“We are nerds! We love The Chronicles of Narnia� confesses Jeff Martin, voice and lyricist of This Day & Age. “The title of our new record comes from the book The Magician’s Nephew. The bell and the hammer in that book deal with pride and obsession and that theme was quite prominent lyrically in the record, so it made sense.�
For those who pine for the wistful, passionate yearnings of Brit-pop chart-toppers Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and Starsailor (and there are millions of you out there) along comes this Buffalo, New York based quintet with all the right melancholy stuff to compete in the ever burgeoning arena rock wars.
The Bell and The Hammer oozes classic rock with a pop-meets-progressive modernist twist. Martin, drummer / pianist Steven Padin, guitarist Michael Carroll, bassist Joey Secchiaroli and keyboardist Kelly Sciandra have whipped up a concise collection which is strong on melody and devoid of filler. Theatrical offerings such as "Always Straight Ahead," "Of Course We've All Seen the Sun" and the title track could fuel a potential TD&A commercial juggernaut.
“All the songs that we brought to the studio made it on to the record� recalls Martin. “At one point, during the writing process, we decided rather than trying to write the most amount of songs possible, we’d focus on what we had, which were our favorites anyway.� The result is an album that stands as a cohesive statement and a bunch of potential hit singles. “I would like to think that most of the songs stand on their own, but the way the songs were written, it does work better as a whole...but what can you do?�
A handful of Bell songs were road tested on treks across Japan and on a short east coast run in the spring. “We would just start off with a riff or melody that one of us would bring in to the band, then we’d throw all of our ideas in – it was truly a group effort.�
Bell also represents an artistic leap from their debut disc Always Leave The Ground. With new members Secchiaroli and Sciandra on board, TD&A followed their collective muse from start to finish. “My feeling is that we wrote this record for ourselves� opines Martin. “Rather than make this record for a particular scene, like myspace.com, or even for popularity in general, all our separate influences created something much more mature, more musical, and more unique.�
Co-producer Ed Rose (The Get Up Kids, Motion City Soundtrack) also emerged as an essential player. “He was awesome. Sometimes bands get used to the way their songs sound. Ed made us look at them from another point of view.� Veterans of The Warped Tour and junkets with The Spill Canvas, Hidden In Plain View, Mae, Lovedrug, and The Working Title, TD&A faced new challenges in the studio.
“There were many late nights and early mornings where we were able to work on the record alone. We wanted to be as involved as possible. It was difficult to step back and look at our own work, but we did our best to be objective.�
Tom Semioli
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http://www.thisdayandagemusic.com
http://www.111records.com
This Day & Age's album The Bell and the Hammer is out August 22, 2006 on One Eleven Records.
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