Something about music itself is very special; it has the ability to completely captivate and enthrall. A band's ability to make the listener a part of the music is very special. Most bands can't do it, but there are a select few who really are doing something to give the listener something more. The Promise Ring is one of those bands that can draw you in and keep you for a while, knowing you're experiencing something special.
Formed in February 1995 in Milwaukee, Wis., The Promise Ring has steadily been gaining a larger and larger fan base. Jason Gnewikow, Dan Didier, Scott Beschta wanted to form a three-piece, and Davey Vonbohlen needed a new band to join, as he explained in a telephone interview with The Michigan Daily.
"I was in Cap N' Jazz (who are now The Promise Ring and Joan of Arc), which was just like getting really annoying for my travel problems," Vonbohlen said. "At one point, I was (going back and forth between Chicago and Milwaukee) so much that my car was just getting worse and died ... . In the back of my head, I'm like, 'Wow! A band in Milwaukee, that would be good.'"
The Promise Ring have been labeled a punk band, but have a sound much more diverse and complicated than your everyday three-chord run-of-the-mill yawn of a band. They released "30 Degrees Everywhere" last September on Jade Tree Records, which has met with a lot of success thus far, although some critics have given the record a less than fair review because of Vonbohlen's unique vocal style.
"I still haven't really listened to the album yet 'cause I'm a little bit hurt by that," Vonbohlen said. "I sang terribly and there's nothing I can do about it and I can't really deal with that ... That's my voice, but that's bad for what my voice can be ... . That was a miserable failure."
"30 Degrees Everywhere" is anything but a failure, though. The record combines soft, poetic, creative lyrics sung with unbridled emotion and bright, vibrant, driving music full of hooks and melody by the ton. It's a very unique and unlikely combination, but the two blend so perfectly, it just all comes together so well. "We like to talk in colors. The lyrics to me are a lot of blues, lighter blues, if that makes any sense, which are soft," Vonbohlen explained. "Jason figures the key we play, the key of C, is red. I've never heard a band before which is like that."
"Wow! We're doing something completely different, you know, even though people are dying to compare you to something, but it's really not like anything else," Vonbohlen added.
The lyrics create stimulating mental images. Most of the songs are about relationships, something about which Vonbohlen feels compelled to write. "The boy-girl issue," Vonbohlen said, "those are really strong images, really universal images everyone is thinking about or feeling, you know? Locations are really universal, too."
"A lot of songs are just little parts or excerpts from poems that I've written," Vonbohlen said. "I definitely don't just want to write that rock song with a chorus, you know. There's so much that's been done before ... . I'm not gonna say, 'Hey! I think you're neat.' Everyone rides the middle ... and says middle-ground stuff. I like to be way left of that, like real poetic and kinda vague and deal with images and not just like ideas. Or I wanna go so far right, like the most obvious song in the world ... . I think every word is really thought about."
The Promise Ring just released their second album, "The Horse Latitudes," a couple of weeks ago, which is a compilation of their first three 7" records and two new songs. They already written more material, and expect to start recording a new album in June. Meanwhile, The Promise Ring just finished a tour with Texas Is The Reason, and tours here and there along the way. They're stopping into Detroit on March 7 to headline the first night of the Detroit Fest, a three-day punk, hardcore, and indie festival to benefit HIV/AIDS. "It seems like an effective benefit, you know," Vonbohlen said. "Most benefits are like, you know, a punk show and 30 kids in a basement. You charge $3, you give each band gas money and you get $12 for the benefit. It's like, 'Well, OK ... .'"
The Promise Ring takes part in Detroit Fest in Wayne on March 7-9.