“There’s been a lot of really kind things said,” Jeremy concurs. “Many people have been saying this record helped them through the summer or this record helps them cope with bad times. Some have said some incredibly dark things to me like ‘I don’t know if I’d still be here without your band’...what do you say to things like that?” As we continue talking, he sounds genuinely distressed about the topic. “You feel like an asshole if you say ‘thank you’ because ‘thank you’ is not the response to something like that. I stop dead in my tracks and don’t really know what to say. We have a song called Uppers/ Downers which is sort of about the subject. I’m not a person to look up to by any means. I appreciate that they’ve found something to connect to because I think that’s the most important thing music can do. I think there’s tonnes of records throughout my life that have made me not feel so lost because someone else has felt that way too. So I’m flattered that we’re thought of as the kind of band that can have that kind of connection with people. But it’s still a startling thing to hear.” Jeremy has even asked advice from peers and friends, including Geoff Rickley who, as Jeremy acknowledges, has “definitely been there”. “People have so much invested in us now, so what happens if we put out a record they hate? Are they going to be ok? It adds a lot of pressure on you.” Jeremy admits he takes criticism “pretty harshly”, so worrying about the effect his band has on people is not all that surprising. “There’s always gonna be people who don’t like what you’re do. Overall the
response has been overwhelming and very positive and I’ve breathed a sigh of relief that it has turned out that way because that’s all you can ever ask for. Of course there are people who poke fun at the lyrics but they can say whatever they want. I got what I needed out of the record and I like what it offers me to get out every night we play.” Recorded in five days, all live except for vocals, by Ed Rose (The Appleseed Cast, The Casket Lottery, The Get Up Kids, and Coalesce), Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me encapsulates the soundtrack of 2011 for many who have heard it and in doing so will inevitably define, along with Thursday’s No Devoluciòn, a time of personal growth for the band and its growing legions of devoted followers.
“I am my own worst enemy,” Jeremy sighs with a resigned shrug of self
when I heard about them breaking up (announced in November 2011), I was seriously devastated and sad,” says Jeremy. “These things happen and we’re really honoured and privileged to have done anything with them and the thought that they might be passing the torch to us...well, that is the coolest thing in the entire world. All I ever wanted to do at the beginning was help their band out with a website.”
Though they may have had a useful leg up from a respected artist when it came to gaining all-important exposure, it’s hard to believe that Touché Amoré wouldn’t have eventually achieved attention on their own. Their second album Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me is an astonishing album, a furious projectile spout of bile steeped in personal pain and self-reflection, as if the five of their bodies are rejecting every awful thing they’ve ever experienced. Jeremy explains creating the record and playing the songs every night was quite a cathartic process. “The last record was a lot of me complaining about things that everybody
goes through and everybody feels, and not doing anything about it except yelling about it, hence the title
...To the Beat of a Dead Horse,” admits Jeremy. “Parting... is about me getting out all these different things and looking for that happiness at the end, or at least gaining some sort of forgiveness for the things that I’ve done. It’s not a religious album by any means! Rather I want forgiveness from people I’ve wronged, or just from wronging myself. Parting the Sea was figuring out what the problem was and trying to fix it.” It almost sounds like the process acted as a sort of therapy. From driving metaphors for tested, strained, relationships, on many songs, to admission about thinking of one’s funeral, Jeremy’s lyrics are strikingly honest, if a little too heavily introspective and even a little morbid at times, as demonstrated by the album’s lone piano ballad, Condolences. Generally, though the album is generally far more upbeat, at least musically. The songs are generally fast, vicious, exhilarating, and they tailgate each other for around 25 minutes, making Parting the Sea one of 2011’s shortest albums. With not a second wasted, the melodic, fierce, driving force propels the potent lyrical lines savagely into your heart like a well-aimed javelin. Harrowing and thrilling, Parting the Seas is pretty relentless, the strong personal and confessional nature of the songs naturally invoking extremely strong reactions from fans and detractors alike.
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awareness, “I’m very hard on myself and I’m a perfectionist. If I don’t write something that is exactly what it needs to be then I’m gonna throw it away and start over again. Most songs I will rewrite a bare minimum of four times! Of course, the added pressure of this being our second record, and our first for Deathwish Inc. (an independent record label co-owned by Jacob Bannon from metalcore band Converge), this made the record an extreme challenge. That’s good in a way because I worked myself as hard as I’ve ever worked and I’m really proud of what came out.” This 28-year-old Thursday “fanboy”, who screams his frustrations out for a living, is a good example of someone who perhaps didn’t expect all that much but worked hard anyway, eventually making something that has exceeded all expectations. As Jeremy says before he signs off: “If I’m given a microphone, and someone is giving their time to listen to our band, it needs to be as honest as possible because I wouldn’t want anything less from anyone else.” We agree. Why settle for less? PM
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