Search - Pensive :: Artifacts

San Diego powerpop quartet Pensive is well known for their melodic sing-along songs rooted in the California pop-punk scene that spawned Green Day, The Offspring, and San Diego superstars blink-182, but with their new album ARTIFACTS, Pensive expects to raise a few eyebrows.

Although continuing on the new album to embrace the naturally infectious tunes that make for a lively, energetic stage performance that is the hallmark of these California boys, Pensive promises that ARTIFACTS will bring to the fore songs with new musical influences that might be unexpected for fans who know the band well.

"We aren't losing our pop sensibilities," explains lead vocalist Julio Godoy. "The new songs are melody-driven, and we still love a good hook. But we think the guitar and drum work underlying them is stronger, more complex and interesting. There's a more powerful sonic quality in the songs, and we think it better reflects the energy we feel when we play live."

Lyrically ARTIFACTS takes Pensive listeners beyond the expected as well, with great appeal to the post-emo sensibilities of young afficionados navigating the brave new cyberworld of music. Indeed, much of the emotional impact of ARTIFACTS is grounded in the band's own struggle between discontent and anticipation as the upheavals continue in today's music industry.

"We became a band just as the CD peaked in popularity in 2000, so we re living through the revolution," explains Godoy. "The CD represents what we grew up with as kids, and what we love to own and collect and treasure from our favorite bands, but it's about to become an artifact."

"The album title is inspired by the changes we're all witnessing in music today, the evolution," explains guitarist Patrick Smith. "The CD is on its deathbed. Record stores will soon be extinct. Radios don't play in kids' rooms anymore, music comes through computer speakers. Labels used to be known by name and worshiped, their t-shirts worn in every high school hallway. Kids these days aren't loyal to labels."

Smith continues, "Protools has made everyone a musician in their own garages, and recording studios and music producers are bypassed. Music is becoming a cyber experience only. The time is coming when we'll no longer buy, own, and hold in our hands an album as a carefully crafted artistic product with artwork and photos. Songs will stand alone in digital online vending machines. The pieces of art that were albums will be gone, artifacts of the past."

A passionate topic for a band finding its way, as the old gives way to the new.