Alt-Rock Trio People I’ve Met Release Debut Single “Promise”
Rising alt-rock band People I’ve Met share their debut single “Promise” and its accompanying video via Interscope Records. Formerly known as DANCER, the New York City-based trio features vocalist/guitarist Moses Martin, drummer Orlando Wiltshire, and bassist Andrew Suster.
Produced by People I’ve Met and Noah Conrad (Chappell Roan), “Promise” is a prime introduction to the band’s potent mix of unfiltered feeling and elevated songcraft. The song, a moody but melody forward sound, brings both raw intensity and poetic elegance to its in-the-moment processing of a painful breakup.
“Promise” opens on an otherworldly synth line that blends beautifully with Martin’s hypnotically airy vocals. As the track unfolds, People I’ve Met channel a powerful sense of longing and regret, echoing that emotional turbulence with an endless push-and-pull between quiet rumination and unbridled energy (fueled in part by visceral live drums). After building to a lovely sprawl of spectral guitar tones, “Promise” ends with a gorgeously stark piano-led outro. “Sometimes I associate songs with colors, and to me this one felt like a sort of rainbow, so I wanted to capture that — the full spectrum of color and life,” says Martin.
As People I’ve Met reveal, “Promise” emerged through an unhurried process of sonic exploration. “I guess that goes to show that sometimes a song doesn’t have to come out straight away,” says Wiltshire. “Instead, it reflects what Moses was going through and follows the breakup in real time.”
The video for “Promise” begins in grainy black-and-white footage of New York at night before bursting into a riot of color at the chorus. As the camera follows the three longtime friends through the subway and the city streets, the brightly kinetic visual ultimately spotlights the effortless camaraderie at the heart of People I’ve Met.
The band, who supported Royel Otis on select U.S. summer tour dates and recently wrapped a series of shows at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right, is quickly establishing itself as a breakout presence in New York City’s alt-rock scene. Although “Promise” marks their first release, the band’s origins date back to Wiltshire and Suster’s middle-school days, when the two performed together in the school’s jazz band. During their high-school years, the duo began making music in Wiltshire’s garage and soon brought Martin into the fold. “We got to a point toward the end of high school where we all felt like there was something special and started taking it more seriously, especially when we got to college and started playing our first serious shows,” Suster recalls.
L-R: Andrew Suster, Moses Martin and Orlando Wiltshire