Words by Rachel June
Get ready to scrunch your face, bang your head, and lose yourself in the heavy metal sound of I Promised The World. Bursting with energy, power, and promise, their music hits hard and lingers. Deathly vocals slice through crashing drums and rumbling bass, leaving a chill in their wake.
Their lyrics are deep, meaningful, and bold, while the sound itself feels strikingly nostalgic. It channels the great emo music of the early 2000s, yet carries a sharp, modern edge. Hailing from Texas, the band are erupting onto the scene with an electrifying force - so get on board and dive deeper.
We spoke with the band ahead of their debut EP release today, 16th January 2026.
Who are I Promised The World?
I Promised The World is Hunter Wilson (vocals), Caleb Molina (guitar/vocals), Mason Nowlin (guitar), Rivers Shutt (bass guitar), and Mason Zschau (drums)
For someone that is yet to discover you, how would you describe your music?
For all fans of ‘emotional hardcore” or just emo music
What inspired you as artists?
Pushing ourselves as musicians and striving to be better is always our biggest inspiration, along with seeing people we love, friends, family and fans, resonate with our music.
What Is Your Pre-Show Routine?
We don’t have an exact routine I’d say but when we toured with Deafheaven we stole something they did before every show. We all put our hands together and say “Whatever happens, we love you”. Shout out to Deafheaven.
What is your song on repeat right now?
The Crowing by Coheed and Cambria (Caleb)
Must’ve Run All Day by Glassjaw (Hunter)
She’s A Battleaxe by Vanna (Mason N)
It’s Not Safe To Swim Today by Veil Of Maya (Rivers)
A Steady Decline by After The Burial (Mason Z)
SUCK! By maxon (Zain)
What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
Post hardcore, emo, hardcore, post-punk, new wave to a degree, r&b, jazz, old country, metalcore, just all good rock music. Not much we dislike but something we all agree on is modern pop music sucks.
Is there a story behind the band’s name?
We originally were ‘sinema’, which had been one of our friends who encouraged us to play our first show graffiti tag. IPTW had always been our username because it was almost the original name we went with, but we kept it because it was a Saosin lyric and thought it looked cool. So when we had to change the name I Promised The World was in our minds the best choice.
What would you say is your greatest strength and weakness?
I would say our biggest weakness would probably just be technical difficulties on stage, whether it be a faulty instrument cable or our strap mounts just falling out of our guitars while we’re playing, maybe also our immune systems because we’ve all gotten sick a number of times on the road in the last year. We would probably all say our greatest strength is our stage presence, we try to never treat any show like it’s any different size than any other show we’ve played. If it’s 50 people or 500 we try to play the same way.
What challenges have you faced in the industry?
We would probably say that we’ve been lucky enough to really encounter many (if any) challenges in the industry per se, everything has been pretty smooth and we’ve been lucky enough to have nothing but support from friends and family. We get to share success with our friends in other bands which we’re all very grateful for.
10. What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
We would say start as soon as possible. We’ve written and recorded songs we’re not exactly proud of, but without those songs I doubt we would have the same sound. It’s the same idea as you’re never gonna be great at something right off the bat, it takes time, practice, and experience. I heard somebody say in an interview once “To make something work creatively you need to have an almost arrogant level of confidence and crushing self doubt” and I think that has rang true for each of us through most if not all of our releases.
11. Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?
Working with Beau Burchell would be really cool, maybe Kurt Ballou would be cool too although I’m not sure how it would turn out with the gap in our sounds and influences, also Hayley Williams.
12. What artists have inspired your sound?
Saosin, Hopesfall, Misery Signals, Hum, Mineral, Underoath, Beloved, and Alexisonfire I’d say are our biggest influences.
13. A fun fact about the band?
Mason Nowlin works on a farm
14. What is your creative process when making music?
Most of the time somebody will have an idea and we will fill in our respective roles, sometimes one of us will come to practice with a more fully fleshed out idea. Some of our favorite songs we’ve written were more or less just a mash of parts we had come up with separately that had happened to be in the same key.
15. What can we expect in 2026?
We recently parted ways with our bassist Aidan so he can finish school, we wish him nothing but the best. With that being said, we’re looking forward to touring with our new bassist and good friend Rivers and getting our good friend Zain from Empty Shell Casing on tour with us to play synth. Other than that, we have some big tours with friends planned, some fests, some good shows at home and recording our next album.