Discipline understands the struggles of navigating the online world.
The prog-rock band weighs the permanency of having a digital footprint with the instant gratification of using new technology on “Breadcrumbs.”
“In my mind, the origin of it was also this notion that when we look at ourselves, we change during our lifetimes,” said Matthew Parmenter, Discipline’s frontman and multi-instrumentalist, about the title track from Breadcrumbs.
“And here we are in this age where so much of what we do is captured, and now, how do we each get to have that luxury that I had as a person growing up, which is to make mistakes and to learn a little from them and to change as we grow. How do we do that when everything we do or utter is recorded forever online?”
Discipline explores that thought as Parmenter sings, “Should we have known / Might we have chosen for ourselves / Now it’s the platform decides / What survives archives our lives.”
“I fear that it leads us to having to become like extreme versions of ourselves, because once you say it, you gotta live up to it,” said Parmenter, who’s based in Metro Detroit. “You can’t let it go. You can’t wake up the next day and say, ‘I probably shouldn’t have said that.’ It’s gone, it’s there. So these were some of the thoughts that generated that particular song.”
In addition to the title track, Parmenter and his Discipline bandmates—guitarist Chris Herin, bassist Mathew Kennedy, and drummer Henry Parmenter—shine on their latest album, Breadcrumbs.
Parmenter’s haunting vocals and philosophical lyrics, along with the band’s spellbinding instrumentation, take listeners on a contemplative journey across five tracks.
To learn more, I spoke with Parmenter about his background, the band, and the album.
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