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Once upon a time, Ryan Hamilton and Jencey Hirunrusme met and fell in love. They wrote some tunes, formed a band with a sunny name -- Smile Smile -- and moved in together. They made plans to get married. Then things fell apart -- in dramatic fashion. The Dallas couple called off their engagement, and Hirunrusme moved out, placing the band's future in jeopardy.
Hamilton, reeling from the breakup, began writing and recording alone in the house they once shared. He e-mailed these songs to Hirunrusme, who, incredibly, didn't flinch at the raw emotions on display.
"It's weird because Ryan would be e-mailing me these songs, and they were about me, but they were how we'd always written -- the whole process was looking at it objectively," Hirunrusme says now. "I don't think these songs ever hurt my feelings or made me realize what was going on until we actually performed them and I'd see people's faces in the audience, freaking out."
In an effort to salvage Smile Smile, the duo brokered a truce of sorts. Eventually, they built upon Hamilton's demos and created the mesmerizing Truth on Tape, a breakup album in every sense of the word.
Eleven songs of exposed nerves, Truth on Tape's folk-pop-rock compositions, produced by David Castell, are deceptive, masking sadness with sweetness. Nearly everywhere you turn, ugliness awaits: "You can't escape when the truth is put on tape," Hamilton sings on the title track.
"To be very honest, since it's all out there anyway now, I don't know how we got through it," Hamilton says.
While tension remains -- Hamilton and Hirunrusme keep things cordial, but there are flashes of frustration throughout our conversation -- Smile Smile has persevered, for better or worse.
Truth on Tape arrived in stores Tuesday, and the band celebrates its release with a show Saturday at Dallas' Double Wide.
At Smile Smile's live shows, the anguish and uncertainty play out in real time across Hamilton's and Hirunrusme's faces.
"For some people, when they go through a really hard breakup, they don't want to see or talk to that person ever again, and if they do, it upsets them on some level," Hamilton says. "Singing some of these songs is the same kind of thing. It's like running into an ex you don't want to see."
But from the wreckage of their relationship, something resembling catharsis has emerged.
"I hope [ Truth on Tape] takes people through what we went through," Hamilton says. "I want it to feel like the manic depression of a breakup. I'm sure there will be some backlash, but it's all out there for sure."
