Just off of a tour supporting Jimmy Eat World, The Promise Ring is currently on tour promoting their new and exceptional album, "Wood/Water." I was able to interview drummer Dan Didier about the new album, tour stories and making the album.

Question: How does the new album compare to past albums?

Dan: Better.I think there was a lot more thought that went into this album. We had a lot of time with the record. A lot went into it. More thought out, more planned.

Question: Why Anti for the label?

Dan: Brett asked us to be on Epitaph. But there was no way we were going to that label. Coming from Jade Tree that already has an identity to it. We certainly weren't going to go to another label that has an even stronger identity to it. But I really liked what Anti was doing with their artists. They are putting out any music by any artist and letting the artist do what they like. That's what totally appealed to us.

Question: What was it like living in England while you did the album?

Dan: It was very serene, very quiet and calm. We were living in a studio in the middle of nowhere. It was very cool. We went into London on the weekends. We met some friends. We did do things, but a lot of attention was on the records.

Question: How did the tour come about?

Dan: Jimmy Eat World asked us. They are friends of ours. We've toured with them before with us headlining.

Question: Who came up with the graphics for the album booklet?

Dan: Jason does all of our graphic design.

Question: What do you like to do on off time?

Dan: Well for this tour, every off day, we picked up a show around where the next date is. So we really don't have any off days, but we generally go to see movies, shopping, not think about music.

Question: Share a road story?

Dan: When we were in Europe, our bus driver at the France/Swiss border got busted for possession of marijuana. That was a horrible ordeal. I woke up to a dog sniffing in my bunk. But then our bus driver tried to blame it on us. But the border guards weren't buying it because it was in a back bunk that was locked and he was the only one who had a key. Then the bus didn't start after that, so then we had to PUSH the bus. Stupidly enough it worked.

Question: What are you listening to right now?

Dan: I like the Superfurry Animals, The Doves, I just got the new Deathcab For Cutie, Beth Orton, The Flaming Lips, the new everything. I'm still listening to the Bjork record.

Question: Tour plans?

Dan: We are going to do the Plea for Peace tour starting the end of September. Then in October we are going to do a tour with Tahiti 80.

Question: How did David's tumor change the band?

Dan: It gave us a lot of time to just think about friends and family and not music. It made us think more about what made us happy and what we wanted to do with out lives. There wasn't a direct effect.It gave us a ton of time to put the band aside and think about what we wanted to do. It was a pretty shitty time, but its better now.