Penumbra - Interview

  by Fiona Hutchings

published: 29 / 10 / 2024

intro

Seeing your mates band play is always rolling the dice, they might be the next big thing or they might not... Will it be snake eyes or boxcars for Fiona Hutchings this time round?

Nearly 15 years have passed since I last wrote about my experiences seeing my friend’s bands at uni. Back in my undergrad days I was at the very early 65 Days of Static gigs among others. Now like a moth to a flame I am back at uni and back checking out a mates band. Bill and I have more than once made the same suitably nerdy and niche reference or joke in class so I know I can trust his musical taste (even if he does like even sleazier sleazy rock than I do). I’ve heard him championing this band which his friend Jack is a member of and naturally I am paying attention. The band are called Penumbra which makes me think of gloom and shadows. Google later confirms I am mostly right and define it as ‘the partially shaded outer region of the shadow cast by an opaque object and / or a peripheral or indeterminate area or group’. Sounds cheery. I find some footage Bill shares of the band performing a cover of The Chain by Fleetwood Mac and it’s pretty damn good. It’s not exactly a cake walk for a four-piece to crank out with quite so much assurance as Penumbra manage. On this basis I plan to go see them perform and then write about them. It's been so long since I wrote about an unsigned band and looks like it'll be a good night. So, I am gutted when my body, more predictable than your average boyband life span at this point, throws a wobbler. Rather than a fun night out in a new (to me) venue on a warm Friday night listening to something different, I am horizontal in bed and not in a fun way. Still, never one to give up easily, I decide to interview the band via email instead. So without further ado allow me to introduce Penumbra: Patrick Milner (lead vocals), Toby Jarvis (lead guitar and vocals), Ryan Mills (rhythm guitar), Josh Cooper (drums) and Jack Milner (on bass and vocals). The band started playing together after Patrick approached Jack (who also happens to be his brother) with the idea of starting a project in the summer of 2022. Until the end of last year, the band had a different guitarist before Ryan and Toby joined the group. Jack says Penumbra has always been primarily “About enjoying playing together.” Recently they’ve had some professional photos done and their focus is on securing and playing as many gigs as they can. He adds that they’re also hoping to record some tracks soon and put some videos together too. “We've been lucky to be offered a few headline gigs and I think we'd like to keep that going into the future”. It sounds like this is the start of something, a band finding their feet and starting to build some momentum. The band members are all from Chesterfield originally but base themselves in Sheffield “For the music scene” Patrick says. He adds that at the start "I didn't really know how to sing but I thought I'd have a go at it. It sort of went from there really”. As origin stories go it’s a solid start and endearingly prosaic. To become a singer you have to have a crack at singing and all that. I suspect what you see is what you get with this band, especially being so early in their career. Plus, when Jack lists the band’s influences as including acts like Radiohead, The Stone Roses and The Fall, I can't help but think they all famously have very individual and instantly recognisable vocal styles so it makes sense. Jack chips in that he came here four years ago for university and that “Sheffield is where we enjoy practicing and playing live the most at the moment.” PB: Historically Sheffield has a decent rep when it comes to being the birthplace of a variety of bands and musicians making lots of different types of music. How easy and accessible are you finding getting rehearsal space, gigs and practical support to get the word about Penumbra out there? Toby Jarvis: The more time we put into it, the more we seem to get out of it. The more you practice the better you sound and the more you ask the more you get - in regard to playing live shows. Josh Cooper: I'd definitely say that we've had an easier time getting gigs than some other bands we know. However, we have faced some difficulties getting any kind of consistency with where and when the opportunities come about. ----- They sound like they have the same sort of young and scrappy energy that comes across when they perform. Later Bill sends me videos from the gig with them performing under a banner which reads ‘Make Noise’ and they go full throttle to do just that. It’s the sort of bouncy, just slightly discordant in a good way with a bit of thrash that gets the crowd moving. ---- PB: What about day jobs at the moment? Is the dream making music full time? Ryan Mills: Some of us do bar work, some do retail and some work a 9-5. We all want to play music and pursue our passion. --- From nowhere a montage of the day jobs from ‘The Commitments’ pops into my head. Then I feel ancient and crack on. --- JC: Making music is absolutely the dream for me. I love everything to do with music and a job doing anything related would be incredible. --- I must ask about the name I decide. Sometimes this question leads to epic lists and tales of conflict and deep etymological and/or philosophical debates. Other times… not. --- PB: Who came up with the name and why? Patrick Milner: We started off with Public, before Toby and Ryan were in the band, but we couldn't settle on the name. After a lot of back and forth we came up with Penumbra, it sounded right. JC: Me and Patrick were looking through a list of "cool sounding words" months of struggling to find one we liked. We came across Penumbra, and I recognised it so we stuck with it. --- Fair enough. After all, worse names have been chosen with a lot more effort. --- PB: Any stand out high and low points for the band as yet? TJ: High points was hearing your own material sounding tighter and getting paid for our first bigger gig! --- Yep. As any creative of any stripe will tell you, getting paid actual money for doing what you love for the first time is a big one. --- JM: A low point was two bands that dropped out a few days before a gig, but we managed to work it out. Another was our first guitarist who left before a gig, but this turned into a high point when we gained guitarist Toby. JC: I’d definitely say the high point is us being asked to do our first headline gig by Make Noise Studios. My low point was for the first few months when it was just me, Patrick and Jack so we had no dedicated guitarist. So, we were trying to come up with songs with like half the instruments we needed. --- I wonder if the first guitarist will one day be the Stuart Sutcliffe of this story at which point I feel older than God and press on with the interview. As we finish the chat Jack tells me the band are hoping to record some tracks over the summer and autumn depending on ‘various factors’. Whatever the factors are I hope they can start committing their own brand of exuberant noise and lyrics to any and every form of media they can. Jack also tells me that currently they always end their set with The Chain and recently they’ve been throwing in a version of I’m So Tired by Fugazi to mix it up a bit more. They want to move towards focusing on more original numbers though. He strikes me, even over email, as quite an earnest type of guy. I love how he makes sure all my questions are shared with the rest of the group and that everybody who wants to contribute is able to. He collates the replies and labels them all before sending them to me. This is captured in the exchange when I ask about how songwriting happens in the group. --- JM: I used to write all the lyrics and some of the songs. When Toby joined, he had some of his own tunes and lyrics. We both combine our songwriting and then everyone else adds to it in a session. TJ: We write a lot about small town life and everyday stuff. I think Patrick's writing is more story-based. JM: I like to make up stories and ideas in songs

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