Following the release of their EP “Horizon” earlier in 2022, New Hampshire’s Promise Game are back with a brand new single, “Connecticut.”
In addition to that aforementioned EP, another major milestone that occurred for the band this year was their first tour, a weekender around a few places along the east coast of the United States. After starting the tour off strongly with a sold-out show in New Jersey the night before, the band got stuck in traffic on their way to their next stop four hours away – East Haven, Connecticut. Luckily, the band made it in time for the show, and the positive, comforting atmosphere of the show turned the day around (“From the moment we reached Bradley St, I felt at home, I felt complete / Driveways running soundcheck / The worries slide off my back”)
While the band have been experimenting with different styles, this song traces back to the modern pop-punk roots showcased on their debut EP. The guitars and bass provide catchy lead throughout, and the main and backing vocals take turns leading the verses, each easily grabbing the listener’s attention while doing so. The drums stick out while building up to the song’s huge choruses, providing entertaining fills towards the end of those sections. The outro is equally as anthemic as the choruses, and the final chorus and outro showcase a higher vocal range through an engaging performance.
In Conclusion…
With its brighter tone, catchy hooks, and lyrics that tell a happy ending to a tricky situation, “Connecticut” radiates optimism throughout and is sure to become another fan favorite of Promise Game’s.
“Connecticut” is available now on all streaming platforms. Listen to the song here:
There is so much great new music coming out on a daily basis, and today, Dissonants brings you the start of a brand new column called Remarkable Recent Releases, which aims to highlight some of these tracks, EPs, and albums.
Adjust The Sails “Working Man”
Adjust The Sails has been consistently releasing music throughout the course of the year, and the newest piece is a track titled “Working Man.” The lyrics tackle multiple themes, from self-improvement and not “giving in to vices” to the desire of quitting the 9-5 life to pursue other career paths to getting older and watching your friends and peers reach major life milestones. The reflective songwriting is combined with extremely catchy melodies and instrumentation to make another very memorable track.
House Parties “Tiny Rooms” (EP)
House Parties stepped foot into the scene at the beginning of this year, gradually leading up to the release of their debut EP, “Tiny Rooms.” The Texan pop-punk and easycore group bring together drop-tuned riffs and breakdowns (“Makes Sense”), infectious melodies (‘Broke,`” Tiny Rooms”), and attention-grabbing performances (“Collateral”) to create a very strong debut.
Jack Conway “Bullshit”
Continuing a string of releases, Jack Conway has released “Bullshit.” The stripped-down demo allows for the emotion to shine through (especially within the vocal performance during the chorus). Sophisticated piano and guitar leads join a dreamy vocal performance and heartfelt lyrics (“I tell myself lies so I don’t feel any pain”) to make a simple, yet powerful track.
Jordan Coffey “Mean Girls”
Hailing from Maine is metal musician Jordan Coffey, who recently dropped her latest single, “Mean Girls.” With lyrics like “so keep walking away with your head down, just in case you forgot which one of us wears the crown,” the track serves as a middle finger to bullies, haters, and anyone else who’s ever tried to tear you down. The verses are much more aggressive, while the massive chorus is much more melodic, and the performances throughout the song make it even more empowering.
K4YLEE “FADED MEMORY”
K4YLEE impressed me with her new single, “FADED MEMORY.” The softer and more minimalistic verses prepare for the anthemic choruses that follow, with an emotion-filled vocal performance sung over the line “what happened to the way we used to be?.” Elements of pop and rock are seamlessly tied together to create a phenomenal single overall.
One Flew West “Holes In My Jeans”
Beloved Colorado locals One Flew West are back with another new track, “Holes In My Jeans.” The song is the second single from their forthcoming debut album, “The Blur,” which will be released on March 25th, 2022 (pre-order here). Alongside their previous single “The Blur,” this track also contains the irresistibly catchy hooks that the band is known for, and sets a strong precedent for the rest of the record.
Promise Game “Sleeping Weather”
New Hampshire-based band Promise Game has been consistently evolving their sound with each release they’ve put out this year, and their new single “Sleeping Weather” is no different in that regard. The darker composition in the verses and choruses focus on elements of emo, alternative rock, and post-hardcore, while the extremely energetic instrumentals and captivating vocals in the bridge throw bits and pieces of pop-punk into the mix, and listeners can also expect to hear unforgettable synth leads throughout the entire track.
Stand Atlantic “molotov [OK]”
Following the release of “deathwish” earlier on in 2021, Australian pop-punk legends Stand Atlantic are continuing to get a little bit experimental with their sound through their latest single, “molotov [OK].” The raw and slightly more aggressive vocal tone and accelerated instrumentation showcase a heavier side to the band’s sound, and the main hook will have listeners shouting along.
Earlier this year, you released your debut EP “It Won’t Be Long Now.” – how has the release cycle for that been so far?
Colin (vocals): We didn’t know what it was going to be when we released it at all because we were a brand new band during a really weird time. We kind of threw it out there and we saw a really good response. I think we saw some really good traction with certain songs and I think we’re starting to see even better tractions on songs that people missed. We’ve been talking with some folks, and every time we’ve talked with someone, they bring up “Pinks And Blues,” which is something we really never promoted, but we all think is a great song. We’re still getting those repeat listeners and seeing 400 monthly listeners without having a release in six months. I think we can all agree that we worked really hard on the release, but we didn’t put as much effort into it promotion-wise as we have with this single. The response has been awesome and it’s still being listened to and still getting a hundred streams a day on Spotify.
Eric (keys/synths): I think there’s something to be said about the way that we’re learning about promotion as we go along, too. When we initially released that first EP back in mid-February, we were doing promotional things, but in the process of promoting that EP, we learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t work. Colin does all the promotional stuff and he’s gotten himself involved in the community heavily at that point. It’s surprising that the traction that the EP has is getting a little bit faster and more intense, even five months later. We’re happy with that, for sure.
Adam (rhythm guitar/vocals): Facebook is really picking up, too. Colin and I run that together. We had 12,000 engagements within the last week or something like that.
Colin: On our Instagram, we’re starting to see a lot more traction. We’re doing a lot of social media work behind the scenes not only getting ready for our recent single, but also to try and keep people still listening to what’s out there. We know there’s still people that might not have heard of Promise Game yet, and there’s still more music out there for them to listen to.
Leading up to the release, you released “If It Makes You Happy,” “Take It Back,” and “I’ve Made A Huge Mistake” as singles – do these songs foreshadow what the rest of the EP sounds like?
Adam: Yeah, I think so.
Colin: We all came together and asked how we wanted to launch Promise Game. We thought it would be cool to do a cover that no one had done before in the pop-punk genre. We wanted to be different, that was kind of a goal for us. We got great feedback from people who said they had never heard anybody cover that song. That was why we did it. I think we decided that “Take It Back” and “I’ve Made A Huge Mistake” were a good representation of what the band was going to be. We had good pop-punk undertones, but we also had songs where we could kind of change those tones and go into different styles of music. In “Take It Back,” we take that bridge to a totally different level before bringing it right back. We just wanted to show people that we could be different and have a lot of different types of styles. When you look at the rest of the EP, we have “Thanks For The Anxiety,” which we all thought was going to be everyone’s favorite song, but “Take It Back” seems to be everyone’s fan favorite. It still gets a lot of the traction we’re seeing on a daily basis. Altogether, it comes as a good collection of tracks that works well. “Pinks And Blues” and “Don’t Act Like Me” weren’t singles, but they’re still getting great traction and they’re nicely, methodically placed in the album.
“If It Makes You Happy” in particular is a cover of a Sheryl Crow song with that title. What made you decide to cover the track and how would you say you’ve put your own spin on it?
Eric: When we first started the group, we decided that the easiest way to play music was to do pop-punk covers of weird songs. We did “Follow You Down” by The Gin Blossoms, “Don’t Look Back In Anger” by Oasis, I think we toyed with a Backstreet Boys song at some point, and then we had this one. When we started playing more and getting together weekly, we were gelling with everything and decided we should start thinking about putting originals in. Adam is always kind of writing and I think he always wanted an outlet to put those lyrics down. When we started getting a bunch of songs together, we said that we needed to include a cover. Every single time we warm up, we always play “If It Makes You Happy,” because it was the one we enjoyed doing the most, nobody would ever consider covering it, and nobody would see this coming.
Colin: It was definitely our drummer’s idea at the very beginning. It was one of the stipulations of him joining the band that we cover this song. He’d always liked that song, and there were no covers of it, so he thought we should do it
Adam: I think it’s also the one that we made the most “our own.” We’ll play “Follow You Down” a lot at band practice just because it’s fun, but we do the harmonies that The Gin Blossoms did because we just know how to do them. On our cover of “If It Makes You Happy,” I think a lot of people don’t even realize what song it is until it gets to the chorus, and then they’re like, “wait, this is that song?” We sped up the verses a lot. It’s the notes that are played in the song, but they don’t share the same rhythmic qualities or anything. There’s the arpeggiated synthesizer in the song.
Eric: The arpeggiated synthesizer was an accident. I had the arpeggiator pressed when we first started it, and everybody stopped and we were like, “woah.” That was the catalyst where we said we could make the song so different and so unique to our brand.
Adam: I have this buddy, Kyle, who I’ve known for twenty years or so, and he’s played music from middle school onwards, but he was never really in bands. He always wanted to be, but at this point, he’s married and has a baby so there was no way he was going to ever commit to playing in the band. I always had this idea to get to the bridge and smooth it out, because the verses especially are really aggressive, and thought “what if it just went into this sexy saxophone groove in the middle of the song?” Either the day of or a couple of days before, the guys thought we should have a sax solo in the middle of the song, but I had already talked to Kyle before and he was coming in to record without me having even discussed it with the band.
Colin: It worked out perfectly for us. That’s the biggest differentiator for that song, especially for a pop-punk cover. I can’t think of someone who has a saxophone in their song unless they’re in a ska band. We’re going to keep trying to do fun stuff like that to be different.
Adam: Kyle just sort of exists as a very unofficial sixth member of the band. Whenever we’ve had to go into the studio and needed gang vocals or something like that… he only lives two minutes away from the studio, so he does it for us.
Eric: We attempted to do some album covers that we didn’t really like in the end, but he was the model who got “dumped.” Him and Colin’s wife are our models. He came to the music video shoot doing funny things with the newborn.
Colin: We have a baby in the new music video. If there’s any reason to watch it, there’s a new baby in it at a bar.
You’re preparing to release a new single called “Any Reason To Party” – first and foremost, what exactly is the song about?
Adam: When I was writing it – and it’s not similar in style – I was sort of approaching it from the viewpoint of The Beastie Boys “Fight For Your Right To Party.” It’s not an anti-partying song or anything like that, but it definitely doesn’t mean what the frat kids and stuff ended up using it for. They took it really literally. In the chorus are the words “I can find any reason to party,” and throughout the verses, it’s just sort of someone dipping down deeper into alcoholism. It starts out with “it’s five o’clock somewhere,” and in the next verse, you’ve got “it’s four o’clock somewhere,” and in the third verse, it’s “9:00 A.M. somewhere.” It’s just sort of this devolving thing.
Colin: It’s kind of sad. It’s a super energetic song. It is about partying, it is a party song and people are going to take it that way, but deep down…
Adam: If you’re not paying attention to the lyrics enough, you’re going to misinterpret them, which was my intention fully.
Eric: From a musical perspective, I think the single diverged from the original EP style and went a little more into a combination of some post-hardcore, some easycore… there’s a lot of different elements that change it up. Part of it is because we have Josh Herzer in it, and he’s the perfect choice because we have a lot of screaming in this one to give it some edge while still maintaining an upbeat, pop-punk vibe. What we’ve realized after writing that and putting so much effort into it that a lot of the stuff we were writing was sort of verging into that same direction. We’ve always tried to combine styles a little bit, but we’re definitely diving into that rabbit hole now, more than we originally did.
Colin: This track shows off what we’ve been working towards and it’s a new sound. It’s going to be something that people don’t really expect of us.
Adam: I wouldn’t even say that we’re just getting heavier. I also want to write something really poppy as well. We’re just peeking here and there.
Colin: We’re not trying to fit into one genre. We’re just writing music that we like and not worrying about if it fits our genre, because we don’t really care. We’re just going to do what we want to do. We classify ourselves as multi-genre punk rock. We’re not super pop-punk anymore. You might hear a poppy song, you might hear a song like “Any Reason To Party,” or you might hear an EDM song.
The song also features Josh Herzer of Lions Lions. How did that collaboration come about and what was it like working with him on the song?
Adam: Oh, this is a fun story.
Eric: So, I’m a professional photographer and I shoot a lot of model work. Josh knows a lot of people in the same community, and one day, he just followed me on Instagram. I was with Colin, and when I told him “Josh Herzer, the singer of Lions Lions, just added me on Instagram,” he was like, “Message him – see if we can get him on the track.” I messaged him, and Colin took over from that point forward. Josh was all about doing it. He laid it down for us, sent us the files, and was just so into it. Him and Colin have fostered a really good friendship and professional relationship afterwards. Josh was so into the idea that he literally came to the video shoot and spent the entire day with us. From a musical perspective, it was logical, because he does a lot of heavier music and we wanted that in the bridge. Also, it’s cool to have somebody from the local community involved in the first collaboration that we did. It was just kind of the perfect storm.
Colin: Eric and I even saw them at a really small show one time. We have all seen this band and grew up with them in our later high school and college years. These guys were just killing it in Boston and they were some of the people that we looked up to. Being able to work with him was really cool, and we’re all friends with him now.
You’ve said that with this song, you want to show a new side of your sound and that you’re not labeling or pigeonholing yourselves in one specific genre. What inspired you to go in a different direction with this particular song, and who/what influenced it?
Adam: We were into all of the emo, post-hardcore, and “scene” music from the early 2000s, so I think it was natural we would experiment with a little bit of post-hardcore.
Colin: When Adam brought it up, saying that it was fast and there were some screams, I was like, “Let’s do it!” When he brought in his riff, I knew it was going to be great. He really transcribed it out well, bringing in that bridge at the end too.
Adam: I think that the beginning of the song really reminds me of some early Silverstein. The drums and the pace of the guitar made me think that it sounded like a Silverstein song.
Eric: We all have very diverse influences. The song is verging a little bit into post-hardcore and it’s a little bit more punk than pop-punk. Then we throw in clean piano and a synth line. It’s taking all the influences that we have and making it into our own kind of vibe. Any people that have heard the song before said it’s different than anything we’ve ever done before and ask “what genre would you even call that?”
Colin: It’s a mix of a couple different things thrown into one. There’s pop-punk, there’s that guitar that’s super punk-y, there’s that post-harcore bridge, there’s harmonies… I got to do my Beach Boys harmony. That’s what Adam said in the studio.
What direction do you see yourselves going in with future releases? What can people expect from the music that’s coming up next?
Eric: Well, we have two or three songs right now that are raw, but raw enough where we can play through them and it’s just a matter of polishing them up. Every one of them has a different kind of vibe. We have a song that our bass player wrote, we have a song that Adam and I wrote together, we have a song that Adam and I wrote, and each one of them has a distinct difference in style. We’re past the point of thinking “we need to put a bunch of songs out,” and we’re at a point where we’re just like, “Let’s just see what we can do. Let’s just play around with stuff and experiment.” I know we want to try and put something together that has a real EDM vibe and a pop feel to it. I know we want to put something together that’s a little more emotional and heartfelt. Then we have another song that I think verges a little more onto the heavy side with intense vocals, trying to push Colin’s range a little bit and explore harmonies.
Colin: There’s one song that’s very pop-punk that we’re working on right now. When we say multi-genre, it’s not going to sound like traditional pop-punk. It’s not going to sound like post-hardcore. It’s just going to sound like a mixture of things and the songs are going to be different. You’ll know it’s us, though. You’ll know it’s us when you hear the songs.
Eric: Adam and I will just get together at my apartment, sit at my laptop, and write out a bunch of different backing lines to try and give them some flavor, and that usually ends up with us sitting here for four hours, him getting frustrated, and then him taking my laptop and shifting things, being like “No, no, no! It has to be like this.” I think we’ve gone from getting together as a whole group and just trying to shred things out to Adam and I trying to get together and do some raw songwriting so we can bring something to the table when we come to practice. That’s sort of the direction we’re moving in now – trying to be more specific in how we’re writing, trying to experiment with things and find different flavors to the style that wants to come out.
Adam: Eric used to be a music teacher as well. Every once in a while, I’ll get a minor music theory lesson from him while I’m trying to write, just to develop chord progressions that could be a bit more interesting. That first EP is a little bit more simple, and especially on guitar, I’m trying to branch out a little bit.
Colin: It all comes together. These guys bring great music to the table, and the band comes together and really does a good job composing as one group.
Earlier in 2021, Promise Game dropped their debut EP, “It Won’t Be Long Now,” and are following up that release with some more new material – a new single entitled “Any Reason To Party.”
The darker guitars and fast-paced, dynamic drums immediately bring a surge of energy to the track, and the shouted vocals (along with these instrumentals) showcase the band’s punk influences. The chorus offers up a very catchy hook, while the second verse brings back the shouted and screamed vocals heard earlier on, and adds in piano before that chorus comes back in. The bridge adds even more aggression to the track, incorporating screams from Lions Lions vocalist Joshua Herzer prior to the song’s huge outro.
In Conclusion…
“Any Reason To Party” shows Promise Game experimenting a bit with their punk-influenced sound and is a very enjoyable track from the band.
Dissonants Magazine 