Into the Depths: Partridge & the SK Punk Scene

 By  Angela Tuoni

  “We’re uh, different,” Dylan Partridge says about his band, To The Depths. The junior considers his band to be misfits from the popular music scene here at  South Kingstown.

  “We’re not exactly what people around here want to listen to,” says the SKHS junior.

  To The Depths formed last April, when Partridge, Dylan Alexander, Cam Mancini, and Steven Johnson met and made the decision to form a band. Not long after, Partridge’s older brother Nick decided to join   the band.

  The band’s guitarist Alexander, and drummer Partridge, are the only two members currently attending the high school.

  According to Partridge, all the members of the band bring a different sort of style to the table and that the band is influenced by music from the old punk movement of the 1980s. Partridge adds that jazz plays a role in his drumming style.

  After weeks of practicing, vocalist Mancini told his band mates he had a friend who could do some recording work for them and in mid-August, To The Depths recorded the first demo.

“Long story short,” says Partridge, “that went really well.”

The band also booked a show for September 11 at The Blue Building in Smithfield. Since that show they have played at AS220 in Providence on October 5 opening for a similar hardcore band, Tracks.

  Tracks helped To The Depths book two more shows in late October at the Blue Building, and London Billiards/Club Oasis in Worcester.

  Partridge and his band mates played with other southern New England hardcore bands, such as Ruins, The Down and Outs and Pitfall.

According to Partridge, another Rhode Island hardcore band, is the main influence for To The Depths. For years, Verse, who broke up in May, played a lead role in  the Rhode Island hardcore scene. Their breakup gave Partridge and his friends the push they needed to start up a band and “bring it all back.”

  Part of the reason the band looks up to Verse so much is their decision to be Straight Edge. “Edge” means refraining from drugs, alcohol and promiscuity.

  The Straight Edge lifestyle is very important to the members of To The Depths.

  “To me, it means being able to live without a crutch, but it can mean different things to different people,” says Partridge.

  The Straight Edge lifestyle started in the 1980s and over time has become a movement.

  Most of Partridge’s band’s lyrics focus on the choices to remain straight edge, as well as other things.

The song “Prefabricated” brings up the very structured gender roles in our world, while “Caged” was written about living in the “cages” of big corporations, and not being able to get out.

“Anger is definitely a drive in our lyrics,  “says partridge.” We’re trying to open people’s eyes, to scare them back into reality.”