Sages then developed again when Carrie and Holly joined the band, with Holly bringing a lot of more modern and electronic vibes to the band. Ultimately the ethos behind The Passing Sages is to blend contemporary sounds with retro and nostalgic vibes. Our music has become a flourish of disco, electronica and soul.
OSR: Is there a theme or backstory to your new EP Burnin’ Up?
The Passing Sages: There isn’t really a backstory to Burnin’ Up but the EP is important to us as we feel like it’s our first opportunity to showcase and present the vast musical style we have developed over the past few years since the band formed.
The key themes of the EP are positivity, energy and love.
OSR: What was your creative process for the EP? Did you start with one track and work around it?
The Passing Sages: The recording of this EP actually began back in October/November of 2019 however not with the intention of it being an EP. We recorded ‘Burnin’ Up’ as an experiment to see how different the outcome would be recording live, all at the same time, rather than individually as we had done on our previous releases ‘(Your Love Makes Me) Happy’ and ‘I Was Wrong’. We loved those tracks but Mr Clyne brought it up that there was just something missing or lacking but we couldn’t put our finger on it. He suggested we work with Dominic Hardy from Gracenote Studios and just give the live recording idea a go so that we could see what the outcome was.
After hearing the first rough mix of the recording we were blown away and realised that the thing we were missing from previous recordings was that energy that we have when we play live together.
We were so happy with how much better it made ‘Burnin’ Up’ sound, compared to the demo version that we had recorded ourselves, that we then started throwing around the idea of maybe this shouldn’t just be a single release. We should actually go bigger with it, make it a full EP and do a music video.
By this point, we had already written about 20 songs that were “ready” to be recorded and so it was a case of working out what we felt would complement ‘Burnin’ Up’ the best and what would showcase the diverse range of The Passing Sages sound!
OSR: Each track on the EP has a unique soundscape, what prompted you to collect them for this EP?
The Passing Sages: When the idea of putting together an EP arose, we had a setlist of about 20 original songs. The thing that decided what would go on the EP was a mixture of what songs had been written first and what songs would show the breadth of our music.
Originally we were just planning on releasing ‘Burnin’ Up’ as a single. We decided to approach the recording of it slightly differently to our debut single ‘(Your Love Makes Me) Happy’ and have us all in the one room, playing and recording at the same time. We realised that this added the extra thing that we felt was missing from our first release, that energy that is created when we all play together.
We were so excited by how the recording of ‘Burnin’ Up’ sounded that we decided we wanted to go bigger with this release, make it an EP and do a music video.
‘Burnin’ Up’ shows off a bit of our modern electronic side and so we decided to include ‘Octave Higher’ to show off our more retro-soul/funk side. We had a handful of ballads in our setlist and knew that we wanted to include one on the EP and so we decided on ‘Kindest Boy’ as it was one of the first songs we wrote.
Finally, we decided on adding in ‘Wonderful Person’ as it is so different to the other three tracks and whenever we play it live it always goes over really well. People can not resist getting up and dancing to it.
OSR: Was there a track that you found easier or harder to create than the others?
The Passing Sages: The tracks on the EP have been organically growing and developing over the last 3 years of writing and performing them live.
‘Kindest Boy’ was quite a challenge vocally for Carrie and Holly. The initial melody that Glen Gates created was already quite challenging for one singer and this made it a challenge for Holly and Carrie to create harmonies for.
‘Wonderful Person’ was a track that from the first moment we jammed it, we felt that we had a really good foundation for a song. The process of developing the song and recording it was relatively painless and when Holly created all of the incredible vocal harmony parts, the song just jumped to a whole new level!
OSR: Has the pandemic changed the way that you create music?
The Passing Sages: Luckily the vast majority of the EP was recorded before the pandemic really took over, however, lockdown caused our plans to change quite a bit.
The video shoot and therefore release of the EP was delayed a bit, but this was actually a blessing in disguise for us. We were able to sit with the recordings for quite a while and naturally with everything creative we started realising things we wanted to change or add. One of the biggest things was the sax and clarinet parts you hear on ‘Wonderful Person’, ‘Kindest Boy’ and ‘Octave Higher’. These were originally programmed using MIDI and the parts sounded okay, but just not as good as live instruments would sound. With all this extra time because of the delay and there was actually no idea at the time of when lockdown may end, Nic decided to learn and record these parts. Instead of recording trumpet because Nic has never played the trumpet, he re-wrote these parts for clarinet, the main instrument he played through school. Nic recorded all of these parts from home during lockdown and sent the parts to Dom at Gracenote Studios to add to the tracks.
Once we were able to get back into the studio with Dom to begin mixing, it felt like a lifetime since we had originally recorded the tracks and naturally new vocal ideas and thoughts on arrangements presented themselves. Holly created these incredible Andrews Sisters type parts for ‘Wonderful Person’ and Sean added amazing extra percussion parts to all the songs. So it was almost as though we were able to record the tracks, walk away from them and then come back with a completely fresh attitude and really polish them.
Apart from recording the EP, our creative process has not really changed besides a lot more of the conversations being over zoom and not being able to jam out ideas as much. Luckily we are all able to record from our own homes and so that has been how we have been writing new songs throughout this year.
OSR: If the band were pack animals, what would you be and why?
The Passing Sages: This question really made us think a lot and we have decided to go for a pandemonium of parrots!
Like us, parrots are bright and colourful. They are known for being exceptional singers due to the way their voice works and we think Carrie and Holly can carry a tune fairly well. Parrots are great imitators and our music is influenced by everything we hear, we soak it all up like a sponge and ultimately this is what creates the “The Passing Sages” sound.
African Greys aside, who prefer to work on their own, other parrots are good at working in groups and knowing what the others responsibilities are. However, they can also struggle when it comes to exchanging roles. We think this sums up how we operate quite well!
OSR: If people could remember only one thing about the band, what would you like that to be?
The Passing Sages: At the moment we really want people to remember our Burnin’ Up EP because of the positive themes, slick harmonies and feel-good songs that we feel sums up The Passing Sages.
OSR: What else do you have planned for the next 6 months?
The Passing Sages: Work has already begun on the next EP, we had a meeting recently and worked out what would be on the next release from the 30+ songs we have written over the last 3 years.
We desperately want to start gigging again but no one knows when that will be, so in the meantime, we will continue to take part in online gigs and create content whilst we get to work on EP number 2 and maybe even 3!
Thanks to The Passing Sages for chatting with us! You can find more about them on their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
