Marilyn Manson once said that any musician that smiles while performing on stage should be shot. If the rock group Sense Field ever breaks into the mainstream and makes it big, Mr. Manson would surely have a hissey-fit. In musical world saturated with bands obsessed with pain, suffering, and deranged chaotic anger or mindless superficiality, Sense Field is certainly a breath of fresh air. The passion, honesty, and energy of the music evokes the image of a benevolent world full of possibilities and enjoyment of life. Maybe this isn't what sells mass amount of records these days, but Sense Field has only taken these values even more seriously on their latest incredible work, which has now been delayed in release due to the group splitting from the major label Warner Bros. Records. Having lost their relationship with the major label that looked to be able to promote the band to stardom, Sense Field now finds themselves alone with nothing but their counter-mainstream music of passion, integrity, and enjoyment to spead their word and guide them to success. To struggle for success with odds like this is the stuff of heroes.
Now that you guys aren't with Revelation or Warner Brothers where do you think you'll be lumped in as far as sound goes?
It's hard to say because I don't know how we are perceived. I don't know if people consider us an Emo band, a post hardcore band, an Alternative band... It's just very melodic, quite optimistic. It would be nice for people not to be confused by who and what we are. We're just a melodic rock band.
Are you guys upset with the way Warner Brothers kinda kept pushing your release back? I hear now you have to buy it back? Did they pay for the recording?
The truth is that they were waffling on whether or not they wanted to put it out or not. We asked them "Let's put it out or let us go". We would have liked for them to put it out but I think that it might be for the better because I think we will be able to find a place where people will understand our band, and understand what we need and know that we are a hard working band. Are we upset? I think that it's mutual. There are people at Warner who are up set that we are not on the label and it wasn't a unanimous decision. It came down to one guy really, and he let our A&R person go and both of her bands. He didn't necessarily listen to our record. It was more of a business decision than a creative artistic decision.
Were they leading you guys on?
No, we were on the label. We had a few scheduled release dates. We had lost our original drummer so we had to find another one. We didn't want the record to come out without a drummer. Once we did get Rob we went in and recorded three new songs and added them to the album and that pushed the release date back as well. We were responsible for the delay as well, it wasn't all solely Warner. It was just one of those things where the relationship just kinda falls apart. It's not uncommon, it's happened to almost every band I know. Being dropped from a major label.
It seems to happen to a lot of those crossover mainstream/underground bands like All, Chixdigit... Look at Jawbreaker, Jawbox, RFTC, Shudder to Think, Girls Against Boys, Seaweed. If they were to sell millions of albums then why would anyone drop them? At the time people thought that our generation of punk rock bands were gonna be big after Greenday and the Offspring getting signed. So they took a chance and everybody got signed. None of those bands are on their labels anymore. It's just business. Not for the faint of heart. You gotta be tough skinned. It's very cutthroat. We have no resentment towards Warner Bros. I think it could be a positive opportunity for us. Like I said there are other labels out there. If they don't want to put it out we'll find someone who will.
Do you have any perspective takers and a release date?
It's too early to tell, it only happened a few weeks ago. The album is done. We are playing for a few labels in New York in a couple weeks.
Warner Brothers was going to have a big distribution for you guys. Now that you'll be going with another label how does the production cut back affect the inner turmoil and energy of the band?
Of course it does affect the band, but we feel so good about the album. We played a few of those songs tonight "Save Yourself", War of the Worlds", and "Open Heart Surgery". We feel very very strongly that the songs are worth something and we are very optimistic about our situation. It's like getting out of a bad marriage. Are we hurt by it? Yes. Are there other people out there to marry? Yes. It's not the end it could be the beginning of something great.
When you aren't touring with Sense Field what are you doing?
I read history, books on singers of bands I like, go see bands, write songs, go see bands, drink a lot of coffee, just hang out.
Funny Stories?
When we were in Vancouver there was this guy who looked like Christopher Walken smoking cigarettes and drinking beer while we were sound checking. I was trying to talk to him and he would answer everything with a moan and a groan. I was like "Hey how's it going", he'd go "Uhhhhhrrrrr". Kinda like a monster. Then he started howling like a wolf. That was the wackiest thing that happened to us on tour but its only six days into it, we have another six weeks to go.
I read somewhere of you guys talking about re-inventing yourselves? Can you elaborate on this?
We are doing things differently than we've done in the past. We are doing cover songs of music that we love. I just think that we are more comfortable on stage. We know who we are. We know that we are not a rap metal band. We know that were not a band that preaches violence or hate. We are happy that people can get something out of our music that is not destructive. Our music motivates people and makes them feel nice. I would never want to be in a band where some kid hangs himself to our music. Or somebody shoots themself listening to our album. I don't think that it is going to happen personally. It might but I hope that it doesn't. To answer your question...We know who we are and we are proud of the scene that we came from and the scene that we are a part of. We are not ashamed of trying to get on a major label and then getting let go. In terms of re-inventing ourselves, on the new album we really focused on the songwriting. We wanted to show some growth in our songs. We wanted to not be afraid about saying the things we wanted to say.
Who writes the lyrics/songs?
I write most of the lyrics. Rodney writes some lyrics as well. Chris and Rodney are the major songwriters of the band.
On your new E.P. there is a song called "Every Reason". The lyrics to that song are deep. ("You give me every reason to live, you give me every reason not to doubt, you give me every reason to be happy") I was wondering what you were thinking when you wrote these words. Are they aimed at a certain person?
I would have to say that there are people in your life that will help you along like teachers, your grandmom, brothers, sisters, parents that make you want to try and do better. Whether it's God, somebody in your family, a girlfriend, wife or your own kids. That song is about those people and those things in your life who make you want to do better and be a better person. Nobody's perfect and everyone has a lot of growing to do and a lot of mistakes to make. To be honest with you the lyrics come from my heart as cheesy as it sounds. It comes from deep deep inside. It comes from my love of people and my sadness when people are in pain or depressed.
I hear something about you guys releasing a Smiths cover as your first U.S. single.?
It'll be decided by the people of the label, the band, and the manager of the band. It'll depend on the vision and the plan of the new record label.
I hear rumors of you guys doing something with Jonah from Far??
Jeremy Weiss, road manager of Sense Field, owner of Corrupted Image Records in Pennsylvania asked us to do a split 7 inch with him to be released on his label. Jonah turned in his song but we're lagging we need to get him the song.
Final thoughts...?
Be patient with us. Our album will be out soon, I don't know how soon, but we'll find a home for it. We are very committed and dedicated. Hopefully people won't give up on us and will stick it out for the long haul.