Yet another Post excerpt summing up my current mood (especially the last line). Hope everybody had a nice Christmas.
Following the success of Very Emergency, the Promise Ring was in a tricky situation with Jade Tree. The band wanted to do more with the sound of their records, the look of their records and overseas distribution, but Jade Tree could only offer them a certain amount. The label couldn’t offer numbers in the six-figures to sign a new act, let alone make a very polished-sounding record for an established act. If Jade Tree did throw that kind of money around and didn’t make a profit, the label wouldn’t be around anymore. The label was always a very small operation; even with the success of the Promise Ring and Lifetime, it was run out of a spare room in the house that Owen and Walters shared. With help from interns over the years, Owen and Walters were the only full-time employees on the label.
In 1999, Jade Tree expanded by hiring on two more full-timers and moved its operations into an office in downtown Newark. Still small in structure and funds to an extent, Jade Tree couldn’t afford to jeopardize everything they had worked so hard for. “[Jade Tree] became a grind,” Gnewikow told Mean Street. “They were friends of ours. It would be ridiculous and completely unrealistic to go up to them and say, ‘We really want to stay with you, but we need $150,000 to do our next record.’” The guys in the Promise Ring weighed their options about what to do next. “You can’t grow in a relationship that doesn’t change,” von Bohlen says. “[It’s] important to grow.”
Following the success of Very Emergency, the Promise Ring was in a tricky situation with Jade Tree. The band wanted to do more with the sound of their records, the look of their records and overseas distribution, but Jade Tree could only offer them a certain amount. The label couldn’t offer numbers in the six-figures to sign a new act, let alone make a very polished-sounding record for an established act. If Jade Tree did throw that kind of money around and didn’t make a profit, the label wouldn’t be around anymore. The label was always a very small operation; even with the success of the Promise Ring and Lifetime, it was run out of a spare room in the house that Owen and Walters shared. With help from interns over the years, Owen and Walters were the only full-time employees on the label.
In 1999, Jade Tree expanded by hiring on two more full-timers and moved its operations into an office in downtown Newark. Still small in structure and funds to an extent, Jade Tree couldn’t afford to jeopardize everything they had worked so hard for. “[Jade Tree] became a grind,” Gnewikow told Mean Street. “They were friends of ours. It would be ridiculous and completely unrealistic to go up to them and say, ‘We really want to stay with you, but we need $150,000 to do our next record.’” The guys in the Promise Ring weighed their options about what to do next. “You can’t grow in a relationship that doesn’t change,” von Bohlen says. “[It’s] important to grow.”
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