Heading out on your first European tour as a band, promoting your upcoming album, is a great experience (I can only imagine) – getting to play in front of new fans, exposing more people to your music, making new friends, traveling from country to country, sightseeing, etc… Sometimes, however, things don’t always work out as planned. Case in point: True North, an energetic, inventive four-piece from Gainesville featuring members of Palatka, Assholeparade, Strikeforce Diablo, and Twelve Hour Turn, whose jaunt featured some unexpected – and not always pleasant – surprises. Bassist Dave Diem, vocalists/guitarists Matt Sweeting and Ryan Murphy, and drummer Mark Rodriguez perhaps should’ve known they were in for some “interesting” occurrences even before they left for Europe. Yes, the day prior to departing, the guys were robbed. Their cars had been broken into while they were in Miami picking up the inserts to their new ‘Somewhat Similar’ LP (No Idea Records) that was to be released April 20th (while they’d still be in Europe). Whilst walking to the record store for the inserts, some person(s) stole something like 200 CDs, records, and t-shirts. At least Matt and Ryan can joke about it, claiming that “a week-and-a-half earlier” than the official street date the new album was “released to the homeless population of Miami.”

That’s what’s cool about these guys: they make light of unfortunate situations and are resilient. When I mentioned that I had heard some “bad” things happened over in Europe, Ryan quickly refuted my statement, proclaiming, “I think pretty much it was 95 percent the most amazing time ever and then five percent some really, really shitty things that should never happen to anyone. But,” he continues, “people tend to hear the five percent more than they do the 95 percent.” And, moreover, many times what people hear – i.e. the rumored stories – are just that, unsubstantiated gossip. Matt quips that he’d like to perhaps one day have he and his bandmates document everything that happened while on tour so people could know the true story, in turn expelling all the false accounts and just say, as Matt explains, “Here’s what really happened.” He just goes on to say, however, that the events that took place were so weird and surreal that he wishes other people actually witnessed them too, because to him, they don’t even seem that they occurred, being that they’re so strange.

The example that sticks out is that Dave got hurt in Switzerland, injuring his leg so badly it necessitated surgery. When I ask what happened, I’m greeted by laughter from my two subjects, Matt and Ryan, as they relate one of the rumors they heard: “He was attacked by wild beasts. He was saving a damsel in distress and he was mauled by boars.” Now here’s where the crazy, inconceivable part comes in. According to Matt, they had to “convince the Swiss hospital” where Dave was staying that they hadn’t any money to pay for his bill and the hospital was not about to let poor Dave go without payment. They wanted their friend back, but he was a hostage! “[It] took a couple days to work out a trade,” he says, but they did manage to get their bassist back so it’s all good…

Still, like the guys said previously, the tour was mostly comprised of good things, like how their faith in the underground community was reaffirmed. Random people brought them food and clothes, CDs, whatever, and helped them out during sticky situations. “Every time something crazy happened, like every time some kind of boulder would fall on us or like the earth would crack open or something, there was seriously somebody there we never met before [who] would just really come to our rescue,” Matt relates. “We would’ve been totally doomed in some of these situations without these people that went way out of their way.” Ryan hammers the point home contrasting the helpfulness of people in the scene with those “normal” people living in the “real world” – the police officers, hospital workers, “lame mechanics”, and the person from the U.S. Embassy who told the band they’d have to be ready to leave Dave in Switzerland, stranded. As he says, “It just made it that much more apparent how wonderful and nurturing and amazing some of the people we met were.”

But, alas, as a result of all that happened in Europe, most notably Dave’s injury, True North have had to put their touring plans on the backburner for the time being. The guys say that he’s doing better, but as of the time of our conversation the poor man was still “gimping” and had an unsightly Frankenstein-like scar. And this scenario is unfortunate to say the least, as now is the time they’d really want to be touring since the record just came out in April. Ryan and Matt do, however, sound rather confident when declaring they’ll be hitting the road at the end of the summer and into the fall. In the meantime, check out their record if you haven’t already, for some intense and creative hardcore, uh, I mean punk, umm…whatever the hell it is!

Not even the band can describe their chaotic and urgent noise effectively. “[Our music’s] kinda strange in the sense that it doesn’t really sound like anything to me – not that it’s creating some new genre – but it just doesn’t sound like stuff,” declares Matt. Ryan corroborates: “It’s very strange when the four of us get in the same room and start writing stuff.” When their friends watch them live, they can’t help but ask, “How the fuck do you guys write songs?…How do you do that?,” he goes on to say. “Not that it’s like technically advanced or anything new going on,” he modestly explains, “I don’t know. We just go out there and do our thing.” Matt attributes the innate “nervousness” and immediacy in their sound I point out by saying that when they write, “it’s four people with six or seven things coming together all at once. [We’re] in this kind of circle, but all the things are moving around within that circle so it’s really hard to pin down. So, it does have this tension to it all the time,” he reasons. “It’s hard to say is it punk rock or is it hardcore. I don’t know; it just IS. Some shit is fast, some stuff’s slow, some stuff’s totally in your face, but some stuff isn’t. It’s just music.” And all these elements are usually crammed into one composition, making ‘Somewhat Similar’ an extremely fun and surprising listen, as (at least during your first listen) you don’t know exactly what the guys are going to throw at you next. Sometimes these are the best records because they’re so exciting.

Matt and Ryan do feel that this latest record differs from past releases. Matt believes that in sort of a continuation of their previous record, ‘Somewhat Similar’ is a result of much musical experimentation and is adventurous, whereas the first record “was just that initial surge of energy.” Since then, the guys have gotten “more comfortable with each other” and with trying out new things. Ryan feels it’s unlike True North’s other records because each member contributed equally in writing the music, lyrics, and in making decisions for the album’s artwork. “It felt like an accomplishment,” he attests.

While in the studio recording the material that would become ‘Somewhat Similar’, they didn’t even plan to create an album. Rather, the songs were going to be released as singles and whatnot. “It was supposed to get broken up, and then we just started recording and kept recording and recording and it was like, ‘Well, you know, this actually just kinda feels like a record,’” recalls Matt. Good decision on their part – as they’ve put together a refreshing eight-song album. (I won’t get into the details, as there’s a review up on this very site…) Furthermore, they recorded some other compositions during those sessions that will be released as a split LP with Reactionary Three, an album that initially was supposed to be a 7” but because there’s so much material, they needed to expand the format. Ryan says the project is a benefit/tribute for Wayward Council, a record store by where they live, which each of the bandmates were a part of at one time or other. So happily, despite some setbacks, there’s much to look forward to from these guys.