Pretender/Contender pulses with intense lyrics, vocals

Indie band attracts fans from a variety of musical genres

Pretender/Contender is the shape of punk, hard-core and indie to come. The band garners influence from Refused, Minus the Bears, Native, La Dispute and This Town Needs Guns.

Pretender/Contender consists of Mike Schaffner on guitar, Ryan Harvey on drums and Lucas Carter on bass and vocals.

Carter has been playing music for 11 years and said he has gained his best friends and best memories from his musical experiences.

"[Music] is such a powerful tool," said Carter. "Music has lifted me from some depths like few other things could. It's really the best stress relief I've ever found."

David Chastain, creator of New Noise Entertainment, booked Pretender/Contender for a Haiti Relief Show last month. It was the first show for Pretender/Contender, but Chastain said after listening to their music and watching their performance, Pretender/Contender is the band he is most excited about in Indiana.

"[Carter's] vocals are so raw and intense, it just adds a whole different level to all of the music," said Chastain. "A lot of the music has really pretty light tones, with [Carter] full-force destroying everything."

Chastain added that for a relatively unknown band, Pretender/Contender has a lot of appeal and pulled in fans across all genres including hardcore, indie and folk.

"They have a lot of energy, not in the sense that they're moving all around the stage and crazy," said Chastain. "You can tell how much of themselves they've put into their music, and how real it really is. It's just this wall of sound. I was pretty much speechless when I saw them."

The raw intensity of their music is incorporated in their song-writing as well.

"Over and over / Has our pain taught us nothing / A carousel to our lost love / We sing / Set us free / Over and over / Has this hell taught you nothing / A carousel parallel to our lost love we sing / Set us free," the band sings.

Title tracks include, "We Were Young, We Were Silent," "Low Visibility," "Where Truth is Told," "Breaking Ties" and "The Thief."

"I just want there to be a sincere connection between what I'm saying and what the person on the other side gets from it," said Carter. "How they interpret it is really for them to choose, since we as humans tend to try relate our own life experiences to what we see and hear daily."

The band hopes to release their EP soon and a full-length album by the end of the year.

For more information visit pretendercontender.com

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