Pitch Black Progress shines light on life as three-piece

An interview with Pitch Black Progress, a new alternative/hard rock band, speaking about the importance of Canadian music.

For decades, the hard rock genre has been dominated by four and five piece American bands. However, Pitch Black Progress, a new Canadian group, have brought a twist to that style of music by only having three band members.

“For me as a guitarist, I love the clarity that we get from having one guitar,” said vocalist/guitarist Tiago Underwood-Santos. “I do think this makes it almost unique to have just a three piece in this genre.”

The band also spoke about how they believe Canadian music, no matter the style, has had unique aspects.

“I find that 90 per cent of Canadian music is different,” said drummer Darien Swolfs. “Like The Tragically Hip, they’re such a weird style, you can’t even put your finger on it. The way they play is just a different kind of style, and I think it’s really cool that Canadians can make such unique music.”

It almost goes without saying that Pitch Black Progress would cite Canadian bands as their main influences.

“I relate a lot of the stuff we do to Billy Talent, almost Sum 41-esque,” said bassist Scott Martin.

Originally from Mississauga, Billy Talent has become widely popular in Canada and internationally, with three albums gone multi-platinum, selling over 10 million copies. Sum 41 began in Ajax, Ontario and has two multi-platinum albums.

But the members of Pitch Black Progress aren’t musicians because they wanted to be rich.

“I think it’s really cool to make art just for the sake of making art, not for the sake of making money,” said Swolfs.

“When we started seeing people singing along to songs we wrote, and it was people we didn’t know, then it was like, ‘alright yeah, I’m never gonna stop doing this,’” said Martin.

With influences from Canadian pop-punk, to prog rock, and even metal, Pitch Black Progress has a unique sound that will certainly be illustrated in upcoming musical releases.

The band released their first single, Dia de Muertos, in late 2016 and played their first show outside Ottawa two months later. For 2017, they plan to work on a full length album.

“We want the album not to be a collection of songs, but an actual unit,” said Swolfs.

“We’re working on music right now,” added Underwood-Santos. “Merch is something that’s on the horizon, too.”

Dia de Muertos is available to download on Bandcamp.