Although there isn’t a set release date, New Horizons, the third studio album from hard rock band Flyleaf, is slated to be out soon (sooner than you’d think). In anticipation of this impending release, we caught up with bassist Pat Seals to discuss the new album and what fans can expect as well as the changes the band has made since their last album, Memento Mori. Read below for this exclusive interview!

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Bloody-Disgusting: How’s it going?
Pat Seals: Good, Jonathan, how are you?

BD: Doing well, thanks! What’s new and exciting these days?
PS: New Horizons is on our plate. I guess that’s the most exciting thing going on these days. There’s a good mixture of emotions going on in the camp but we’re definitely very anxious to see how our fans will receive the songs because we’re real proud of these. I think this is our favorite record so far.

BD: I wanted to ask you about a quote you released regarding the song “New Horizons” where you said it was one of your most “joyful songs”. Was this positive attitude something that was planned or did it just come out naturally?
PS: It all just kind of happened. The song opens up with this awesome guitar riff that our guitar player Jared [Hartmann] wrote. And it was reminiscent of old Third Eye Blind songs that we’d listened to high school and I think that sort of happy vibe in the music informed [vocalist] Lacey [Sturm]’s voice when writing.
The end result is definitely one of the happiest Flyleaf songs. I kind of feel like a lot of our catalog is just gloomy songs but this is kind of a breath of fresh air, I guess.

BD: Tell me a bit about the album and what it means for you personally.
PS: It’s just sort of a new time, an embracing of the future in a way maybe we haven’t approached before, if that makes sense. Opening oneself up to what you don’t know and saying, “Thank you” in advance and hoping for the best instead of cowering, which, in the zeitgeist of now, everyone is freaking out about the end of the world, I think in this way it is just something we need, something we can open ourselves up to and something that can be awesome.

BD: It’s interesting that you say it like this because, it seems, in our society that people are far more nervous to say something positive right away instead of something negative. You said that the previous catalog was more gloomy and that New Horizons was more positive and yet you seem more nervous about that approach.
PS: Mmhmm! I think so. Maybe the increased nervousness is because there’s a wider spectrum of things to look for where when you look for the negative in everything and worry, which is kind of our kneejerk reaction of our culture. The added nervousness might be that hope for success and hope for fruition of what you’ve been working for.

BD: New Horizons is scheduled to come out almost 3 years exactly after Memento Mori. What’s changed in those three years for the band?
PS: It’s kind of a cliché thing for any band, especially out band, to say, “We’ve done a lot of growing in the past blah blah blah”. But I think that these three years we’ve had time to examine ourselves and examine this music and have a real long time with it. I think, those things combined pushed it forward.
I can’t speak for everyone personally but we’ve had a great deal of time to examine the music and you really hear more growth on this album, I would say. Musically and lyrically, there is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears as far as experience has gone into the making of this. I guess you’re hearing some grown ups whereas on Memento Mori and our debut you were hearing a teenager band, even though we were in our 20’s.
I kind of feel like this is a very adult record, not in terms of explicit content but rather the viewpoint. We’re looking at life in terms of birth to death instead of just inhabiting the second, which often makes the songs we hear.

BD: Talking about the three years difference, it’s amazing how those three years have made an impact when it comes to social media and the music industry. How do you feel that has affected Flyleaf?
PS: I don’t know if there’s a term for this but if there was, it’d be like stepping out of a time machine and having culture shock, we’d be having that. Twitter and those types of things were really coming up during the making of Memento Mori, that was the new thing then and now it’s even more so. People from around the world tweeting in and everything is ubiquitously online now, more so than ways in the past. You really specifically exist in people’s consciousness via that than before and keeping up with how people do it now because it’s been a real challenge and tackle going into this new record.

BD: What kind of touring plans are in the works to support New Horizons?
PS: Right now we’re looking at a couple of radio shows. We haven’t nailed down anything yet that we can announce but coming soon we’ll be able to update our fans on where we’ll be and when.

BD: Making a bit of a jump, Flyleaf contributed a song to the Nightmare Revisited Soundtrack. What connection do you or the band have with horror? Are you fans?
PS: I would say out of the band I’m the only one who likes any horror movies. Maybe Jared would like a couple. It’s not something that I would watch scary movies all day every day, but, yeah, I think, depending on the movie, I’ll definitely get into it. Like Shadows Of The Vampire might be one of my favorites.

BD: Pat, thanks so much for your time. Best of luck to you and the rest of the band!
PS: Thank you Jonathan. I really appreciate your time!

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