Pentimento’s new EP, Wrecked, is out now through Panic Records. Jeremiah, the band’s singer and guitarist, was kind enough to write up a Track-By-Track guide behind each of the songs for PropertyOfZack. Pentimento are gearing up to head out on a fall tour in the next couple of days as well, so make sure to check them out if you like what you hear on Wrecked. Read up and enjoy!

Most importantly, it must be clear to you who you are reading this perspective from.  My name is Jeramiah and I sing and play guitar in Pentimento.  The lyrics on Wrecked are written by our drummer, Mike.  I am just the guy behind the mic.  However, all of us find attachments to these songs and their respective meanings.  Since the birth of what we call Pentimento, Mike, Lance, Vinny and I have spent more time together than apart (quite literally.)  Just like any band, you learn to become a family and basically learn the ins and outs of your fellow bandmates.  As dudes living in the same city, similar lives and similar surroundings we tend to face similar struggles (don’t we all, really?).  When Mike presents us (Lance, Vinny and myself) with a new lyric set, it’s interesting to see what he has reflected on, what conversations with each other he has drawn from and of course his personal vendetta of the situation.  Individually, we have our own understanding of the songs and they may differ from one another.  That’s the beauty.  The following track descriptions are purely through the lens of my perception of what they mean to me, interpret them as you please.

“Rules of Attraction” is about the struggle that we have in our lives of understanding who we are versus who we actually want to be.  For myself, that’s an internal battle that i’ve been facing my entire life.  The last line of the song reads, “I’m barely keeping up with the person that I don’t want to be and my words are not as real as they seem.”  Ever find yourself wondering how you got here?  I constantly do and then I retrace my steps by accounting for the decisions i’ve made to lead me here.  It’s a kind of existentialist tactic really … holding yourself accountable for your actions by understanding that whatever decision you make now will have an impact infinitely.  We constantly make decisions that we would have never liked to make, keeping these types of decisions to a minimum is the struggle for all of us.

“Walking Calmly in Your Wake” is about reflecting on how we have all battled with the same exact things in relationships and the only way to get past these hurdles is to understand that and open up to that realization.  ”We all have been ashamed of exactly the same things.”  I think to myself how many times i’ve literally taken a big gasp of air and spit out some stupid excuse for anything in my life, being a relationship or not.  ”All i’ve got is a deep breath and an excuse,” is a line that when I sing it, I remind myself to be a more honest, real person.  Why would we want to live our lives any other way?

“Words with Friends” is about existence.  Conversations of existence, life, purpose, meaning, philosophy, death, etc are all constantly hot topics within our group.  ”When the walls caved in I was left to my own devices and I learned that day that i’m more real than concrete.”  This line specifically reminds me of the feeling you have when you’re life drastically changes, be it an end of a relationship, a death, whatever and your brain feels like it’s caving in on you.  You don’t know how you will ever survive without this person (or thing) and you can not picture a happy end.  Reflecting on these times and understanding that no matter what it is, it will be okay.  There is no reason to be afraid … “I’m not afraid.”

“Everything’s Eventual” is the oldest Pentimento jam and I actually originally heard it as a demo that Lance and Mike did many many years ago.  I became attached to the song as a listener and now that I sing it, it’s a good time.  Kind of like that movie “Rockstar”, when my man Marky Mark jumps up on stage and sings with Steel Dragon.  Okay … maybe I over exaggerated.  This jam personifies the crumbling of a relationship and how it should have never ended that way.  Plain and simple.  ”Just imagine what this could have been.”

“Maybe, Just Maybe” is in reference to that journey that we take to extract the superficial people from our lives.  Superficial is the wrong term, dishonest?  Either way … the jam embodies the question of who am I and who are the people around us?  Are we completely honest and truthful people? “Where is your heart tonight?” to me, is a question of character.    

“Isn’t it Obvious?” is about the point in a relationship when you just need to let go.  Both parties involved and that the relationship itself has become so destructive that it’s not good for either person.  Typically, only one person makes this decision and makes the commitment to leaving a relationship, breaking up whatever … and that person is coined as the one who “broke up with me”.  This song relates to the moment when you finally realize that hey, it is time to move on.  It’s time to get out of this and press forward with life.