When Pomegranates drummer Jacob Merritt describes the band’s mindset during the writing of One of Us (the Cincinnati band’s third and perhaps best album) as “patient,” it seems like an odd state for the popular quartet. Patience has not been a particular concern for the Pomegranates since they assembled a mere four years ago.
After all, this is the band that wrote its first song at its first practice, self-released a debut EP six months later and signed with Lujo Records two weeks after that. With the band’s debut full-length, 2008’s Everything Is Alive, and its follow-up, 2009’s acclaimed Everybody, Come Outside!, both reflecting the members’ collective love of Talking Heads and Brian Eno (and shades of Sparklehorse, The French Kicks and the Zombies), the Poms weren’t waiting for songs to happen.
But with One of Us, the band’s debut for Afternoon Records, the band members were clearly ready to let their material brew a little bit longer.
“It seemed like we were willing to take an idea and let it develop over the course of an entire song, as opposed to jamming a bunch of ideas into the same song,” Merritt says from his Northside home. “We still do that to some degree, of course, but we’re a little more patient and let things unfold a little bit longer in a song.”
The Pomegranates celebrate the release of One of Us with a Nov. 24 show at the Southgate House, playing with Pop Empire.
Read Brian Baker's full interview with Jacob Merritt here and get show and club details.
