Stay True

Author: DC

Date: April 2011

Word count: 1,148

One of the great challenges for individual human beings is growing up. There is no established roadmap for how to develop as a person, and so we’re left scrabbling around for guidance on how to manage it. Typically, it seems that we try to find clues in two ways: by comparing ourselves with other people or by comparing our perceptions of ourselves now with how we felt about ourselves days or months or years before.

The first approach is always challenging for the simple reason that it’s very difficult to actually truly know and understand another person to the extent that you can use their beliefs and actions as an example. The result of this is that we tend to mythologize people that we admire, creating exaggerated standards of behaviour and character that we can never hope to achieve, or we over-stress the character flaws of anyone who appears merely to be a normal person, destroying their value as a role model.

The second approach is even more tricky, as it seems almost impossible for someone to form a genuinely balanced and ‘correct’ perception of what they themselves are like, and whether on balance they have redeeming qualities or not. Do you know anyone who you would say has managed this, without erring towards either unwarranted self-admiration or overly harsh self-criticism? We all tend to have warped views of ourselves, and we all struggle to work out what about our characters we want to hang onto and what we would prefer to throw away or change.

As a result of this uncertainty and lack of clear perspective, people often make two mistakes when it comes to self development. We either plunge ourselves into periodic programmes of total personal reinvention, remodelling ourselves to such an extent that we risk throwing out or deleting the parts of ourselves that may make us better people. Alternatively, we can end up stuck in a rut of recreation, trying to copy someone else or to recapture that lightning in a bottle moment when we thought that we were at our best, or when others have told us that we were. The bottom line is that growth is just difficult. Successful evolution is hard.

As difficult as it is for individuals, it is even harder for bands. After all, bands are collectives of people who are all struggling to grow and develop in terms of personality and taste and desire as individuals – and then on top of that they are being asked to synchronise that growth with that of two, three, four, five other people. It’s like trying to coordinate the most complex of Cirque Du Soleil routines, but with the added pressures of a lifestyle that gives none of the individuals any free time or alone time to think and reflect.

This personal challenge is reflected in the way that bands approach the act of creation. When they are trying to write and record a new album, bands are trying to balance a desire to maintain what was unique or exciting about them in the past, and that in some cases made them successful, with a craving for growth and evolution. As Dan Campbell, singer of the Wonder Years, has said to AbsolutePunk this week when talking about their new record “I remember how shitty it was when your favourite pop punk band went from putting out a record you loved to putting out a weird jazz fusion record. I also remember how shitty it was when your favourite pop punk band released the same record twice in a row”.

The honest answer may be that, unless you are Charlie Sheen, there is no such thing as an absolute win when it comes to growth. You may not be able to recapture who you were or what you created before without risking creating a sense of diminishing returns. And you may not be able to move forward without accepting that the cost of growth may be that you disappoint the friends or audience members or even bandmates who liked you the way you were before, or that you become an acquired taste rather than the best friend of everyone in the bar. We have all seen bands struggle to come to terms with this. How many times, for example, have bands released great early albums and then over the rest of their careers flip-flopped between releasing records that they claim represent ‘artistic growth and challenge’, and others that are ‘a return to what we do best’?

One of the rarest things in music, as in life, is a person or a band that manages to chart a steady evolutionary course, free from grating stylistic lurches or obvious artistic compromise. A band to cherish, who seem to be navigating that course in the most graceful way possible, is Thursday, the second-wave emo pioneers from New Jersey. This week they release their new record No Devolucion. Make no mistake, this record will almost certainly sell fewer copies than any of its scene-defining predecessors. It may well reduce Thursday’s draw as a touring proposition. In spite of or perhaps because of a willingness to embrace that, however, what it may lack in commercial impact it makes up for in integrity and as a statement about growth it is almost flawless.

There is a core to the record that is undeniably and recognisably Thursday, from the guitar tone to the dynamics of the songs to Geoff Rickley’s vocals to the sly nod to much-loved old song Five Stories Falling during new number Sparks Against The Sun. Around that core, however, the band have pushed the boundaries of their art, blending in Explosions In The Sky soundscapes and the windswept dynamics of Envy and the sad sweetness of The Cure. They have moved forwards while not forgetting the greatness that they had to start with. For an undeniable statement of this, listen to the driving, majestic Turnpike Divides, with its frayed screamo heart and graceful melodic carapace.

Indeed, in making No Devolucion, Thursday as a band and Geoff Rickley as a lyricist may also have helped sketch part of the roadmap to growth we’ve been lacking all along. In the epic song Stay True that closes the album, Rickley has proposed a reference for the rest of us. Written primarily for his friends in new band Touche Amore, this advice, first sung in a hushed voice and then proclaimed more stridently, is a simple but wonderful and real guide to growing up:

“Disregard those clapping hands,

They turn to punches when you’re down.

Disregard the critics’ praise,

They’ll be the first to tell the news that you sold your soul.

Disregard those dollar sings,

They’ll buy the biggest house in hell where you’ll live alone.

Just keep your head down,

Just keep your friends close,

Hold fast to your beliefs,

Whatever else you do.

Stay true.

Stay true.

Believe me when I say, it’s the hardest thing to do.”