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The Gauntlet: A Change of Pace |
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Honestly, what do you remember about being 19 years old? Probably nothing. For the members of A Change Of Pace (a four piece rock band formed out in the bland cul-de-sac loops of suburban Peoria, Arizona) that time wasn?t exactly ages ago, In fact, for a few of the band?s members (vocalist and occasional guitarist Torry Jasper, drummer Jonathan Kelly, bassist Johnny Abdullah and lead guitarist Adam Rodgers) it was only a matter of months. But the memories they have from that time still seem to be reasonably summed up in one word. Nothing. Which is not to say the memories have faded.
Today, as they discuss their full-length debut, An Offer You Can?t Refuse, the band can hardly break from reliving some of their history?s lowlights. Like the time that a pre-facial hair Rodgers was nearly denied the right to perform with A Change Of Pace at a live show because he didn?t visibly look 18 years old. (Incidentally, he was still 17.) They can still laugh about the garage sales and car washes they held in order to record 2003?s Change Is The Only Constant, their first self-released EP. They can even recall (and, remarkably, engage) in the same senseless argument they had at their first band practice: a heated dispute over a video game.
But what A Change Of Pace really remembers about those formative years is the nothingness of their hometown; the empty days and even emptier holes in their lives that it seemed like only music could fill. ?I knew freshmen year that I didn?t want to do anything besides play in a band,? says now-20-year-old drummer Kelley. ?[Torry and I] started out playing five years ago and we knew we wanted to get out of Peoria the minute we graduated from high school. We just had to.?
Forming quickly over a shared love of early ?90s pop-punk, Jasper and Kelley set the foundation for A Change Of Pace and the music that, after some member shifting, would comprise The Only Change Is Constant. That first self-financed EP was a record they would work into the grown post-graduation, as they set out on tour with like-minded contemporaries such as Senses Fail; all the while they continued honing the leaner and more explosive group of songs that would soon catch national attention.
Discovered almost accidentally in 2004 by manager Jorge Hernandez (who was poking around the ubiquitous Purevolume site starting, coincidentally, at the letter ?A?), the band?s management quickly ushered a deal with Immortal, who then set them up with famed Incubus producer Elvis Baskette. Somewhere in between Jasper watched his life?s first love come crashing down around him and the lyrics on An Offer You Can?t Refuse, passionately and poetically, are furled by this particular (and painful) transition.
?That whole thing basically ripped my heart out of my chest and threw it all over the fucking ground,? Jasper says now with a nervous laugh. ?But I?ve learned a lot. This record was my defense. It was something I had to talk about.? With recording sessions to document it in both Phoenix and Baskette?s hometown of Las Vegas, Jasper still sounds shaken by the relationship to this day. But listen closely to An Offer You Can?t Refuse and there?s a sense of maturity to his emotional purging that suggests a necessary attempt at moving forward. ?Thing is, I was 17 when I wrote that record,? Jasper insists. ?I have a completely different perspective now.?
The commitment A Change Of Pace have to these songs can, at times, be alarming; the range that Jasper flexes on the album?s brooding ballad ?A Farewell To Friendship?, for instance, was almost lost completely when his vocal chords demanded an emergency tonsillectomy. ?It is scary when you think of it,? the 20-year-old singer shrugs. ?I was screaming every night. I was smoking. I was drinking. Me and Jack, you know, we have a love/hate relationship, and that kind of took its toll.? With his throat now healed, though, and the band?s profile rising, A Change Of Pace are already looking to the future.
?We want to be around for a long time,? Jasper says. ?We?re excited about what?s next.? For the moment, though, the edgy and emotionally dynamic songs on An Offer You Can?t Refuse suggest that they will do just that. ?Honestly, we all listened to Story Of The Year and Tacking Back Sunday, and we grew up going to their shows,? Kelley says fondly. ?But I hate having to be refined to one genre. We just want to be a rock band and play rock shows for a while. So that?s what we?re going to do.?
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