PIJN

a hauntingly emotional, late contender for debut of the year

EMBRACING THEIR LOVE of all things ‘post,’ Mancunian griefmongers Pijn have composed perhaps the most ambitious album of the year with their debut fulllength, Loss.

“I didn’t want to make the idea behind the record something that’s only relatable to me”, says guitarist Joe Clayton. “If we take something such as ‘loss’, to me, that has a specific meaning, but to our drummer it has a different meaning. It’s something that’s universally acknowledged as an experience that everyone will have to go through, but in the same bracket it’s completely different for each person.”

Exploring the nuances of sorrow, the band got fans to send in their letters and personal accounts of loss, all of which have been incorporated into the record in some form – from the album cover to audio clips, manipulated to match the prosody of speech with the song’s rhythm.

“The stuff we were sent in was pretty heavy”, Joe admits. “The very first one was a totally different look at the experience of loss than any of us were expecting. They had lost a family member but it was a good thing. I was so wrapped up in what I had experienced that Loss was totally flipped on its head.”

Channelling the likes of Bossk and Wear Your Wounds in their earthy, emotive textures, Pijn is a core of four, but increased in size for the record to capture the fourdimensional sound of sadness. In all meanings of the word, Loss is a collective effort. That one record we can all relate to.

LOSS IS OUT NOW VIA HOLY ROAR