FILM - Permanence

“I hear rock stars sometimes say, ‘I just want to make a raw record,'” says Ken Vasoli. “And I just think to myself, ‘Well, why don’t you do that?’” And in 2021, when the world was deep into COVID lockdown, Ken received a fateful text that would lead to exactly that.

Joe Reinhart, best known as the guitarist of Algernon Cadwallader and Hop Along, had been jamming out some new ideas with drummer TJ DeBlois, who Joe played with back in the pre-Algernon days in the band Halfway to Holland. They needed a bassist and singer to round out their lineup, and they had the thought to reach out to Ken, who jumped at the chance. Ken, a self-described “In Utero and Pinkerton kid,” skyrocketed to fame as the singer of the pop punk band The Starting Line, but he always loved the dirtier, noisier, weirder side of punk and this new project gave him the chance to embrace that.

Everything came together pretty quickly and collaboratively. They took cues from gritty, aggressive-yet-melodic punk and post-hardcore bands like Drive Like Jehu, Mclusky, and Braid, and they made it a point to trust their instincts and not overthink anything. They tuned out any thoughts of what other people might think of the music and just reveled in the youthful, reckless abandon of punk rock at its purest and rawest.

They named their band FILM, and when it came to recording their debut album Permanence, they went with their first instincts, not overthinking anything and not worrying about any outside pressure. It led to a raw, unfussy album, and part of its rawness also comes from the fact that, technically, it was supposed to be a demo.

The original intention was to use these recordings as a reference when they returned to the studio to officially record the album, but before they were able to do so, TJ suddenly passed away in January of 2023 at the age of 38. After taking some time to regroup, Joe and Ken decided to release the recordings they’d already made in TJ’s honor, and TJ’s death impacted the direction of Ken’s lyrics, which were only about half-written before his passing.

“I think people need to hear this,” Joe says, “not because we did this amazing thing, but for TJ’s sake. This is the last thing he played on. He was such an important drummer to so many people, and he’s been one of my closest friends for twenty years.”

“I’m left with feeling that I missed out on so much with that guy,” Ken adds. “Joe and TJ had a long history together, and I was just sort of entering into that… I’m just forever grateful that he brought us together and was able to make this music, and also that he put such a phenomenal performance down on this record, and now everybody gets to hear it.”

“The thing I’m super looking forward to is being on a stage or a floor and playing these songs loud and going nuts,” Joe continues. “Once that happens, I don’t care what happens after that. That’s the next thing for me: play it loud, play it proud, play it for TJ. That is goal #1.”