{"id":122178,"date":"2024-07-08T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T16:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/?post_type=interviews&p=122178"},"modified":"2024-07-08T12:47:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-08T16:47:21","slug":"truck-violence-burns-it-down-and-starts-again","status":"publish","type":"interviews","link":"https:\/\/panm360.com\/en\/interviews-panm360\/truck-violence-burns-it-down-and-starts-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Truck Violence Burns It Down and Starts Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Truck Violence is a band with an enigmatic but emphatic agenda. Equally aggressive and sombre, enraged but mournful, the heavy, neck-breaking breathlessness of Truck Violence can be summed up as a series of captivating dualities. The inherent human desire to be remembered is counterbalanced by the innate need to shrink away and die when the sunlight touches you. 

In conversation with the band\u2019s singer\/screamer\/poet Karsyn Henderson, you get a sense of the tumultuous innards that are so proudly eviscerated upon Violence<\/em>, their debut LP. In the wake of so much change\u2014a catastrophic house fire, changes to the band, and a clean slate removal of the group\u2019s prior catalogue, just to name a few\u2014we understand that this is an era of brutal and all-encompassing transition, for both the band and the person at its centre. Like setting the whole forest ablaze in the hopes of welcoming new growth, we see now the very foundations of Truck Violence laid bare.
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Eloquent yet direct, Henderson\u2019s bloody fingerprints are all over the themes and sonic stylings of the album, an ode and a curse to his roots of small-town Alberta and all the damage it did to him. Far beyond a collection of hardcore, sludgy, folksy tracks\u2014Violence <\/em>is an auditory exploration of trauma, memory, and running away from home, only to find yourself right back where you started.
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PAN M 360: First off, I want to congratulate you on all the hype surrounding Violence<\/em>. How has the energy around the project felt as you approach release day?<\/strong>
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Karsyn Henderson: <\/strong>I\u2019m a bit of a recluse, so I\u2019m kind of shielded from it. I always have a great deal of dread when it comes to releasing things. So I\u2019m never actually all that excited about it. I kind of always assume that it’s going to do poorly. I think as an artist, until you’ve attained some level of success\u2014and the success, in and of itself, is a horribly malleable thing\u2014it’s hard to ever feel like anything’s gonna go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then you get thrust into this slog of \u2018What is doing well?\u2019 and \u2018Have I done well already, and I just can’t see?\u2019 I don’t know, maybe some people think we\u2019ve been doing well. You can never tell, I guess. Expectations are always, like I said, a horribly malleable thing. I’m just throwing my hands up in the air like a bag in capricious winds. And wherever I go, I guess I’ll go there.
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PAN M 360: There\u2019s been a more deliberate and DIY feel to the last few gigs with the free, outdoor vibes and the monthly shows. Have those felt very different from venue gigs you\u2019ve done in the past?<\/strong>
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KH: <\/strong>Yeah. First of all, I’m so ecstatic every time we play a show and there are people there. I feel like every time people show up, it\u2019s out of coincidence and they just happened to be in the area. Something that’s troubled me a lot in the past with playing venues is that there becomes this divide, right? There’s an audience who is there to look at a stage that they’ve seen plenty of other artists share in the past. I\u2019m watching somebody who has practiced a song, practice it again, except showcasing it towards me. That’s not to say that venues aren’t good, or really valuable and important to the growth of the scene. But every time you play in a random patch of grass by a highway, that is the show by the patch of grass by the highway. It\u2019s the only time you’re ever gonna see it. 
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I think it breaks down that barrier. Have you ever been on the metro, and something fucking crazy happens? And then all of a sudden, the partition\u2014that thick woolen curtain\u2014is lifted. Everyone looks up and you finally see each other. And you can say something to each other. We’re all here, and we all just saw some crazy shit happen. It’s that same feeling. All of a sudden, everybody is super down to be genuine.
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PAN M 360: With that in mind, has this felt like a period of transition for the band?<\/strong>
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KH: <\/strong>Oh yeah. Our house just burned down, and so that\u2019s adding extra weight on top of the upheaval. It\u2019s sort of a strange feeling to put something out there. Because you’re essentially letting go of a part of yourself. And then in conjunction with that fact, I’ve lost everything that I had already. So it feels like I’m essentially losing everything in one fell swoop. It really sucks in the moment, but I think it’s ultimately beneficial. I think it’s a good thing to lose everything once in a while if you can afford to do it.
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PAN M 360: Touching on the fire, obviously there\u2019s no good time for something like that to happen. It\u2019s horrible, and thankfully no one was hurt. But has it led to any revelations on things you\u2019re grateful for after losing so much?<\/strong>
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KH: <\/strong>Sort of. I suppose \u2018grateful\u2019 is a funny word, but in some ways, yeah. I think when you strip yourself down to the barest of points, where you lose routine, you lose material comforts, if you are isolated from any companions or physical supports, I think it\u2019s a magnifying glass. It\u2019s been an exacerbating force that has led me to want to better myself in a lot of different ways. And I think it’s also taught me that I can exist without a lot of different things. And I guess that’s always a nice thing to know, that, I guess if you lose more in the future, you know you don’t just cease to exist. You just move on. Whether that’s a crushing thing, or whether that’s a motivating thing, is sort of up to you. Sometimes it’s nice to know how much it takes to really get you over the edge. It can be nice to know where your breaking points are.
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PAN M 360: I suppose that ties into the themes of the album as well, exploring that breaking point, exploring resilience, exploring what that means for you. Did you make any connections like that as you went through this experience?<\/strong>
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KH: <\/strong>I suppose so. People love to narrativize. That’s all we do all day, all night: Narrativize things to fit them into these compartments. My first thought when I got word that everything went up in flames was, \u201cAlright, I guess that makes sense.\u201d Like, it’s consistent, at least, that these things will continue to happen. I guess I wasn’t even surprised by it, and I was a bit nonchalant. I feel like I’m always waiting for things to change. And often they don’t\u2014they just change form, but remain consistent. And so yeah, I mean, in some ways, the fire just feels like a return to normalcy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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