“Music should take us out of the real world, not keep us in it, and that’s basically the aim of this record,” continues Lucas. “That said, I’ve written about super-emotional stuff, so it’s very pure.”
In fact, the album’s emotional core extends to its title – the source of which is rather close to home.
“The album is named after a song released in the ‘30s by Gracie Fields. My grandmother told me that my grandfather had done a cover of that song, which has the line it in: 'The greatest mistake of my life was saying goodbye to you.' That sounded like a Holding Absence lyric!” laughs the singer. “The fact that there was a family connection to that song that dates back to the time before I was born seemed quite significant. It resonates in that way and the concept of the album also revolves around hindsight, regret and explaining certain emotions, so it seemed to fit.”
Musically speaking, too, The Greatest Mistake Of My Life – which is due out on April 16 via SharpTone Records, and was produced by former SikTh guitarist Dan Weller – sees the Cardiff-based quartet broadening their sound, openly drawing on ’80s and ’90s influences.
“We’re fans of bands like The Cure, Fugazi or the Pixies. In a lot of ways I am the product of my parents’ record collection and my upbringing, so there are those elements that have definitely influenced what we wanted to do this time around,” says Lucas. “It’s also important to glitter the music with a certain element of eclecticism, too.
“We never felt completely settled as far as the songwriting was concerned in the band, but we feel that now, and there’s certain elements of shoegaze and post-rock that we’ve added to what we do. This feels like the perfect Holding Absence album for right now, but we’re already thinking about album number three and we want to include more soundscapes and insane time signatures.”