There’s a rock music scene happening on New York’s Long Island. Witness the likes of Taking Back Sunday, Brand New and Glassjaw pulling for one another as they establishing a fanbase that stretches across the country. But before they could do it, it took Diffuser to lay the groundwork.
“When we did our first record a lot of bands wanted to see us fail,” Diffuser singer/guitarist Tom Costanza tells Billboard.com about releasing the band’s 2001 debut “Injury Loves Melody” via Hollywood. “There was a jealousy factor and we got a lot of negative vibes, ‘Oh you’re on a major…’ It was ludicrous.
“Everyone’s supporting each other now, though, it’s really amazing,” he says. “It’s really great to see.”
And it couldn’t happen at a better time. Diffuser released its sophomore album, “Making the Grade” over the summer and is gearing up for a year or more on the road. The band kicked off it’s touring regimen last week as the Nokia Unwired Tour got underway with fellow road warriors All-American Rejects, Hoobastank and Ozomatli.
Costanza can’t wait to play the new music and win over new fans along the way. “I’m really proud of it,” he says of the album.
It wasn’t easy though. A producer who works with up and coming bands in his own studio — “I’ve always been a producer. I just have a knack for it” — Costanza says he butted heads with producer Don Gilmore when making the first album and history began to repeat itself at the start of sessions for the second with Mark Trombino.
“We were clashing for the first five weeks,” Constanza explains. “Finally, he was like, ‘Look, dude. You’ve really got to back off.’ And was like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ And I did and that’s when things just started to happen.
“When I work with artists, I hate when they put in their two cents,” he says. “Because most of the time, they don’t have a vision, they don’t know what they’re doing and they come to me for a reason. I had to realize it [for myself]. And it worked so well. I want to work with Mark again and again, man. The guy is great.”
Also making things a little easier was the addition of new bassist Peter Schojan and drummer Dan Leo.
“It was a new energy,” Costanza explains. “We were together with the other guys [Lawrence Sullivan (bass), Billy Alemaghides (drums)], for so long and it was really forced. Even though we made good music together, it just didn’t feel right.
“Three months before we were to leave to record our next album, [Sullivan] called and said, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore. I don’t’ know if I really dig the music, blah blah blah.’ Then, like a month later, the drummer left.”
Costanza says he and guitarist Anthony Cangelosi recruited Schojan and Leo just weeks before recording commenced. “It’s a new Diffuser,” he proclaims. “And it feels great.
“We sat down and we got it all out in the open and we started right,” he says. “It’s like when you break up with a girlfriend, you learn a lot and with the next girl you go out with, you’ve learned from your mistakes and you just build on that. You do it a little bit better.”
Featuring the All-American Rejects, Hoobastank, Ozomatli and Diffuser, the Nokia Unwired Tour will be out on the road through the end of October. For details, visit the tour’s Web site.
