Best Rock Songwriter • Cody Montney & Promitto Lux

When the guys from Promitto Lux showed up at the Review Music Awards, they really didn’t know what to expect.  They knew Cody Montney had been nominated for Best Rock Songwriter but weren’t that familiar with the process or the Awards Show.  If anything, it seemed like it might be a good place to network and get the word out about their upcoming EP.

But, as Cody puts, sometimes miracles happen.  In this case he walked off with a winner’s trophy ahead of many other established and respected names.

Promitto Lux started as the brainchild of drummer Roger Bateson and guitarist Darren Seder.  The name means “promised light” and was settled on after a brief concern that all the cool Latin band names had been taken. Montney joined the band as a vocalist around 4 years ago, with bassist Devin Smith coming in slightly after this.

When I sat down with Montney, the first point he wanted to make was that he and his bandmates are approaching this as a group award.  Their songwriting process is very collaborative, as it usually begins with one member bringing in a riff or a groove, with each adding a part before Montney superimposes an existing lyric over it.  As he put it, “I wouldn’t or couldn’t do any of this without my bandmates.”

When asked to describe their music’s genre, Montney was succinct:  “I don’t know what we are.  We just try to make it easy.  Labels are stupid.”

Well, since I don’t mind being the stupid one, I’ll give it a rip and call the band Progressive Alternative Rock. Across their original demo recording “Midwestern Stoicism” and their new EP “Welcome To Hell,” you hear a mix of hard but melodic melodies with slick math rock inspired licks thrown in for interesting effect, as opposed to a simple stunt.  Montney’s voice, however, reminds me of some of the pioneers of alternative pop rock like Ben Folds.

The songs feature a variety of drop and open guitar tunings, adding an air of complexity to accessible arrangements.  The topics covered in the songs are largely the exact kinds of struggles you would assume a bunch of twenty something rockers trying to get a foothold in the world would sing about.   

Even with the blueprint they have established, Montney hopes they become even more innovative and collaborative.  “We have our own recording studio, so we have a place to experiment.  On some of the new songs I have played guitar and Darren has switched to keyboards.  I’ve mainly just sung up until now, but I’d like to think I could be a second guitarist when we need it.  When we have Darren on keyboards it diversifies the sound.  When we have time, Darren and I are always working on new arrangements.”

He also looked inward, towards his own process for coming up with lyrics.  “I’d like to move away from writing poems to really writing songs.  Verses have always come easy for me, but I’d like to get better at writing a chorus.  I’d like to try other song structures.”

Now that Welcome to Hell is out, the band would like to focus on this next creative phase. Explained Montney, “The timeline will be as long as it takes.  We don’t have a deadline.”

The band has also evolved as a live act.  They have been playing shows at local bars but also finding alternative venues on multi-band bills or private shows.   Like many people who purvey original music in this area, Montney is resigned to the ceiling of a live act of their ilk.

“It’s hard to please the Bay City Scene.  This is one of the reasons I was so surprised to win an award.  There are so many established people here on the scene and in the awards process.”

Well, with this win Promitto Lux begins to establish their own legacy as they follow the light of their own promise.