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It was a rather
typical San Diego evening, cool and calm and the sun hung onto the crest of the
Pacific plain. I arrived at the Scene, the modest little hole in the wall venue
tucked most inconveniently behind a rather large building in an industrial complex
on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. As I walked through the musty warehouse -gone- hipster
music club, the opening act, Rueben's Accomplice from Arizona ran through an ear-splitting
sound check. Spotting a tour bus through the open garage door across the
room, I walked |
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The conversation begins with Dan explaining his glasses being in bad shape, once we moved to a quiet area the conversation turned to music:
SDP: All
right up to this point the Promise Ring seems to have prided themselves on jangly,
pop laden indie songs, with an up beat texture. The new album seems to steer away
from that, and although I have only heard the new album once, and listened to
a few mp3’s last night, the difference is quite noticeable. Was the change in
direction something the band consciously decided, or was it gradual?
Dan: It wasn’t conscious, we weren’t like, this what we need to do, it just ended
up that way, it just evolved. We had all this time to work on these songs, and
the more and more we worked on them the more and more we liked experimenting with
the mellower stuff. The layering of more instruments drums loops, keyboards and
stuff like that. I think it was time that made the record what it is, and because
we had time to play around.
SDP: Now if memory serves me, the producer
on the album was Stephen Street, the man who also worked with the Smiths right?
Dan: Yes, and he also worked with Blur and the Cranberries.
SDP:
What was it like to work with him?
Dan: It was awesome, he is a really
mellow guy. A great producer makes you play better, he’ll bring the best out of
you. It’s hard to express how cool he was, and how nice it was working for him.
He has great personal relations.
SDP: Being involved in a couple of bands
myself, I know what it’s like to work with a producer that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Dan: Yes, it makes you frustrated and angry, Stephen puts you in a place
where you can be your best.
| SDP: Obviously ‘PR’ has made an undeniable
mark on the music indie music scene, do you see ‘PR’ staying around for another
decade or more, or exactly where do you want to go with the music? Dan: I think it’s a take it a record at a time scenario, we’ve been doing that for seven years, we are thinking about the next record and making a time line with that. Also the label switch to Anti added a few more years to the band; if we would have stayed on Jade Tree we probably... well this would be our last record, or |
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SDP: Now I’m sure you guys love this one, it has been said that ‘PR’ is an “emo” band, perhaps the “Kings of Emo”. I personally think the whole emo thing is a little silly, but people seem to feel the need to put a label on things, how does the ‘PR’ feel about the label they have been branded with?
Dan: It doesn’t really concern any of us, in the day to day life that we lead it just doesn’t concern any of us. You need language and you need words, I guess that is for journalists to decide what is what. What we do is create music. Your going to be called something whether you like it or not, and people need to know where things fall. It’s there; you know it’s there, don’t try and change it because it’s a waste of all your energy, when what you should be doing is focusing on the music you create.
SDP: More or less you answered my next question by saying all that, but just so people know for sure I’ll ask it anyway. I had read some things in a certain music magazine whose name we will not mention (Dan laughs). The guy reviewing your album sort of made it sound as if the changes on your new album were intentional in order to get away from the “emo” label.
Dan: Maybe subconsciously, but the bottom line is we just don’t want to make the same record twice. Being comfortable at what you’re doing musically speaking is not a good thing. The more you’re comfortable, the more you're lazy, the more you sit back and do the same records over and over again. And that is not what we’re about; we want to challenge ourselves, and if we’re not challenging ourselves, something is wrong. And I had read that review, and there are those people who don’t get what we’re doing. People who just don’t understand why we need to do this. But there are other people who will understand and that are totally into it and that don’t care that we’re not sticking to “our guns”, (people) that appreciate us meandering among different styles. That is what we do and we can’t expect everyone to except it, but at the end of the day I love Wood Water, I think its great and I’m very happy with it; if no one else likes it, that's fine.
SDP: Um, me personally, I have your first album, which you’ve obviously steered away from, were there two after that?
Dan: Yes, ‘Nothing Feels Good’ and ‘Very Emergency’.
SDP: I’ve heard both of them through friends, things like that, but once I heard Wood Water I became interested again. I had sort of lost interest before that.
Dan: I think that sort of comes in redefining what we do. I think 30 degrees is a horrible record, we should have never made it, but at least it’s documented, there is nothing we can really do about it. It has its own validity to it, just as Wood Water has its own validity.
SDP: In defense of the first album (we laugh). I saw you guys in Denver with uh... I want to say...
Dan: At the warehouse?
SDP: Yeah, with Texas is the Reason. That was a great show.
Dan: That was the thing, back then our live show seemed to be a lot better than 30 degrees, that record is so...
SDP: You can definitely see the difference
Dan: It was just horribly produced and recorded. I think we spent like, five days on it. We spent six weeks on Wood Water. I think that back then we were a lot better as a live band than a recorded band. Now I think it’s starting to switch; our focus is more on recording than playing live. Playing live now is kinda like (makes sour face), playing is fun...(forklift drives by and drowns out Dan).
SDP: This next question goes along with the playing live situation. As I had mentioned before I have played in some bands and I know that there is quite a bit of personal sacrifice that goes along with being in a band with little of no payoff. ‘PR’ has seen quite the contrary with its string of success. What is your greatest personal sacrifice?
Dan: There's a lot. Like, I was on the phone with my girlfriend, she was crying because she is a teacher and she is trying to transfer schools, but she's upset because there is so much work that goes along with that. She's interviewing with a bunch of different schools and she is not really liking the schools, you know what I mean? So not being with her through those times is tough; I mean what can I do for her out here in San Diego, when she is back home in Milwaukee? Talk on the phone and say 'it’s okay, it’s okay?' It’s hard not being there. Also, I’m going to be gone for two months and one of my nieces is two, so she is in that area where it is good to see a little person grow up. Two months to a two-year-old is like five years. When I come home she will be, taller, smarter; she’ll know a few more words. Stuff like that, personal stuff at home.
SDP: I can definitely relate to that, I’m in the Marine Corps stationed out here in San Diego and I have a six year old daughter back in Denver, she lives with her mother, and I get back as much as I can, but...
Dan: Yeah, definitely, even more so, it’s difficult enough being an uncle, I wouldn’t know what to do, I feel for you man. (Laughs).
SDP: Being in the Marine Corps, I find it interesting to ask the people and the bands I interview their opinions on the war, our government, our actions in Afghanistan, politics in general and George W.?
Dan: That’s a weird situation, it’s hard. I have a general distrust for a lot of things; I’m always really inquisitive. I don’t really take things for granted. I need to know facts; and it seems like it’s hard, or like there is a certain mistrust, like, I always feel that we’re never really being told exactly what’s true. You know?
But then on the other side I do think there should be some sort of action against what happened to us, but what was the cause for them to do that? What did we do to them to make that happen? It’s a big weird mess. It’s kinda’ like the whole ‘Wag the Dog’ thing, this whole secret government. It’s a weird time right now, it’s really hard to sit down and believe something.
SDP: Well, like me being directly involved in it, I feel lost sometimes, I feel like I’m not always being told the truth. I feel like a pawn, you know. You see the media, like with television you have some many things being thrown at you on the screen you don’t have any Idea what is going on.
Dan: The best thing about all of this for me personally, I have become a little bit more politically aware. To have a thing like that happen to us as Americans, I mean, it shocked me. I knew, obviously, that terrorism was a problem, and that there were people out there who were upset with us enough to do that. So it made me go back and try to figure out why, or what did we do, what is our policy that they are reacting to? You know what I mean? I’m trying to get both sides now, I’m not going to be the person to say strike first. What are we doing that we can possibly change? But also that is totally horrible what they did to us, and the families of the people, and I understand them being upset, because that is fucked up. Terrorism in general, where you strike innocent people is where it gets kinda’ fucked up. It becomes horribly wrong that that is their mindset. Then you have to think about what actually forced them to do that, to kill innocent people.
SDP: It’s a vicious circle
Dan: It’s a vicious circle, and it’s a huge web of stuff, like if you go one way there is like ten directions you could go from there. It’s kind of a mired and mucky situation.
SDP: Confusing to say the least. Shifting gears back to the music, you guys are starting to have quite a bit of success. I’m sure you don’t have people running down the street screaming “Hey Promise Ring guy!”(Dan laughs), but did you guys every consciously decide that you were going to go all out for the “big time”?
Dan: No, everything was done in baby steps. The only decisions that we make are the ones that are going to make us happy, like the move to Anti, from Jade Tree and changing the sound of the band and stuff like that. If people key into that and they like it that’s great, if they don’t, there is not a lot we can do about that because we are selfish people (laughs), we're just really trying to make ourselves happy. It was never like a conscious decision to be like, “we are going to be it man, we are going to be huge!” (We both laugh). it was never like that. We made music and somehow, dumb luck is probably our biggest friend right now. We work very hard. Like the personal sacrifices, I’m sure you know as a marine, you make sacrifices, and you know what you give up, and that makes you better at what you do. You know I’ve given all that stuff up I better give this one hundred percent, if not I’m wasting my time and I should just do something else. We're nice guys and we are consciously moral and we are very strategic in that aspect. We’re very hard working, we make just decisions about how we should do things, and we kinda’ go from there. That goes along with making ourselves happy, it wasn’t like lets do whatever we can to make ourselves famous, it was more lets make ourselves happy, keeping all of our bridges unburned, and if people catch onto that, that’s great.
SDP: Awesome. That is more or less the serious questions I had for you. I put together a little word association thing, so I will read some words off and you say what comes to mind. Chuck Taylor's?
Dan: Chuck Taylor's, I’ve got to think. Brendon Shellsefer, he was a friend of mine from way back. We all had Chuck Taylors, but he would wear’m, they looked like bananas. He had the yellow ones, because he had really big feet. I don’t know that just popped in my head. (Laughs).
SDP: Elf quest hairdos? You know the big hair, hair sideburns thing; I call that elf quest hairdo (all laughing.)
Dan: Yeah, I get it, I like that. I would say video games
SDP: All right. I just did a fuckin’ ‘Wayne's World’, “all right“(mimicking Wayne from the movie ‘Wayne's World). Mother or Father?
Dan: Mine are still together, but it definitely brings peace. I love them both. They are great people; they have given so much. They are the most giving people I have ever, ever known. They would literally give they’re last cent to help someone out. I love them to death.
SDP: Cool. “We are, we are, the youth of a nation”(chuckles).
Dan: Who does that song? (Laughing).
SDP: What is it? POD, I think.
Dan: I think of Paris, France. Jason and I were in Europe just recently doing a press tour for this album. We were in Paris, France when I first heard that song. I remember for the rest of the day I was singing that song (laughs), it’s very catchy.
SDP: It is, and I don’t want to like it.
Dan: Its very Pink Floyd, very “hey teacher leave those kids alone”, of them to do.
SDP: Great, now I’m going to think of that every time I hear that song. Spiderman?
Dan: I want to see it!
SDP: It is awesome! I felt like a little kid.
Dan: That’s what I want from it. Growing up in suburban America, I pretended I was Spiderman, Batman and Indiana Jones, so yeah, I’m very excited to see it.
SDP: Sex with your hand?
Dan: (Laughing hysterically) that’s a dangerous one.
SDP: Very cutting edge. Christie Front Drive?
Dan: Great band, great people. We just played Denver, I don’t even know if they all still live there. I used to call them Christie Front Tron, I guess that would be my word association.
SDP: That was the one band I was like total fan boy. I would guess these guys are also some friends of yours, Jimmy Eat World?
Dan: Yeah, very excited, that same trip Jason and I took over in Europe, they just happened to be playing Amsterdam while we were there. We had to fly to Paris the night of the show, but we hung out with them that day at the hotel. Good guys. I’m excited to be playing with them in England at the end of this month. We're going to be doing like a three week tour of the mid west with them when we get back (from Europe). So it will be nice to see them again.
SDP: Well, I would like to thank you, it was great talking to you, I hope to run into again at some point.
Dan: Yeah, it was great thanks. Are you staying for the show?
SDP: Hell yeah, wouldn’t miss it.
http://www.tpr-online.com/
http://www.anti.com
Promise Ring interview conducted 04-09-02 by Jason Andrade.
Photos taken be Andrew C.
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