Premiere: The March Divide Ready Bribing Jace EP

When I pressed play on this track the first time, I immediately thought of Jets to Brazil, but, when I caught up with The March Divide singer Jared Putnam, it was clear I was a little off base. The band releases the Bribing Jace EP on November 4th, so I threw a few questions at Jared to see what he had to say about the release and the new single.

ATH: What were your influences when writing this new EP? Any bands in particular you were listening to at the time?

Jared: In a lot of ways, I wanted these songs to be experiments in pop. I wanted to mesh together what I think are the things that attract so many people to the genre: hooks, good writing, & ear candy. I’m not even sure if it comes through, but I used Tom Petty, 90’s alt/pop, & Radiohead as my primary references. I was trying to get out of my comfort zone, it was a completely different approach, for me.

ATH: There seems to be a slight bit of indecision on “I Might.” How did the song come about, and was a finite decision ever made?

Jared: I Might was the first song I wrote for the EP, & it actually set the tone for the direction I wanted to go. When I initially came up with the guitar part, I thought I was just writing another folk song. I spent a lot of time trying to write the rest of it; chorus, bridge, etc., etc., but nothing really felt right. For whatever reason, it reminded me a lot of 90’s pop, specifically that Susan Vega song “Tom’s Diner” & Primitive Radio Gods “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand”. I decided to run with that approach, I looped the guitar part & started adding layers. It was a lot of fun to make.

ATH: For fun….two truths and a lie…don’t specify which.

Jared:1. Neil Young is my biggest song writing influence 2. I don’t care what anyone says, the minivan was the single greatest development in automotive history. 3. I find C.C. Deville’s (from Poison) guitar solo’s very emotional. They really tug on my heartstrings.

Pre-Order the EP HERE.