After touring relentlessly with his previous band The Conversation, singer Jared Putnam decided to take a break from music, but it wasn’t long before that he began to feel that familiar need for the stage. “All of that time on tour wrecked my personal life,” Putnam explains. “It was coming out in the worst way when I would perform, but it only took a couple of years before the void from not playing was just too big to ignore.”
Recruiting bandmembers from The Conversation, that being Jorge Ramirez on bass and Mike Hernandez on drums, Putnam set about the task of writing what would wind up being the base tracks for the debut album from The March Divide. He also enlisted the help of Laura Wheeler, who rounded out the band on cello and vocals. Taking on the production duties himself, Putnam eventually settled on an acoustic-based record, with drums on just half of the songs. This stripped down approach suited him and the band just fine, and you can hear some of his influences, such as Elliott Smith and Cursive, slip through your speakers. About their latest single, the Wheeler sung “Pick Me Up,” Putnam says, “it portrays that feeling you can’t get passed when all you can say is, ‘What the fuck just happened!?”” Smearing glossy pop theatrics across Wheeler’s emotional vocals and twisting them together with brightly chiming guitars, the band delivers a slice of sugary rock that manages to get stuck in your head and has you singing the chorus hours after you’ve heard it.
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere “Pick Me Up,” the latest track from The March Divide’s upcoming debut Music For Film.
