• achtergronden
• DE 7EVEN
• video's
• agenda

• dossiers
• festivals
• columns

ernaast

The Promise Ring

Imagine an XY axis of fame, a graphic display plotting the location of a band's particular place in the universe of western pop music. Some bands (Aerosmith, Blink 182) stay focused in one area, other acts traverse the path of artistic expression and become penalized for their travels by the criticism of the fans left behind. Such is the fate of The Promise Ring.

Tekst: Scott Finnell

Publicatiedatum: 25 mei 2002

This process of continual re-invention as descibed above is traumatic, alienating a good percentage of the fan base that cannot or will not accept the new sound of a band. From the Brits who called Bob Dylan "Judas" for going electric to the enormous backlash against Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac experiments, bands have always been penalized for their travels by the criticism of the fans left behind.

The Promise Ring exploded onto the scene back in 1995 with a split 7" EP with Texas is the Reason. They took Fugazi's melodic punk and filtered it through the Milwaukee indie scene and the result was a distinctive indie-punk-pop fusion that fell under that ubiquitous label: emo. Their full-length album, 30 Degrees Everywhere was followed by Horse Latitudes, a singles compilation. Both justified their meteoric rise in the eyes of the indie rock illuminati. It appealed to people because it was coherent, a linear narrative. You could see how the precocious young indie rockers developed as time passed.

That's when things began to change. "It is always a conscious decision of ours to not make the same record twice, to always try and experiment with our abilities to create songs. It keeps things interesting for us," said TPR drummer Dan Didier. The band applied that mentality to the creation of their second album. On Nothing Feels Good TPR left the edgy, emotional content of their previous work behind, opting for a distinctively pop flavour. The critical boo birds began singing immediately. Still, Nothing Feels Good was a success, and wild rumours of major label interest began making the rounds. Next up was the 1999's Very Emergency, an album that greeted the millennial angst of the time with nothing but accessible, bouncy tunes that were more Beach Boys than Bad Religion, more Simon & Garfunkle than Belle and Sebastian.

The critics roared. They complained about the lyrics, the music, the attitude, everything but the cover art. These were the days when everyone was hell-bent on exposing the inauthentic, the pretenders, and we all prosecuted our cases with a Jesuit's burning zeal. In that time of purges, The Promise Ring was branded with the ultimate scarlet letter, that of Sell Out. "How did we sell out? We've never released a record on a major, we've never compromised our artistic vision, and we've kept most of our bridges unburned. Just because people buy our records doesn't mean we sold our soul to the devil," asks Dan Didier.

The complaints continued to roll when TPR released their Electric Pink EP in 2000. It was like sonic saccharine, boy band pop played by an indie rock band that has been described by one rather insensitive Audiogalaxy reviewer as "cheesy music for girls and/or gay guys." For their part, TPR seemed to encourage and make light of the comparison when they played a few shows under the name of 'N Pink. The Promise Ring had it's own creative path to follow, and critics be damned. Didier had this to say about the turncoat fans: "I would say that they were never fans of our band. I personally love it when bands try something new and different. I truly appreciate that. It takes a certain amount of guts."

Little wonder that this year's Promise Ring release would be so much different. Wood/Water leaves the lollipop tunes of TPR's past for a mature, introspective sound closely aligned with Didier and lead singer Davey von Bohlen's side project Vermont. "I think it's more of the maturation that we all went and are still going through. We are into the seventh year of this band so we are all very different people now then we were back then. It's an ever changing process," says Didier. "We all know each others breaking points and we all know what each other wants. There is a certain mutual element of compromise that I think we each have mastered."
At least some of the band's new sound can be traced to the input of well-respected producer Stephen Street. Street made a name for himself working with The Smiths and Blur on some of their finer albums, and he brings the same kind of British sensibility to TPR. The result is an album that resembles an American Coldplay. "Stephen was incredible. He is a real down-to-earth kind of fellow. A lot of the songs were already finished before we went over there, so for those songs he just sort of trimmed the fat... But, there were a few songs where we just gave the reigns over to Stephen and some songs where we wrote completely in the studio."

The Promise Ring begins a UK tour in support of those lovable emo-punkers Jimmy Eat World on May 25, then hits the mainland for a tour stretching through June. After that, TPR gets back together with Jimmy for another tour of the States. It seems like a natural pairing. Both bands have been kicking around the emo/indie scene for a few years now, long enough for some to call them the grandfathers of indie-pop. The band does not seem uncomfortable with the comparison. "It's something I would never consider ourselves. I mean, the Jimmy guys are friends of ours so there is a certain sense of peerhood with them, but over all, we just put music out there and if people call us grandfathers for that, okay", says Didier.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/achtergrond/the-promise-ring/the-promise-ring/1571/
Meer The Promise Ring op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/the-promise-ring