Who they?

Known in the early 90s as Reason To Believe, Sense Field are a five piece band - Jon Bunch (vocals), Chris Evenson (guitar), Rob Pfeiffer (drums), Rodney Sellars (guitar), John Stockberger (bass) - from California. Once they were arguably the biggest emo band in the world but that was before emo became a marketable commodity and bands like Jimmy Eat World made it boring. Since then a series of injustices and cases of bad luck have left them a bit behind, though an extremely loyal fanbase continues to stick by them.

Injustices, you say?

Well, it all started after their third album, Building, was released by Revelation and became very popular indeed; Warner Bros. realised that there might just be something in this emo lark and snapped them up. Sense Field recorded an album for the label, sat back and waited to hit the big time. Unfortunately for them by that time the emo revolution (which hit the States in the late 90s) had been and gone and Warner Bros. decided they had been wrong and dropped the band.

Wow, that’s not very good!

Wait! I haven’t finished yet! Not ones to be disheartened (after all they’d struggled along on the underground for years before all this happened) they decided to put the album out themselves. Cheerily, they asked Warner Bros. if they could have the master recording.

“Sure,” said Warner Bros. “but it’ll cost you”.

Unable to raise the funds to buy back their album or convince the label’s lawyers that there was no need for all this foolishness they signed a deal with Nettwerk America and re-recorded the whole thing.

So it all ended up alright in the end?

Sorry, I still haven’t finished my story. During the promotional tour for that album, Tonight And Forever, guitarist Rodney Sellars’ wife and daughter were involved in a car accident. His wife walked away unscathed but their daughter Leilani sustained sever spinal injuries and was paralysed from the chin down.

So this is where you reveal that he left the band and they split up, right?

Nope. Not ones to give up even when it appears they might be cursed, Sense Field will be releasing their fifth album, Living Outside, on the 22nd of July and Rodney Sellars is still playing with them, albeit in a greatly reduced capacity.*

IF recommends:

Building (Revelation, 1996 - Buy it at Amazon)
Tonight And Forever (Nettwerk America, 2001 - Buy it at Amazon)

Websites:

www.sensefield.com
www.ourleilani.com

*The band did actually split up shortly after completing the UK tour for Living Outside.