The Promise Ring - Dan

First off, how are you doing, and how is the band doing in general?rn

DAN: Oh things are going well. We are pretty tired. We spent the last few days going over the major last things for rehearsal, and the next time we will be together will be on stage in a couple weeks. We're feeling good, though the nervousness is starting to creep up. I think we'll be fine. It'll be fun. There is a lot of nervousness right now though, and it'll just amp up until we're on stage playing. I can't wait for that point. The setup, the heavy lifting, re-learning all the songs, all that is the least fun part. Once we're playing, all that will go away, and we'll go back to having fun.

rnrn
Did practicing feel as natural as it did when you started the band?rn

Yeah, we did that one thing in '05, and we survived that. This is more intense though because we have more songs to play. As more time passes, you become a completely different player. I've been doing a lot of learning over this time between then and now. A lot of the decisions I made back then would never have been made now. That's tricky. I want to keep it as true to recording as possible though. That's been the only real challenge. I've been playing with MARITIME since the breakup, and it's not like I had to completely re-learn to play drums, but I had to re-learn those specific songs and that specific style.

rnrn
You have that rarities compilation that you've been working on. Are you planning on playing that stuff live, and did more have to go into learning those songs since you didn't really tour on them?rn

We're going to do more shows and get a little closer to the release date before playing those. We'll start playing some of them probably once that gets closer. I know for sure we'll play one. We'll be prepping some of those new old songs as it gets closer.

rnrn
How is the compilation coming along?rn

For me, we want to wait for these shows to happen before really worrying about it. We have that show in a couple weeks, then we have May 9th in New York and that Bamboozle festival. Between February and May, we have some time, and I think we'll work on the compilation for the rarities then. A lot of times you find that you don't have the files for the songs. I've had a couple hard drive crashes over the years. A lot of the songs that I think we could do, I don't know if we actually have a finished version. We might have to take a mix that's from a demo version and call that it. I don't know. We'll sort that all out. Right now it's just getting these shows set and done.

rnrn
You have a Twitter page, and recently you asked for people to send in requests for your set list. What is the set list looking like now?rn

We're actually doing a mix of everything. We're taking from all four records. I don't know the specific numbers, but we have 3-4 per album I'd say. Sometimes more. It'd have to be way more *laugh*. We're doing 25-26 songs for our set. It's pretty even across all records. We're basically taking the list from the Twitter feed and our own personal list and saw what matched up. If there was any specific one from the fans that we didn't think of, we considered adding it to the list. What was feasible versus what could we actually do? Some of the songs.... We just can't do it and recreate those songs in the live setting.

rnrn
It's nice to have that instant feedback on Twitter to help with that, isn't it?rn

It's pretty great. It's amazing. I love it. I love that instant feedback. It's totally a different world from when we were together to now. Like 10 years now? It's a totally different universe. It's pretty cool.

rnrn
How did the weekend of NYC / Bamboozle come together?rn

The task is that we get offers, those get filtered through to us, and if we play near a market where we do really well in, we go there as well. Bamboozle offered, we said definitely, then we decided to do New York since it's right there. It was pretty easy in that regard. The New York show is already sold out so I'd say the response has been great. I'm really psyched. I can't wait.

rnrn
Are you excited about seeing any particular bands at Bamboozle?rn

The one specific one that I'm excited about, and not even just to see play but just to see them in general, is JIMMY EAT WORLD. We have a really good relationship with them that continued beyond The Promise Ring. They brought MARTIME on a tour. Every time they come through, they'd come hang out. I just want to see those guys again. We started touring around the same time.... The Promise Ring took them on tour. We have known each other for a long time.

rnrn
A lot of bands have reunited lately. Are there any in particular you are excited about?rn

Oh man, I don't know. Ahhhh... There isn't really a specific one I'm super excited about. It's not like the music I listen to now is the exact same as the stuff I listened to 20 years ago. I'm psyched whenever I see some friends doing stuff again, and I'll definitely be glad for them. The only band that I wouldn't mind seeing again would be the REFUSED. The Promise Ring played with them in Sweden, and it was pretty great. They are a really great live band. Definitely would like to see them again. If I wanted to see a great, entertaining band again, it would be the REFUSED.