Interview Heed the infallible words of the Holy Roman Empire

In just nine months of playing around town, Holy Roman Empire hit its stride, releasing the excellent debut EP Lost In Landscapes last August, and landing several big shows, including an opening slot for Rise Against at the Vic in November and a headlining show at Metro this Friday. It may seem like a quick ascent, but Holy Roman Empire’s members sequestered themselves in a West Loop practice space for more than a year before setting foot onstage—a deliberate quality-control move. The group formed around guitarists Jay Jancetic and Neeraj Kane, bassist Geoff Reu, and drummer Tony Tintari, all longtime veterans of hardcore punk bands like The Hope Conspiracy, Stabbed By Words, Killing Tree, and Shai Hulud. Based on their experiences in that quickly moving, endlessly touring world, they decided to take the time to find a melodic sound and a vocalist who could actually sing—two ingredients usually missing from hardcore. After classically trained singer Emily Schambra joined, the pieces fell into place. Jancetic, Kane, and Tintari recently spoke to The A.V. Club about taking their time and reforming their close-minded ways.

The A.V. Club: Holy Roman Empire kept a deliberately slow pace as it came together. Did that stem from your experience in other bands?

Tony Tintari: I think we’ve all been in dopey-enough bands and made enough mistakes that we’d like to think we’ve learned a couple things.

Nareej Kane: We just wanted to take this as far as we could. We wanted to make sure we started off on the right path so we didn’t have to go back and correct things.

TT: I think it’s allowed us to really take time with our songwriting, make sure we get exactly what we want when a song is finished. Hopefully it’ll pay off later on. [Laughs.]

NK: I’ve been in bands where we practiced four times, recorded a demo, and then played a show, you know? It’s so raw. All of us wanted to get out there and start playing, especially me—I was just dying to play, but I think it’s paying off now.

AVC: What did you want to do differently with this band?

TT: I think it’s completely different than all of our other bands, so I think collectively, we’ve all taken steps that we’ve never taken before, scary ones. I’ve played melodic music before, but I haven’t done it in 10 years, so it’s scary to open those closets up and see what’s in there.

Jay Jancetic: We didn’t have this set like, “Okay, we’re going to sound like this, or sound like that, or not sound like this.” We just knew we wanted to do something that none of us have tried before and see where it took us.

AVC: Did you feel like you were starting from scratch, or did the “ex-members” thing give you a little boost?

JJ: We debated whether we should even have that as part of how we advertise ourselves, because it’s always a gamble, especially when you’re playing something different than what those bands were. But we felt like we had so little to go by in the beginning anyway, what did we have to lose? But now, I don’t know. Hindsight’s 20/20. It felt like we kind of shot ourselves in the foot… I can’t tell you how many reviews I’ve read of [Lost In Landscapes] where they don’t actually review the record. All they say is, “It doesn’t sound like I thought it would,” or “Considering it has these ex-members, it should be this.” They might say Emily is a good singer, but they don’t actually review the record.

AVC: You mentioned taking the band “as far as we could take it.” What do you have in mind?

TT: I just think that musically, this band lends itself to exploring a lot of different ideas that I don’t think we’ve been able to explore in other bands. I think that’s going to take a long time. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun to find out where it actually goes.

JJ: Yeah, it seems like there are a lot of hidden doors that we all kind of shunned in our training of power chords and having closed minds. [Laughs.]

AVC: You’ve all been in bands that toured a lot. As you’ve gotten older, has your drive to tour changed?

TT: It’s increased… Every day I’m home, another little piece of me dies. [Laughs.]

JJ: We have a starvation for it at this point, even those of us that are in school full-time, or married, and have serious jobs. It just came down to “Are we willing, ready, and able to make that leap when—and if—it should happen?” And the answer for everyone was “Yeah.”

NK: Most definitely. That was a big thing, because I love playing music, and I’ll go nuts if I don’t. I want to do it full-time. I want it to be my job, and I’m willing to take that risk, even though we’re older or whatever. It doesn’t matter.

TT: What have you got to lose?