Distance and Meaning: Jacob Bannon explains the cult of Converge

In the twenty-plus years since their inception, Converge have retained their status as one of the most relevant and respected bands in modern metal. Vocalist, lyricist and visual artist Jacob Bannon started the band with fellow member Kurt Ballou when they were still teenagers. He has remained immersed within hardcore subculture for most of his life, but as he chats about the Massachusetts quartet's eighth album All We Love We Leave Behind – another nuanced aural assault which blends beauty with brutality – it's clear that he remains self-aware, opinionated, and firmly grounded to this day.

There's a distinct lack of cynicism surrounding Converge's legacy. A rarity in the genre, they're almost universally lauded by spectators of recent developments in guitar music, from earlier compilation Petitioning the Empty Sky through 2001 opus Jane Doe right through to their most recent work. Bannon, however, tries not to concern himself too much with outside perceptions of his work. Upon commending him on the release of the new record in relation to its highly positive reception, he responds with caution: “I don't know if it's something to be congratulated – that's not the goal for us, but we feel positive when it happens. It's not necessarily for the feedback; it's the fact that we still do what we do. We haven't changed our approach to writing music, why we do it or why we put everything we have into it.”

When asked to explain why he hesitates to engage with outside opinion of the band, Bannon promptly justifies why he tends to keep himself at a distance: “When you start caring about those things, you start writing music for those people. You start writing music for critics, or to be perceived in a certain way. There's already an internal struggle when you're writing songs and writing music; you're trying to make it measure up to your own standards. To allow someone else's opinion sway what you do would just be band suicide. You see that a lot – bands who start caring too much about record sales or whatever, feeding their ego. They forget the reason why they're there; the reason is just to write and play. The intention should never be anything more than that.”

Still, journalists remain an occasional source of amusement for Bannon: “It's funny," he starts, "I saw an interview piece I did the other day. Someone basically said 'Hey, they're kind of going through a mid-life crisis!' No we're not! If writing emotional songs means we're in a mid-life crisis, we've been in a mid-life crisis since we were 14 years old.”

Converge have always been poetic, emotional and dramatic in their approach to writing music, All We Love We Leave Behind is no different. “They're all soul-searching records – they always have been”, Bannon affirms. “The longer we live, the heavier things can get emotionally. You hear that in a musician – if somebody's just playing guitar, the way that they play at 18 can be completely different from how they're playing at 35. They may be playing the same riff, but it's played with a different kind of soul. I think you hear that in our band at this point.”

Recognising the significance of Converge's longevity, he remarks: “A lot of bands, especially when they age, lose steam, you know? They lose the connection with the angst and the turbulence in their lives that compels them to make heavy music. There's a disconnect; we've never had that disconnect. We feel like heavy music can evolve as you evolve and as you grow; it can evolve as you become more complex, darker. It has more shades of you in it.”

Last album, 2009's Axe to Fall, featured contributions from members of grindcore vets The Red Chord, experimental mathcore trio Genghis Tron and sludge kings Neurosis. All We Love We Leave Behind, on the other hand, is entirely the band's own work. “We're always reactionary,” says Bannon. “We don't really think about it too much. I think there was about two sentences said about it. It's always a natural thing. We don't overly plan what we do and how we do it. That comes from the songwriting and why we're creating together. We were like 'Hey, let's just do this one ourselves,' and got excited about it. We don't over-think things, and we're not that meticulous about that aspect of what we do. We're meticulous about everything else."

Guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou has described the new record as Converge's “singles” collection. Bannon offers some insight into this: “Each song is self-contained. When we were coming up with a track sequencing for the record it took a lot of effort. We had, like, eleven different sequences that we were trying out. We ultimately came to a scientific and emotional decision to go with the one that we did.” When asked whether he sees a recurrent theme in the record from his own personal point of view, Bannon offers: “All of the albums are individual songs with personal stories intertwined within them. There's no overall concept or anything – that's for bands that want to write about space and things. People tend to add their own narratives outside of that, and they can't really control it – that's just what listeners do when they connect with music.”

Bannon's artwork for All We Love – various Converge visuals cut-and-pasted onto the Lunar phases – has sparked similar kinds of readings: “It's just a metaphor for time and time passing,” he offers. “I think it complemented the title quite well and was a nice juxtaposition to the rest of the packaging of the record. The rest of the art is very vibrant and very explosive, so I wanted a 'calm before the storm' kind of moment to lead you into this deep, textural music. It just made sense, it connected with me, and it seems to be connecting with people in different ways. A lot of people interpret it as a negative cover that symbolises death. That's them putting a narrative on it, not me. It's interesting to see how people interpret those things."

By now, Converge are notorious for their raw approach to recording and performing: their albums make minimal use of studio effects, constantly aspiring towards more of a ‘live’ sound with each record. Bannon thinks they've gotten perpetually closer to that goal with every LP, but doesn't think he'll ever be fully content: “That's part of why our sound evolves the way it does. When a band is playing live, you're dealing with so many other senses around you. You're dealing with crowd, the heat of the venue, the volume of the P.A. and the acoustics of the room – even the size of the person standing in front of a speaker, you know, that changes everything.”

As well as his work with Converge, Bannon earns his living as a visual artist for other bands. He also co-owns Deathwish Inc, a symbol of quality for enthusiasts of challenging yet rewarding heavy music since 1999, which has recently released music by a diverse range of forward-thinking bands including Birds in Row, Touché Amoré, Loma Prieta and Deafheaven. Yet Bannon is modest and humble about the label's ethos: “We're just a few people. I started the label with my best friend Tre McCarthy who used to work with Converge, tour-managing us. It started in my house, now we have a building. It's a good thing. My wife's been doing the mail order for eight years, managing the online store aspect of things. It's a small operation, but we just have a passion for music that we find to be interesting within the independent and abrasive community.”