With Patience is a post-hardcore band from Chicago. In the less than two years since the band’s inception, this power trio has become a multi-media powerhouse, releasing music, videos, and artwork on a variety of channels.
— C. Auman
1. What is With Patience?
With Patience is a post-hardcore trio from Chicago featuring Lee Diamond on drums, Lance Curran on bass and Chris Wade on guitar. All three members share vocal duties.
2. When/how did the band come together?
(Lee) In the summer of 2023, I posted an ad on Craigslist looking for like-minded musical folks to make some noise together and listed a number of influences and links to check out my drumming.
The ad produced a VAST array of responses and I played with tons of folks trying to find a new band to form or join, but when Chris and I started chatting and emailing, there was a solid quick connection based on so many mutual experiences, tastes, influences, etc. Lance had also answered the ad, so after Chris and I had started playing together, we scheduled a session playing with Lance, and the quick connection happened again.
Our experiences and common world view and musical proclivities were all met in each other.
3. From what ashes did With Patience rise?
(Lee) I played in eleventy zillion bands starting at the age of 10, but the most notable would be the Douglass Kings, Alkaloid and Replica Republic.
(Chris) I’ve was in a few bands in the 20th Century like hose.got.cable and then Orlock with my wife Ali on vocals. I mostly did home recordings with Ali in the years between then and now, collaborating with folks all over through the internet whenever possible, under different names.
(Lance) In the ‘90s, I played in both punk and theatrical industrial metal bands, and in the early 2000s, I fused those influences to form Careful in Chicago.
4. The band is a one-stop shop for video, recording, art, etc. Who does the what and the how?
(Lee) One of the many great ways that we had such a quick formation and emerged from our post-hardcore womb mostly whole was the combination of talents we each had and their cohesiveness.
In addition to our musical contributions, every member has a skillset that contributes to the band’s efforts as a whole. Chris and his wife Ali, are endlessly creative partners that combine visual arts, photography, design, videos, and so much more.
They are largely responsible for With Patience’s visual aesthetic, in addition to the outside artists that we’ve been fortunate to work with, which segues nicely into Lance’s various contributions. His work and interests have largely been working with a variety of amazing artists, some of whom have licensed their work to the band’s releases.
Micah Uhlirch’s work was featured on the band’s EP Three of Swords and Summerbluess art is the cover of the new album, Triptych. I’ve had a bunch of experiences that were useful to the video and recorded output of the band, thus far recording all of the bands material, and editing and directing the videos we’ve released. We literally have a video for every song we’ve finished.
5. What is Triptych?
A triptych is a set of three pieces meant to be experienced as a whole, which felt like the perfect representation of this album. As a three-piece band, our collaboration in writing, art, and performance is deeply interconnected—each element complements the others, much like the panels of a triptych.
The name reflects not just our structure but the way our creativity flows together to form something greater than the sum of its parts.
6. What releases preceded this album?
Our first release was the streaming/online single “Fitted Sheet”, backed with “Strawberry” which we put out in December 2023.
In March of 2024, we released the 3-song EP, Three of Swords, also just a digital release.
Then a few months later, we put the two online/streaming releases together on a CD.
7. What’s easier about being in a band now that you’ve got some miles on the odometer?
(Lee) There is no effort at all in pretense. We are inspired by each other and with three songwriters, there is just a fountain of stuff to work on. If anything, the hardest thing is keeping all the songs tight because we definitely have a tendency to want to play our latest stuff the most. The difference is also that without any expectations to have “success” in the way people typically think of it, we are completely free to focus on the art itself.
8. What requires the most patience?
(Lee) I have so much creative energy and sometimes I have a very difficult time focusing on one thing and waiting for people to get where I am. I personally can always use more patience.
(Chris) My dear friend Richard told me in high school that if I were a superhero, I’d be named Impatient Man. So for me, everything.
9. What do you like best/least about Chicago?
The city has all of the best parts of being a big city…. vast amounts of art, music, culture, great food, diverse communities, world-class architecture, and tons of bands, labels, clubs, and venues. The downside is that hugeness makes it easy to get lost, hard to get noticed.
10. What’s next for With Patience?
Triptych releases May 9th. We have a big album release party planned at a cool art space that is part gallery, part venue, part speakeasy in Pilsen called Confessional.
Our friends Deep Tunnel Project were kind enough to have us play with them at their album release party last year, and we so thrilled to be able to have them play with us for OUR release.
Orlock will also make its first appearance in 20 years, with Lee joining on drums. This should be a total blast. Beyond that, we have the NEXT album mostly written and plan to record in person with J Robbins this summer here in Chicago.
With Patience band links
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Read more interviews with bands, artists, writers, zinesters, and the odd game designer from the Reglar Wiglar archives.