musical mondaze

Even though it’s a throwback without a purposeful throw, you don’t need to be riding the wave of 90s nostalgia to enjoy “The Lower Side of Uptown,” the latest album from the Toadies. Finding mainstream success amid the golden age of alternative rock, the Texas-quartet exploded onto the scene in 1994 with the hit album “Rubberneck,” and although the band dispersed in 2001, they reunited with a different lineup five years later and have been writing and performing ever since.

We recently sat down with guitarist Clark Vogeler to discuss the creative conception of the new album, how the band continues to pull in a young audience, and why performing “Possum Kingdom” never gets old.

TrunkSpace: The new album is due out on Friday. Where do you rank it in terms of your overall career, and not even necessarily from the viewpoint of the music but as the experience itself?
Vogeler: I would say that the experience of this album was interesting because if you put it in the context of all the other albums, basically coming off the last album, which was pretty much an acoustic album, it was a much quieter album for us. What happened was, when we got together, we basically just had a pile of riffs that we’d written on the road, in soundcheck, on the bus, or at home. They were just a bunch of little pieces and then it came together. It became a real loud, heavy album… kind of much different than I think we all expected it to be going into it.

What we have been doing for our albums is going in and not really knowing what is going to happen. Going back to the 90s, by the time we got to the studio, we knew exactly what happened in every song because we’d been working them to death. We’re kind of having a better time these days not knowing everything and making decisions on the fly. This album was the most productive recording session I think we ever had because we went in with a pile of riffs and all we needed was like 10 or 11 songs to finish the album, but we got 16 or 17 songs kind of fleshed out.

So, if you put it in the context of our whole career, I think we’re just getting better at being the Toadies, or we can trust ourselves more to be the Toadies and do what the Toadies do without second-guessing ourselves. I think that in the end, it makes for a better music.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned that you guys go into the studio not necessarily knowing what will happen when you do. Does that help to not put expectations on things and allow the creativity to just be creative?
Vogeler: Exactly, yeah. You kind of have to get out of your own way too. If I go back to 1998… we spent all year in the rehearsal space, going over and over and over and over again on these songs we just kind of beat to death. In the end, those songs, I think they suffered for that. They got too much attention. If you think about a song like “Tyler” from the Toadies’ first record, which is a big fan favorite, that song came together in like five minutes.

When you’re in the studio and the clock is running and we’ve only got X number of days left, the pressure is on a little bit, but what that did was just allow us to run with it. There’s a couple moments on the record, which if we had spent a month in the rehearsal space, they probably wouldn’t have turned up on the record like that. It requires you getting the band to be able to move fast. We kind of trust ourselves. It goes back to trusting ourselves to do what we could do and really getting out of our own way and not thinking, “That sounds dumb,” or, “That’s too catchy,” or, “Too metal,” or whatever. Whatever voice would pop up in your head, you kind secondguess it. You kind of have to flush all that away and trust yourself. That’s basically what that session was like.

TrunkSpace: But that’s what’s beautiful about music… the imperfections. If you listen to some of the great records of the 60s and 70s, you can always pick out the things that would never exist on a record today, but they are so perfect for being imperfect.
Vogeler: I think you’re right. I think early on, when I was younger, I spent a lot of time in the studio trying to get it exactly right. I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do in the studio. I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older, really what you’re supposed to capture is a feeling in the studio. You’re not supposed to capture perfection unless that’s the feeling you’re going for, but the Toadies is not about perfection. It’s more loose and kind of ragtag where none of us are like super amazing players. Our bass player’s really good. Our drummer’s good. Of course, our vocalist can sing, but it’s kind of like a sum of the parts thing. None of us with the exception of our singer are going to fill a room full of people who want to hear us play, but when we can get together, we know our limitations and we kind of stretch out within that realm.

TrunkSpace: A lot has changed within the industry over the years. Has the way the band interacts with fans changed? Have the fans themselves changed?
Vogeler: We stopped playing together for five or six years. When we came back together and started touring, we found that there’s actually a lot of young Toadies fans out there. Certainly, there’s the people our age out there and some of them are bringing their kids, but there are also these 18-year-old kids with long hair and Nirvana shirts that never got to see Nirvana, but they’re stoked to see the Toadies play. That was a real surprise, that basically our audience these days is very mixed. I think that speaks to the… well, I’m not sure how to frame this, but when we were 20, you listened to this kind of music that, to a larger extent, represented you. The kids these days, they don’t have that. They’re not loyal to any genre. They just mix it up. They’ll like hip-hop. They’ll like some pop. They’ll like some black metal. I think that benefits us as an older band to have some young fans like that.

We are really lucky to have had some radio success in the 90s that has somehow managed to stay. Our music still finds a lot of radio time and that translates into still having an audience and still having a career. I think without the radio support, it would be a little different. So, we’re in a really lucky position to have that 90s radio still happening.

TrunkSpace: If you guys were starting out today, how different would the journey have been?
Vogeler: Gosh. That’s a tricky question. I’m not sure I know how to answer that one. Let me think…

It would be an entirely different path as far I can tell. The industry is 100 percent, wholly different than it was in 1995 when “Rubberneck” was selling lots of records. That came off the back of huge support at radio and support at MTV. Now, both of those things are… I can’t even imagine what struggle it would be if we were just starting out. Not to mention the fact that in a bigger picture, rock and roll is not really everybody’s favorite these days. It’s really slinked to the background if you look at the charts in mainstream media, but when you go to rock shows, you can see there’s obviously still a lot of people that love rock and roll. It’s just not selling records like it used to. I think it’ll eventually come around, but we need some young band with a fresh sound that can catch you with their songs to do it up again.

TrunkSpace: After all of these years in the industry, what still excites you most about having a career in music?
Vogeler: Well, I’ll tell you what… the best part of being in a band for me is playing the live show. That never gets old. There are nights when you’re on tour for six and a half weeks and then you have a Tuesday night show in wherever, and maybe you’re not feeling it that night, but 99 times out of 100, that is the best part of going on tour… just being a musician. People ask us if we get tired of playing “Possum Kingdom.” When we start that song and you see 500 or 2,000 or 10,000 people shout and stand up and start getting into it and smiling and singing along… there is no better feeling as a musician than to see a room full of people do that.

“The Lower Side of Uptown” is available September 8 on Kirtland Records.

As the talented drummer and vocalist for the pop rock band R5, Ellington Ratliff has experienced more than most people twice his age. Having toured the world numerous times over and amassed millions of fans across the globe, the California native began acting at a very young age before turning his passion for music into an unexpected career.

We recently sat down with Ratliff to discuss transitioning from the R5 tour bust to his home, how LA people are the chillest, and why he doesn’t geek out about certain drum kits.

TrunkSpace: You just finished up a tour with R5 and now you’re back in Los Angeles for a short break. Does it take you a bit of time to get readjusted to home after a stretch on the road?
Ratliff: It definitely takes a second. When I’m home I don’t want to leave and go on tour, but then when I’m on tour I’m like, “Oh man, now I’ve gotta work, but I don’t have to worry about cleaning my room.”

It’s nice to be on the bus and worry about one thing every day. I love being home but at the same time, it’s a totally different mindset.

TrunkSpace: And if you have the type of brain that works well within margins, life on the road is so structured that it becomes easy to get used to the schedule aspect of it.
Ratliff: Definitely! Everything we have on tour is on a schedule… on an app that we can look at and be like, “Okay, 8 o’clock is an interview, 9 o’clock is this, 10 o’clock is sound check.” When I get home and I don’t have that manager setting up what I’m doing all the time, it’s like, “What do I do with my day?” Self-motivating is a whole thing you have to keep getting better at… just time management on my own.

When we’re in LA and we’re writing, which is what we’re doing right now, we can kind of lose the structure. It’s easy to lose the structure because there’s so much to do in LA. We’re going to award shows, we have press things, and sometimes we want to stay home and watch Netflix. It’s on us to be in the studio and to be writing.

TrunkSpace: We’d be toast. “Oh, the new season of ‘Stranger Things’ is premiering this weekend? Cancel all writing!” (Laughter)
Ratliff: (Laughter) Yeah! It’s weird having to choose when to go to Hollywood and actually go to a party. But then, you know, you suck it up and go out and see all your friends and it ends up being all good. But it’s weird. It’s definitely not the ’80s anymore.

TrunkSpace: So you’re not ruling the Sunset Strip Mötley Crüe style?
Ratliff: (Laughter) No. None of that.

TrunkSpace: One of the benefits of being based in LA is that you’re surrounded by so many other creative people, which in a lot of ways, must feed your own creative endeavors?
Ratliff: I’m glad you said that because we do have a lot of friends that are in the business. I feel like since LA is so spread out, there’s a lack of community. We have our friends that are in the music business and can meet every once in a while, but I kind of want to create that vibe you see in movies where people meet at this underground coffee shop/speakeasy club and they do slam poetry in the basement and everyone’s intermingling.

I feel like New York is easier. You just hop on a train. You’re at wherever you need to be. You can drink or whatever you want to do. In LA its like, “Should I get the Uber? It’s a 30 minute drive to Hollywood. I know there’s a jam thing happening, but I don’t really know anyone there.”

TrunkSpace: (Laughter) And you actually grew up in LA, right?
Ratliff: I did.

TrunkSpace: That always seems rare because so many people who live there are originally from other places.
Ratliff: Yeah, and you know there’s a weird misconception about people that come from LA… they think that people from LA are weird. I think on the contrary. The people who are the strangest, in my experience, are the people who come to LA from out of town for the wrong reasons. And you can just smell it when you meet them. You can vibe out someone in like two seconds. And if they come for the wrong reasons, just to make it or they’re not actually passionate or they’re just star f’ers, you can feel that. And there are people that come from out of town who are great, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like people who are from LA are the chillest. They know what’s going on. They know how everything works.

TrunkSpace: You were named after Duke Ellington. Was music an acquired passion or do you think it was somewhat a fate written in the cards for you?
Ratliff: That’s actually a good question because I had no intentions of being a musician as a child. I grew up in the acting scene. I had one of my first auditions when I was like two years old. My parents do it, so they had me do it and they just shuffled me in there. And then high school came around and I started messing around with bands.

My mom does joke around that Duke Ellington was smiling upon me and pushing me to music. It’s just a coincidence. I wasn’t trying to be a musician, but just because I didn’t know I could be. I just didn’t even think about it. I was just doing it. So the fact that it became a career, I’m stoked about it and hopefully I can keep doing it as long as possible.

TrunkSpace: Did your parents nurture your musical side when it took hold?
Ratliff: Yeah, they were definitely supportive. For sure. I mean, being a drummer, you’ve got to be a supportive family because there’s no escaping. Electronic drum sets are like a couple grand and that was a little beyond what we could afford, so you gotta live with just constant drum noise, which is loud. You gotta really be on the team.

TrunkSpace: Do you geek out about certain drum kits?
Ratliff: On the contrary, I could give a crap about that. Jack White is one of my favorite artists of all time. I just love everything he creates. He said in an interview once that he loves to play with old vintage guitars and things that don’t work right and fall out of tune because it’s a constant struggle to get something to sound good. And it’s a whole other part of the show.

I don’t care what I play. I’m not going to be like, “Oh, my snare is at the wrong angle!” I’m just going to make it sound good and play the shit out of the drum set and make it be awesome. If something is a little off on the set, if I have a riser that’s shaking, I enjoy that because it changes the show. That’s the beauty of a show… every show is different.

Jack Cooper of Ultimate Painting may have embarked on the journey to create his debut solo album “Sandgrown” for himself, but the end result is for the listener. Written as a low-fi libation to his hometown of Blackpool, England’s “Las Vegas of the North,” the record is a collection of songs about a singular community, but make no mistake, the message speaks to anybody who has ever called a small town their home. Perspective is everything in music, and when listening to “Sandgrown,” you can’t help but be reminded that we’re all from the same larger community known as humanity.

We recently sat down with Cooper to discuss his creative goals, the freedom of producing an album without expectations, and how being a self-taught musician helped shape his songwriting approach.

TrunkSpace: Music is meant to elicit feeling and emotion. Your album “Sandgrown” does that better than most. What were the artistic goals when you decided to put the album together?
Cooper: That’s nice of you to say. I started amassing some songs that really didn’t fit in with Ultimate Painting. Because there’s two of us who write for that band, I… well, they were much slower songs and I don’t really pursue those as a band because there’s a certain style of song we write and sometimes I do things that don’t fit in with that. So over the last couple of years I’ve been amassing songs. I have this thing where pretty much every album I’ve done, there’s usually one song that’s kind of… not necessarily about my home town or growing up, but it fits in with those themes. I wanted to do something around that, that was almost like a frame for me to work within… the frame being my hometown. I like working with limitation and I figured that writing about Blackpool was an interesting springboard for me to work within.

TrunkSpace: Was part of the idea to focus on a theme to sort of help give your creative brain a specific focus?
Cooper: Yeah, I guess so. I was thinking about how albums work and how they became very popular in the 60s. An album in pop music or rock music, a lot of the time is like nothing else in art, whether it’s cinema or literature. It’s very rare to see a movie that is made of short stories that doesn’t tie together. I was thinking about that and how albums do that.

People keep talking about how albums are going out of fashion with playlists and things like that. There are themes and there are sounds that run through Ultimate Painting records and records I’ve done before those, but I felt that to do something on my own and to have complete control over it, I wanted to do something that was very focused.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned playlists are making albums sort of obsolete, but in a way, “Sandgrown” is kind of a playlist of Blackpool, right?
Cooper: Yeah, I suppose so. I guess it’s pretentious and it’s kind of an intangible thing to even think about, but the sounds used on the record and the guitar tones and frequencies, I tried to make it sound like the feeling of being in my hometown or being a kid there. It’s hard to even… I guess it’s hard to…

Explaining music is a very difficult thing.

TrunkSpace: Yes and no. Sometimes the music is the only explanation needed, which is the case with “Sandgrown.”
Cooper: Doing something on my own allowed me to do something completely without having any expectations… even with having anyone put it out. I made it, it was really for me, but when I finished it and I played it for people without talking too much about the concept of it, initially no one really seemed to pick up on the fact that it was very focused on this one thing.

TrunkSpace: The beauty of music is that it can be interpreted differently by different people. That’s what makes it so special.
Cooper: Yeah. I’m always kind of reluctant to talk about what the songs are about too much because it should be whatever you want it to be about. But, when you release a record, people want a story or they want an angle on it. This obviously had a very specific one. Now that I’ve actually got it coming out, I hope no one would go, “Well, I don’t know where that is.” Or, “Why would I be interested in listening to a record about that?” But that logic doesn’t really scan because you would watch a movie about Blackpool or a seaside town, so I’m probably just second-guessing myself.

TrunkSpace: Is that the only place that you second-guess yourself or are you hard on yourself in other areas as well?
Cooper: Well, I think sometimes in the past I’ve been a little bit lazy as far as writing lyrics is concerned, because it’s not something I’m particularly interested in. There have been songs of mine where I’ve been pleased with the lyrics and then sometimes I’ve been guilty of throwing them away. Writing lyrics is way more exposed than playing guitar. I think the continuation of that is singing. This record was fun for me, because I was just doing it on my own in my flat. I could sing really quiet and sing how I would sing if I was around the house or something. I guess I’m kind of hard on myself with that.

TrunkSpace: You’re a self-taught musician. Do you think that has benefited you because you have approached songwriting without any set thoughts or having to stay within any margins?
Cooper: Yeah, I guess so. I got as far as I think I could on my own and I was confronted with limitations as far as how fast I could play guitar. This is a while ago. I think I’ve gotten better as a guitarist over the last five or six years, but I have all these weird habits. There’s boring stuff that I do that… no one I’ve ever seen plays some chords the way I play chords. It’s not in a good way like, “Oh, this has a certain individual style to it.” It’s very limiting.

I’ve never really thought about it too much. James (Hoare) in Ultimate Painting, I think he had lessons and he knows how to do things right. I think I add a weird element to the guitar. You know, the way that we play together works very well. Every couple of years I’ll be like, “I should try and learn more things.” I just can’t do it. I’m dyslexic as well, and I just find it very hard to learn things in that way.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned not having any expectations in making the album, but now with it set for release, do you have expectations of how “Sandgrown” will be received?
Cooper: I kind of hope that people are open to an album like this, because there’s no top single on it. It is quite low-fi, even compared to stuff I’ve done before. I don’t really have any expectations for it. I’m really pleased with it. It’s very satisfying to set yourself a goal and have a very strict framework to work within and then to achieve what you wanted to do. I feel like this album came out exactly how I wanted it to and nothing I’ve ever done before has come out like that.

I really want people to buy it and I’m looking forward to playing shows. More than anything I’ve done before, I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve before it came out, or before it was played to anyone. Whereas with Ultimate Painting, I think we release an album and we think about what people want from us or where it lies and what might get played on the radio and stuff. There’s probably a bit more of thought that goes into it like that, whereas this was really just for me.

“Sandgrown” is available August 25 from Trouble In Mind.

Rebelling against a difficult upbringing that included being raised by a conman father, Brandon Asraf poured himself into music, finding solace and purpose alongside of childhood friend John Tacon. As the duo Brick + Mortar, the pair writes moving messages in song form, highlighting relateable human subject matter like compassion and self motivation. Through career ups and downs, the New Jersey natives have stayed the course, focusing not on monetary motivation, but instead, building longterm interaction with fans.

 

We recently sat down with Asraf to discuss the illusion of money, healthy infighting, and the benefits of a career in music.

TrunkSpace: Adolescence can be fun, but mostly it’s confusing and weird and terrifying. You guys not only survived it together, but came out the other side making music. That seems like there would have to be some serious stars aligning for that to work out and for it to last this long, no?
Asraf: I guess it did. We’re also really comfortable arguing, so that’s probably why.

Really, I was always looking for something to be. When I was little, I knew that if you don’t pick something to be, you’ll probably be miserable. You have to find something to focus on, I knew that much. I knew that from when I was little, seeing the shit that I had seen growing up and the people, like hustlers and con men and all that shit, making a bunch of money, but they were miserable. I knew that you had to pick something that was beyond money because money was an illusion, and I was very aware of that when I was young. I knew you had to have it to live and stuff, but I also knew that being rich doesn’t make you happy.

When I was little, we were rich until I was 10 and then my dad was a conman and a criminal, so he bounced. I saw that everybody around me wasn’t happy, but they were rich as fuck.

TrunkSpace: Those who put on a display of happiness the most are always the ones that are the least happy.
Asraf: When I saw John as a kid playing drums in the eighth grade at this talent show, I knew because he was so happy. I was like, “I want to learn how to do that because that’s something you can do forever.” Just the act of doing it feels good. Really, it started from this awesome, pure place of just wanting to play because I didn’t know what to do, what to focus on, and I just decided to do that because I knew he was so happy doing it.

Before we were even friends, I would just hang around him. One day, when we were walking home from school, actually after working out for football because we used to play together, he told me to just basically play the bass and I went for it. I was waiting for him to tell me that, but he didn’t know that. I was waiting for him to tell me to do that or do something with music because he was so good. I was so intimidated that he was so good.

After that, we just played together all the time. He did bands when he was younger, like metal bands and stuff, but we always still played together. For years, we just did instrumental. The one thing that stayed the same is that we always just remained friends and knew that we wanted to make music together. We really didn’t know why, we just did. We’re stubborn as fuck so that’s definitely part of it.

TrunkSpace: You kind of have to be stubborn in the music industry in order to persevere, right?
Asraf: Yeah. You have to be stubborn and you have to be logically delusional, if that makes sense.

TrunkSpace: Totally.
Asraf: You have to know your delusion, but not break down your delusion too far because then you won’t believe in anything. You won’t believe you can make it.

TrunkSpace: You mentioned always being friends. Does it help being in the music industry with someone you’re friends with and grew up with, knowing that you always have each others’ back?
Asraf: Obviously we’re older so there’s so much life going on where you’re not hanging out every second. I think the ability to be really nasty to each other, if you’re arguing, but then realizing that it’s passion is…

We have our problems. We try to not be nasty as much as we can. I think a lot of bands never really argue their point. I think a lot of bands probably dance around, very nicely, what they don’t like about what they’re doing. Me and John, since we have been friends since we were 14, we just have it out. We’re gonna have an argument about something back and forth. It might be annoying to be around us, but at the same time, we’re not gonna both storm off and never resolve it, which is why it’s so annoying.

TrunkSpace: You don’t let it fester.
Asraf: Yeah. We basically just resolve it and then make a decision. I think it’s good having someone that you can really argue with, that’s not going to be overly sensitive, where you can argue and you’re not gonna quit. You’re obviously gonna get mad. You’re obviously gonna say fucked up shit or whatever, but you can’t argue like that with your manager really. You can’t argue like that with your booking agency. You can’t argue like that with anybody else in the industry because they’ll just be upset and throw their hands in the air. With a creative side, you can argue. You can really be honest and I think that’s the medicine that kept us together, is that we respect each other enough to be honest. Sometimes being honest isn’t a fun thing to do, but it also really cuts out a lot of the time of questioning what you’re doing.

TrunkSpace: You guys went through some business/music rights hurdles with the “Dropped Again” EP. Does that stress bring out the arguments more or do you guys turn that energy inwards and write more music?
Asraf: Well, I would say that all that business stuff made it more stressful as far as, “Okay, how are we gonna do this? How are we gonna do that? We have to get creative. We have to figure out where to get money for this, money for that.”

I feel like the most passionate arguments that me and John get in are really about creative shit or perception stuff with the band, what we want to represent and what we want things to be like. The money thing is always a human factor where you’re nervous about continuing to be able to pay for your lives and stuff like that. As far as how crazy the stress was, I would say that we’re lucky in the fact that we all kinda accepted a certain level of discomfort in our own lives. We were always very aware of the fact that you make nothing until you succeed, and then you could have a good life.

I feel like even before we signed the record deal, we never had any grand delusions of having a bunch of money. I feel like we probably argued about money the least. Even though we have argued about money shit that stressed us out, I feel like we argue about really trivial shit that’s important to us within the songs and within the artistic side of what we do, far more and probably far more annoyingly.

I try not to let money become the biggest deal, but it’s obviously hard because you need it for everything.

TrunkSpace: And you need money to make money. So much goes into a tour, finanically and logistically, to pull it off.
Asraf: Oh yeah, so many logistics. And also with our crew of people, everybody who we work with, we try to treat as fairly as possible. Everybody has lives. Everybody has needs too. We need everybody that we work with to be able to eat and do what they need to do. We’re not gonna be like. “Oh sorry, my life needs to be a little bit better so you just be happy you’re even doing this.” I mean, I know some bands kinda do that. We try not to do that. We also ask a lot of everyone who works with us, like our poor tour manager. Dan Feeny does so many more things than a tour manager has to do.

As far as the money thing, I think we’re lucky in the fact that we always had conversations before we got signed, everything about money not being important and about having our eye on the real prize, which is, “Can we really succeed?” Money was always a by product of success, hopefully. We didn’t really want to ever get a bunch of money without having respect or some kind of real passionate interaction with people.

TrunkSpace: Without that passionate interaction, bands become flashes in the pop culture pan, so it’s the right focus.
Asraf: Yeah. And you know, you want to feel like you did something positive for the world in some sense, even if it’s just for your own perception.

TrunkSpace: With everything that happened with the last EP, did it make you guys want to move away creatively from that particular collection of music and that period of your lives?
Asraf: We were definitely ready to move on because we were already recording the album for a while. We record always and it’s like an ever-changing kind of thing. We really do a lot of alteration that’s very drastic to songs. There was a feeling of wanting to move on to the next thing. The re-release has two new songs on it, but all the other songs we had done so long ago, but legally we were fucked so we got them back and it took so long that there is definitely a sense of wanting to move on. But also it was a good opportunity to get our face back out there and tour off something and also promote it to Europe because we didn’t really do that because we couldn’t before.

TrunkSpace: Outside of the music aspect of what you guys do… the recording, the writing, the touring… what’s your favorite part of the career musician lifestyle? What is it that pulls you in?
Asraf: I would say just the kind of honesty in doing it. You play a show and it either sucks or it doesn’t suck, you know what I mean? You kinda feel that and that’s a very honest interaction to have. Also, realizing that one person can influence other people in a positive way, like when kids pour their hearts out to you or tell you how you’ve helped them. That’s pretty much the most moving, huge thing that sticks with you.

And being able to wake up whenever you want is nice.

Iconic in the punk rock scene with a longevity that defies the odds, Frenzal Rhomb came together in their native Australia during the early 90s and quickly built an international fanbase that has stayed with them to this day. Currently out in support of “Hi-Vis High Tea,” their ninth studio album, the band stopped by TrunkSpace to get down, get dirty, and get mostly cheeky on subjects ranging from exhaustion, creative familiarity, and Wikipedia repartee.

TrunkSpace: “Hi-Vis High Tea” is your ninth album. Doing nine of anything in a creative capacity is difficult, but nine albums as a band is downright rare. Are you guys just as proud of the accomplishment as you are of the material itself?
Frenzal Rhomb: We’re so tired. So very, very tired. We signed a horribly unfair multi-album deal with Fat Wreck back in the 90s, and to this day they stay on our backs, cracking the whips, forcing us to release new music. We are only proud that we have managed to keep the record label vampires at bay for so long.

TrunkSpace: Speaking of the material, the album consists of 20 songs, with the album itself clocking in at just over 30 minutes. Did you guys set out to make a 20 song offering or did writing that many songs force your hand?
Frenzal Rhomb: We designed the album sleeve before we wrote the songs, and the way it was laid out meant there was space for 20 song titles. Once that was sorted we were pretty much forced into writing 20 songs, no more or less. Luckily for us we had exactly that much creativity. Of course, making them all about a minute-thirty long helped too.

TrunkSpace: In terms of the writing process, how has it changed for the band since you guys first got together in 1992?
Frenzal Rhomb: It’s exactly the same. We get together at the original drummer, guitarist and bassplayer’s parents’ houses and just bash out the songs. Of course, since those three band members haven’t been in Frenzal for over 15 years, and several of the parents have passed away or sold their houses, this can get very weird. But we insist on familiarity.

TrunkSpace: Many of the bands you guys have shared a stage with over the years have faded away or disbanded. How has Frenzal Rhomb kept things going where others have been unable to?
Frenzal Rhomb: Almost every single band we have shared a stage with has either faded away or disbanded. It’s called the “Frenzal Rhomb Curse” and is a very real thing in punk rock circles. Any band we’ve played with that has survived has done so because they hold the amulet of the golden oracle, a highly-magical stone that allows the wearer to continue making punk-rock music after coming in contact with the curse, but the price for that is that we get to steal a riff or two from them.

The secret to our continuity is much the same. Dark magic. Also friendship and not playing too many gigs.

TrunkSpace: They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. What is the most amount of time the band has spent away from each other and does absence also make creativity grow?
Frenzal Rhomb: I’ve never met the other members of the band. We keep it anonymous so the relationship doesn’t get stale. Onstage we keep ourselves apart with giant makeshift walls and every photoshoot is a composite of four separate photos, like NASA’s fake photos of a spherical earth.

TrunkSpace: The punk scene has changed quite a bit since you guys first got together. Everyone has a different take on whether those changes are good, bad or somewhere in-between. What’s your perspective on where the scene and punk music is at in 2017?
Frenzal Rhomb: Jason thinks the changes are good, Tom thinks they’re bad, and Lindsay & Gordy insist they’re somewhere in-between.

TrunkSpace: The Wikipedia page for the band features this line:
“The group has generated controversy for profanity in cover art, song titles and lyrics, for behavior of members on and off the stage, and for its associations with causes such as veganism and radical politics.”

As you look back over your time together, do you view anything that falls into this category as controversial or is it the kind of stuff that other people miss the mark on when they slap labels on things?
Frenzal Rhomb: I’ll answer this question with a line also taken from the band’s wikipedia page:

• Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

TrunkSpace: With all of that in mind, are there things that you would do differently as you look back now?
Frenzal Rhomb: Yes, I’d probably format that last answer differently. The dot point is at odds with the rest of this interview.

TrunkSpace: What is the happiest, most creatively-rewarding memory you have as part of Frenzal Rhomb?
Frenzal Rhomb: That last answer.

TrunkSpace: “The Walking Dead” brought about a zombie apocalypse on the world. If a Frenzal Rhomb apocalypse hit and every Frenzal Rhomb fan was wiped out, what would you guys do? Would you still keep writing music?
Frenzal Rhomb: We would question a zombie-infestation that targets only Frenzal Rhomb fans as it seems quite specific and strange, but if it turned out to be true we would then see if these Frenzal Rhomb zombies kept on living in some form, like zombies apparently do, in which case we would write songs more easily, since zombies don’t seem to have too much musical taste.

TrunkSpace: In the song “School Reunion” you sing “Fuck my school reunion!” We here at TrunkSpace are all nearing our 20 year reunions. Can we roll in with a boombox and “School Reunion” playing when that day comes?
Frenzal Rhomb: Sorry, but playing our music in any public space would require registering your school reunion with the local music publishing authority. I believe it’s ASCAP in the United States, and paying the appropriate royalties.

Get “Hi-Vis High Tea” here.

With a nostalgic sound reminiscent of the gritty 90s, the last great decade for mainstream rock recognition, Ontario band Heavy Hearts is carrying the melodic musical torch forward, hoping to return the genre to sweeping significance. With their latest single “Unravel (Your Love)” now available and more new music in in the works, Heavy Hearts is staying busy writing and touring in hopes of reaching as many people and places as possible.

We recently sat down with singer/guitarist Justin Glatt to discuss writing on the road, staying relevant, and how he looks forward to fans being inspired by Heavy Hearts in the same way that he was inspired by his favorite bands.

TrunkSpace: You guys are currently on a U.S. tour that is winding down. What has the experience been like and can you give as any highlights?
Glatt: The experience has been great. These are all places we haven’t played before and it’s been really cool to see people singing along and to be getting a good response from the crowd. Fossil Youth and Sleep In are great bands and are great people to be around.

TrunkSpace: Aside from playing out and sharing your music to new ears, what do you guys look forward to when you’re out on the road?
Glatt: Seeing new places is always great. We always really look forward to spending time with the bands we’re out with and meeting new people.

TrunkSpace: Something that you can never plan for always happens on extended road trips. Any horror stories that you’ll (hopefully) look back on and laugh at?
Glatt: A few years back we were driving back home from a show and one of our tires popped. We had to wait for the traffic to open up so we could pull over slowly to the right side of the highway. That was pretty fucked up.

TrunkSpace: We know you’re out in support of your new single “Unravel (Your Love)” but does life on the road allow for future singles to be written? Can the creative brain operate in that nomadic lifestyle?
Glatt: It isn’t that often that we write new material while we’re out on the road. However, on this run I’ve been working on some new ideas whenever there’s been time before shows and during sound check one time we all kind of messed around with something that could end up turning into something. We’ve seen other bands that we’ve toured with recording demos in their van while on the road. It’d be sweet to be able to do that eventually.

TrunkSpace: In a perfect world, what does the Heavy Hearts songwriting process look like?
Glatt: For all of our past releases the writing process included us just playing new ideas over and over again until something came out of it. The writing for “Unravel (Your Love)” and all of our other new material was a little different. Davis has a studio in the same building as our practice space and we would go in and record demos of new ideas immediately. Even if it was just a guitar riff, we’d record it and build on the idea from there. I think we all enjoyed that process a lot more and will continue writing songs that way.

TrunkSpace: Based on your experience, what’s the difference between releasing and supporting a single and releasing and supporting an album? Are they handled in the same capacity and manner?
Glatt: They’re handled somewhat similarly. The rollout for releasing a new single is a little bit easier to handle though. With releasing an album there are preorders, vinyl pressings, and lots of other things to worry about.

TrunkSpace: What is the first song that Heavy Hearts wrote and is it still a part of your musical repertoire? If not, have you ever thought about revisiting it and tweaking it with your experience now in mind?
Glatt: The first song we wrote together was called “Tranquility.” It was on our first EP called “Jacoba” that we released in 2013. Sometimes people still ask us to play it but none of us are really interested in playing it any time soon. Maybe if we break up.

TrunkSpace: What is your first memory of picking up an instrument?
Glatt: My first memory of picking up an instrument was when I was a little kid. My dad plays guitar so I picked up one of his, put it on backwards, and played it upside down.

TrunkSpace: What is the most difficult part about being in a band and reaching an audience in 2017?
Glatt: Staying relevant is probably one of the hardest things to do for a band these days. There are plenty of bands all trying to get people’s attention and with social media playing a huge part in bands being able to reach out, it’s important to constantly remain active so no one forgets about you.

TrunkSpace: There are so many artists all vying for the ears and eyes of music fans. How does a band rise above all of that and solidify themselves as a unique offering that those fans can’t get anywhere else?
Glatt: Writing good songs, having an active internet presence and networking with other people in the industry are the most important things to become successful.

TrunkSpace: Is touring and playing out live still the best way to build a fanbase and reach new people?
Glatt: Touring and playing for new ears is a great way to reach new people. Someone wearing one of our shirts or buying a record and showing their friends goes a long way in getting our name out.

TrunkSpace: What do you guys want people to take from your music? Is it about finding those messages within the music itself or just having a sonic acceptance of what they’re listening to?
Glatt: I’ve always wanted our music to make people think or to make them feel literally anything, whether it’s through the lyrics, or the overall vibe of the song. Getting inspired from bands that I love is a great feeling and being able to have our music make someone feel that way would be unreal.

TrunkSpace: What else is Heavy Hearts looking to accomplish together in the near future? Is there a new album in the works? Additional tours?
Glatt: Throughout the rest of the year we’d like to see our music reach new places and do some things that we haven’t done with our previous releases. New music and tours coming very soon.

Learn more about Heavy Hearts at:
www.heavyheartsband.com
www.twittter.com/heavyheartsband
www.facebook.com/heavyheartsband
www.instagram.com/heavyheartsband

 

Discovered by producer/writer Cory Rooney (Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey), Brazilian-born pop artist Laura Pieri is ready to take the music industry by storm. Her debut single “I Will Follow You” dropped in July, serving as her official introduction to American eyes and ears, and now, a combination of hard work and fate will decide if she will reach the same super stardom status as some of her iconic influences, including Michael Jackson and Shakira.

We recently sat down with Pieri to discuss career butterflies, how her Brazilian roots will always shine through in her music, and the universal themes that we all can relate to.

TrunkSpace: Your first single in the U.S. dropped in July. What was that build up like in terms of waiting to make your official introduction to American music listeners?
Pieri: It was really intense! This project has been kept as a secret, that only a handful of people knew of and listened to. Now that we’re pulling the curtains up and sharing “I Will Follow You,” I certainly feel very excited. The butterflies definitely haven’t stopped!

TrunkSpace: You were born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. How do Brazilian music fans differ from American audiences and did you have to adapt your sound for a more mass market appeal in the U.S.?
Pieri: Well, it was certainly a cultural transition to move here, but as far as my music goes, I can’t deny where I come from; it’s in my bones. However, I do have to be reminded at times that this is not Brazil as I’ll occasionally forget. As far as my sound goes, I really developed it over here, in the U.S., and so I feel like it’s resulted in a really cool mix.

TrunkSpace: You were discovered by Grammy Award winning producer/writer Cory Rooney, who has worked with some of the biggest names in music. How did that come about and we would have to imagine that it was a big confidence booster to have someone who has seen so much talent then see that talent in you?
Pieri: For me it was really a case of being at the right place at the right time. We have an acquaintance in common that introduced the both of us. Getting into the studio with Cory has been an amazing experience. I really hadn’t had much experience before, but watching him work has really taught me a lot. Having him believe in me is still a little unbelievable, but it also makes me feel like I have some big shoes to fill.

TrunkSpace: As we said, “I Will Follow You” was released just a few weeks ago. Is that particular song just one part of a bigger career equation that you already have planned? In other words, is there more music already in the can that we can expect to hear soon?
Pieri: Absolutely there will be more! “I Will Follow You” is kind of the introduction to what’s to come. We have a lot more planned, and it’ll definitely echo “I Will Follow You,” but it’ll also be different.

TrunkSpace: What do you hope to bring to your catalog of music as a whole? Will future tracks be a departure from “I Will Follow You” or do you feel that you have adapted your sound to be sonically an exclusively yours at this point in your career?
Pieri: I believe in evolution, and I think that’s a state that I’ll always be in. I think I will never really have a specific sound, but will just be in constant change. I do think that my Brazilian upbringing will show through in everything I do, so I guess you could say that’s where, sonically, I pull the most inspiration from.

TrunkSpace: Who inspired you to pursue music? Did you have a mentor and/or support system early in your life that gave you the confidence to turn your passion into a career?
Pieri: This will for sure sound super cliché, but Michael Jackson has been one of my biggest inspirations. He’s the one that got me into believing in music and in myself. Growing up my parents always embraced my curiosity and allowed me to be as creative as I could. I remember my mom used to always have to explain to our guests that our dinner parties were “out-of-the-box” because I would, no joke, put on little mini concerts and bring my dolls out to be part of the audience. When you’re five, everyone says they want to be a singer. I really just never changed my mind.

TrunkSpace: What do you think is the most difficult aspect of being an artist in 2017?
Pieri: With social media facilitating communication, everything moves super fast. That makes it hard for me to keep up with how quick the world moves. A song can get super popular in seconds, but it also becomes “old” at the same speed. I struggle with just keeping up with the speed of things without losing sight of reality.

TrunkSpace: You are still in the early stages of your career with a full future ahead of you. If you could have your career mirror another artists’ path, whose would it be and why?
Pieri: Oh gosh, I wouldn’t say I’d mirror anyone else’s career, but I am surely very inspired and aim to follow the latinas that came before me. Both JLo and Shakira’s career have impacted me greatly. I can still remember the first time that I saw Shakira on TV and she was dancing and her hair was flawless and I felt like it was something within my reach, I saw a little of myself in seeing her. I would say I definitely hope to follow in their footsteps.

TrunkSpace: Nowadays artists are branching out into so many different avenues, whether it’s acting, content creation, fashion, or all around entrepreneurial endeavors. Do you see your career going beyond music alone?
Pieri: Hopefully so! Yes! I am really into fashion and art and really hope to expand into those areas soon.

TrunkSpace: What do you want people to take from your music?
Pieri: Fun! Music is a way to communicate with everyone and I make music in hopes that everyone will enjoy it. I hope that’s really what people take away from my music, that it makes them feel good.

TrunkSpace: As mentioned, you’re from Brazil. Your life experiences will be different from those who grew up in Washington or Florida. That being said, there are some things that are universal. What are some of the universal subject matters/themes that you feel always work in music and that you will be singing about now or in the future?
Pieri: Well I think my music deals with things that everyone struggles with or goes through. “I Will Follow You” is about being in love and feeling it so intensely it kind of consumes you. This is something that everyone will feel and go through in their lives. Being a daughter, a student, a girlfriend, and even a friend are all universal things and the emotions that come along with those are too. That’s what I hope to deal with in my music.

Very few artists have the opportunity to celebrate their studio sweet 16. Creative wells dry up and in-fighting often leads to the classic band disband, which is why longevity in rock is not easy to roll. Styx has defied its critics and outlasted its peers since first coming together in 1972, touring the world countless times over for millions of adoring fans and crafting evergreen hits that continue to excite listeners. “Come Sail Away,” “Lady,” “Too Much Time on My Hands,” and “Mr. Roboto” are just a few of the immortal anthems that we have all sung along to at some point in our lives.

Now, as rock radio stations continue to disappear or regurgitate the same “modern rock” songs that they were spinning in the 90s, Styx has released the “The Mission,” their 16^th studio album, and has outlasted the FM airwaves that first propelled them to stardom.

We recently sat down with lead vocalist and keyboardist Lawrence Gowan to discuss the band’s rock legacy, how “The Mission” became their own mission, and the feeling he gets when 18,000 fans respond in unison at a Styx show.

TrunkSpace: Thousands of bands have created and recorded music over the years and only a small percentage of those have left their mark in such a way that they have become a chapter in the story of music itself. Styx is one of those bands. Does the heaviness of that still hit you at times?
Gowan: It does and that’s a great opening observation. It struck me, similar to the words that you just used, probably around the start of the new millennium. Rock music is the giant musical statement of the last half of the 20th century. If you wanted to look at the first half, the seismic shift was the discovery of jazz, but just arbitrarily say that jazz and blues and their American influence on the world of music. The last half of the 20th century, unarguably, it belongs to rock. It’s the giant statement.

I remember when I was going to the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, in the early or mid-70s, and I was saying to a couple of my professors, “I think Lennon and McCartney will be like Beethoven and Mozart a hundred years from now.” They would look at each other trying to hold back the laughter, and now you’ve got musicologists that compare what they’ve done to the great songs of Schubert or any of the great works. Musicologists now, absolutely lay that out. It’s just a historical fact. There’s no more debating it, you know?

TrunkSpace: And they’ve reached more people with their music than any of the composers who came before them.
Gowan: Yeah, which is the ultimate impression of music on planet earth. I mean, you can easily argue that Paul McCartney is the most successful musician in the history of music. Flat out. There’s no debate. Numbers alone dictate that.

Anyway, I don’t have to build up his career. We’re here to push Styx. (Laughter)

I’m sure you’ve heard this expression. An attitude is usually distilled to a quick cliché and some of them ring very true. I remember around 2000 hearing this expression for the first time ever. “Don’t mock the rock.” Meaning that when musicians go to approach it, don’t undersell it. Don’t underplay it. Don’t dismiss it as something that’s simplistic. Honor it for what it truly is, which is music that’s had a profound impact on the entire planet. You could probably go to the farthest reaches of planet earth and I’ll bet you there’s an AC/DC song that still resonates with everyone.

Having said all of that, yes, I do take that on my shoulders as being something that needs to be kind of respected in a strong way. The fortunate thing for me is, and this is where luck plays into it or perhaps the rules of attraction, I don’t know, but I’m in a band with very like-minded people who think of it exactly the same way and the proof of that is there every single day. The ritual of what it takes to put the level of rock show that Styx are able to pull off every night, it begins around noon.

TrunkSpace: It has to be quite an operation to be able to pull off that level of production quality every single day.
Gowan: It’s funny. There’s a daily ritual that everyone goes through and I can guarantee that two and a half hours before we hit the stage tonight in Houston, Todd will be on a practice pad going through incredible things in the dressing room. Ricky Phillips will have his bass cranked up and he’ll be doing his thing, and JY and Tommy, the same thing. And I will be on the keyboards, basically running through my scales and all kinds of classical and rock pieces that I love and that get me ready for the show. Then a half hour before the show there’s going to be a very intense vocal warm-up with all of us together, and by the time we hit the stage tonight, we are going to be so revved up and so focused on what we’re doing that it’s going to have the impact that we’re hoping for.

We’re going to end the day with a sea of thousands of big, smiling faces looking back at us. Then I’m probably going to goof off for a little while before I hit my bunk in the bus and we’re down. (Laughter)

What I mean by all of that is that it’s the center point of the day and it’s something that we take on gladly, but very seriously.

TrunkSpace: There’s a routine and tradition to it, but at the same time, each show must be different based on whatever the audience is giving you, right?
Gowan: You’re absolutely right, which is why you can play the same song not just thousands, maybe even millions of times, and never play it the same twice. If you’re a musician that’s really engaged in playing the song, there’s a nuance that every song takes on because it’s a new day with a fresh set of ears listening to it. New circumstances. Life has moved ahead and that song has to vibrate with you in a whole new way. If you’re open to the suggestion of that, if you’re open to the invitation of that, you’re going to perform the song to the best that you can on that day and it’s going to mean something.

TrunkSpace: You might have played a song 30 times already on a particular tour, but that audience that night, they haven’t heard it yet.
Gowan: Correct! And it is for them. It’s for you to give the most sincere, connected, and meaningful performance of the piece, but it really is for them to embrace and to personalize and to get caught up in the moment. It is a different moment today than it was yesterday.

Having said that, a part of what’s really kicking us in the ass in the most beautiful way right now though, is the fact that we have the new record, and just having a couple of new pieces to play in the show alongside these songs with these long legacies to them. That’s definitely a shot in the arm and a mental boost that has us all even on a finer point to doing these shows.

TrunkSpace: “The Mission” is the band’s first studio album in 14 years. Was there a big gap between studio offerings because you guys needed to refuel the creative tank?
Gowan: No, no not really. I’ll tell you, it wasn’t anything like a 14-year writer’s block, even though it may appear that way. There have been daily, weekly moments where something new is played in the dressing room by one of the guys in the band. Sometimes it starts with a drumbeat or something, and we kind of get around it and jam on it a little bit. And sometimes it’s a complete song or a half complete song. Then we take a stab at it and we wind up doing the soundcheck with it. We’ve done that consistently over the last 14 years. The difficulty was, we’d always end up going, “Oh, we’ve got to finish that. That’s going to be great. Maybe next year we’ll make the record, because we’re looking at a schedule and we see 120 shows between now and the time we can ever hit a studio.”

Acknowledging and living with the insatiable demand that there is to see the band around the world, we could perform every day of the year and just what pleasure that we derive from that, especially at this advanced stage of a career, to still have that be so vibrant and to have it in our lives, it’s not something that we like to turn our backs on and take six months away from to go and make something new. It’s really not incumbent on us to do that. We don’t have to do that. In fact, there are many signs in the world telling us not to do that, chiefly among which are the fact that radio doesn’t play new music from a band that’s been around for, you know, nearly five decades. The fans that come to the shows, they want to embrace the songs that they’ve known for decades and love. There’s no pressing issue and there’s no record company breathing down our backs saying, “We need something new and we need it now.” That just doesn’t happen.

TrunkSpace: So what made you guys decide that it was time?
Gowan: Two years ago, Tommy Shaw came in with this little piece he was working on called, “Mission to Mars” It was like many other dressing room jams and it began to bubble up and I was charmed by it immediately and I loved the notion of anything about space. I’m very spacey. (Laughter) I liked it right off the bat and within the next 10 days he’d brought in another piece that a fellow named Will Evankovich, who wound up producing “The Mission,” was working on. Tommy said, “Listen to this piece Will’s working on. It’s called ‘Locomotive,’ and then listen to ‘Mission to Mars.’” The two of them… it was a loose but somewhat tangible connection between the two. The intrigue increased a bit more.

Right around that time, JY was blasting on this riff in his dressing room and suddenly there are these threads that quickly begin to kind of weave together, and you’ve got the beginnings of what could ultimately be either a tapestry or… maybe just a bedspread. (Laughter)

Tommy was, by then, living in Nashville. He’d moved from LA, and Nashville of course offers you, in a very real way, the opportunity to go and record anywhere you want. It’s such a musical mecca now that music’s on your mind. Shortly thereafter, I was called to go and spend some time in Nashville. We began fleshing out the songs over the course of the next year. They were intense sessions, but very enjoyable. About a year into it we realized, “This is becoming an album. It’s becoming a Styx album.” The danger of that is that, we don’t have to do this. We don’t have to commit the time, but if we do, let’s make sure that we really love it. If we don’t love it, we’re not gonna put it out and we’re gonna regret the time that we put into it. We began leaning forward from kind of a more passive, fun thing to leaning in hard. We wound up recording it three times. The third time, intentionally, because we decided to record it analog as if it was 1979 and so that sonically it connected to the big four albums Styx made between ’76 and ’81.

The reaction to it, we’re holding our breath for that, but we never had this much critical acclaim to a new Styx album in the history of the band, you know? We’ve had to fight through some pretty negative stuff in the past, but this has been extremely well-received and we couldn’t be happier.

TrunkSpace: You’ve been singing for decades. What do you do to keep your vocal cords fresh and not overextend yourself when you have a slew of dates in front of you?
Gowan: We all have our different rituals and regimens and voodoo magic to try and keep ourselves in check. I would say for me, I would put it in this order: get enough sleep, number one; and don’t fry your voice out on alcohol. I try to keep my drinking days, as they are, to occasional days off. Like bad habits, let them kind of have reign on a day off, but make sure that on that day off you still get plenty of sleep before the next one. I happen to like doing some yoga exercises every single day. They’re usually around half an hour or a bit more, just to get my body conducted to be able to face the show. In so doing, I find that for the most part, my voice decides to behave itself and respond on command.

There’s gonna be a section in every year, and I hate to acknowledge it, but there’s gonna be a couple of weeks where it’s gonna be under the mark. That’s the same for every single guy in the band. Aren’t we lucky that we’ve got three lead singers who can pull up the slack when something like that happens? It happens to all of us. On an annual basis, we know it’s coming. This year, I don’t know what it is… we all seem to be healthy and just hitting our notes really well. Maybe it’s the extra heat that’s in these shows in the summer. I don’t know. Basically, things are, and I’m touching everything wood around me right now… we’re hoping health will stay that way for a little while.

It all harkens back to your first question. Do you see this as a serious undertaking? It really is, because look at the price of tickets. You owe them. If they’re gonna leave their laptop for five seconds, and actually fight through traffic or whatever they have to fight through to get to that show, you better deliver. The days of, “Oh, he didn’t show up,” or, “Oh my God, he was drunk on stage,” are kind of… the entertainment value in that, it’s gone by the wayside a long time ago.

TrunkSpace: And now with cellphones, you can’t really get away with it anymore, either. (Laughter)
Gowan: (Laughter) Oh, there’s only 10,000 video accounts of your antics, you know?

TrunkSpace: The good part of the cell phone angle is that you now have an entire stadium throwing up the light whereas even in the days where smoking was more common, no everyone had a lighter.
Gowan: Yeah, exactly. JY starts a light up every night. “Probably no one has matches on them now, or lighters. Maybe three or four of you out there, but you’ve all got cellphones. Some of you have got two cellphones, so get them out, light them up!”

It leads to the most beautiful moment of the night. When you look out, you see a sea of 18,000 people and it’s just every single person. You look out at it in the dark and it really is a breathtaking sight from the stage to see all those out there. It’s one of those moments you take in where you realize, that’s how far this music has reached. You can see a sight like that and they’re all responding to it with their little camera light.

TrunkSpace: Full circle back to “The Mission,” it must be like looking up at stars out in space!
Gowan: Oh boy. When I start trying to pick out constellations then I know I’m getting a little too much of an out of body experience. (Laughter)

“The Mission” is available now.

Hundreds of hands have been thrust together in applause for Hundred Handed since they formed in 2015. Part pop and part punk, the Los Angeles-based trio has been putting the fun in funambulist, which for those without a dictionary handy, is a super formal word for tightrope walker. Why are they walking a tightrope? Well, the music industry is not an easy nut to crack and yet the three friends dove headfirst into a pool an ocean away, kicking off their career in Australia where they played their first live show in front of 10,000 music fans. And all without a net!

We recently sat down with drummer Drew Langan to discuss how there is no Slipknot to be heard in their music, why nothing would be a departure sonically for the ever-evolving band, and how they would revamp a cartoon classic.

TrunkSpace: You guys have all been in different bands with different people over the years. What is it about Hundred Handed that clicked and made not only creative sense but inner-band relationship sense as well?
Langan: Even in previous bands, we were always hanging out with each other for the most part. We’ve always been on the same page with the music we want to make and with pretty much everything for that matter. Also, nobody can drink like we do, so we’re kind of stuck with each other.

TrunkSpace: The band has been together since 2015. How long did it take for you guys to figure out who Hundred Handed was in terms of sound?
Langan: Well, we thought we had it figured out immediately! In hindsight, we had some evolving to do. We’ve been writing and recording nonstop, so it didn’t take more than a few months to really figure out who we are and what we sound like.

TrunkSpace: Your tunes are a sort of musical upper. We listen, and we can’t help but get amped up and happy. Is that a goal when you guys sit down to write new material?
Langan:: 100 percent. We spent enough time being angsty and heavy and we wanted to get back to the root of why we do this. To have fun! We want to have fun while we’re doing it and we want that to translate to everyone who listens to us. There’s absolutely no shame in having too much fun.

TrunkSpace: You guys have a wide range of musical influences. Who of those influences do you hear the most when you listen to your own songs back?
Langan: Well I definitely don’t hear any Slipknot, which is probably a good thing. (Laughter) That’s a tough one. I hear some Blink-182 and definitely some Daft Punk.

TrunkSpace: One of the coolest things about creating music or art is that a day will come where the stuff you’re creating will then influence someone else. Have you given any thought to the idea that you may inspire some kid somewhere to pick up his first guitar or pound out some beats on a kit for the first time?
Langan: Yeah, of course! If some kid came up to me and told me he started playing drums because of me, Jordan would NEVER hear the end of it. I’d be insufferable. It would be amazing!

TrunkSpace: Who inspired you guys to pick up your first instruments?
Langan: I was actually kind of forced by my elementary school. I made the laziest decision to play snare drum because all I had to carry around was a practice pad and sticks. Man, that one backfired. Now I have the most gear to lug around.

TrunkSpace: The band has dropped a few singles throughout the course of 2017 thus far. We have noticed a lot of bands have been taking that approach to their music, which in a lot of ways, harkens back to the dawn of commercial music. As far as Hundred Handed is concerned, what is the benefit to releasing singles as opposed to a full album all at once?
Langan: We just want to get the music out there. These days, it’s so easy to release a single song so if we’re excited about one, we put it out. We still like the idea of putting out entire albums, and we will probably do that at some point, but we’ve been writing so much that we had to get some out.

TrunkSpace: Are there plans to release more singles in the near future? What can we expect to hear next?
Langan: Always! We may even release an EP in the near future so keep an eye out!

TrunkSpace: Have you guys tried anything new or different with the upcoming material that is a departure from what we know of Hundred Handed already?
Langan: I wanted to do some Josh Groban covers, but I got vetoed on that. I’m joking, but like I said, we’re always evolving. There’s nothing that I would consider TOO much of a departure though. We’re just getting better!

TrunkSpace: You guys gave some love on Twitter to the news that there is an “Animaniacs” reboot in the works. If Hundred Handed was asked to make the new theme song, what would you do to the original to modernize it and give it a Hundred Handed spin?
Langan: Oh what a song! I think I still know all the words. We’d take it into the studio and play it the way we play, but I honestly think we’d keep it pretty close to the original. It’s hard to mess with such a classic.

TrunkSpace: Another Twitter shout out we see a lot of from you guys is giving social media props to random national whatever days. There seems to be a day of recognition for pretty much everything these days, BUT, what’s one day the band would like to celebrate that is missing from our world?
Langan: Well there’s already National Whiskey Day so… no, I think we’re good! Maybe if we take that one step further and make it National Jack Daniels Day. I swear we are keeping those guys in business.

TrunkSpace: What’s been the career highlight thus far and what is on the list of “things to achieve” for the remainder of 2017 and into the new year?
Langan: The first show we ever played was in Australia for a crowd of 10,000. That was pretty insane. Just getting to see Australia in general and knowing that our music got us there was a pretty huge highlight. As far as the future, we’re planning on hitting the road and getting some touring under our belts. Time to go out and play these songs a few hundred times!

Critics and fans alike are in love with The Yawpers. Often described as having a sound that is exclusive to the band, the Denver-born trio has been taking an honest and forthright approach to their music since they came together in 2011. That honesty and forthrightness doesn’t just exist within their lyrics either. Frontman Nate Cook is frank when responding to questions, both professional and personal, and is not afraid to offer as much of himself as possible for his fans to soak up and absorb.

We recently sat down with Cook to discuss the band’s new album “Boy in a Well,” how he works through a bout of writer’s block, and how he manages the praise for The Yawpers.

TrunkSpace: The band has been together since 2011. So much can change in six years, and at the same time, so much can (and usually does) stay the same. How much have you changed personally in that time and how has that impacted your songwriting?
Cook: I guess a lot does change in six years for a person. I’ve been married and divorced, moved around a lot, that sort of stuff. I guess I’m just in my 30s now so… my mid-20s were a different time all together for me. In some ways I take my writing a lot more seriously than I used to, and it has taken a little bit more of a personal flair, because I’m not as flippant as I was in my 20s.

TrunkSpace: A person’s point of view tends to change between that period of 20s to 30s transition.
Cook: Yeah, I can see that. It’s odd how inevitable the change is. One day you just wake up and you’re a different person without ever actually having done anything to change yourself.

TrunkSpace: Which must be difficult in a band setting because, so often, fans want their favorite artists to stay the same.
Cook: Yeah, I agree. I think that what people really expect, and we’ve been lucky is that our fans mostly just expect us to be authentic, and I think that that can read regardless of how stylistically we change.

TrunkSpace: Life is filled with so many ups and downs. You mentioned going through a divorce and moving around a lot. Are those ups and downs magnified when your career is all about being in front of people, either emotionally in your songwriting, or even physically when you are in front of people in a live setting?
Cook: Well, I think there’s a kind of a loneliness to this lifestyle. Just a lot of moving around and you’ve got the type of life that, by virtue, is kind of nomadic. So, I guess in some ways that becomes my personal life, it’s what I share with people on stage or through my music. My personal life just really doesn’t exist, because I’m not around to have it. And in that way I suppose it is kind of an emotional release, or at least an extension of my personal life.

TrunkSpace: Does it feel like as an artist… as somebody who creates… does it feel like fans want to see that personal side of you more given the social media age? Do they want more of you than just the music?
Cook: Oh yeah. For years people have always wanted that, but now the availability of it is… people expect it, I guess. That’s kind of a hard question to answer, though, because I feel like since the dawn of artists people have wanted to know about the people that make it. It’s just now that it’s easy to find out. Your life is a lot more on display than it used to be, even if the desire hasn’t actually necessarily increased.

TrunkSpace: “Boy in a Well” has a story theme that runs throughout it. When you focus on a story concept does that put limitations on you from a songwriting perspective?
Cook: Yeah, I don’t want to sound too up my own ass on this one, but I think a lot of times… limiting yourself allows you to maintain focus on what you’re really trying to say. So in some ways it does both simultaneously. Obviously, staying focused on the subject limits what you can talk about, but it allows you to talk about what you’re writing about more fluently.

TrunkSpace: If you’re writing tunes for that concept and you hit a block, do you start writing in an unrelated way for just yourself to put some distance between you and the focus of the block?
Cook: No, usually what I’ll do is I’ll write a lot of garbage until something works. But I usually try to stay within the confines of the concept otherwise I would lose it. I wrote probably 35 songs for the record and it has only 12 on it. A lot of times just writing garbage helps the good stuff come out.

TrunkSpace: Of those 35 songs that didn’t make the record, does that mean you’ll never want to revisit them or the same theme again?
Cook: Yeah, that’s correct. Once something’s kind of done, and you’ve kind of passed judgment on it, it feels kind of dirty to go back and do it again. I don’t even like playing songs from old records live anymore. You just kind of move on.

TrunkSpace: You guys got a lot of praise over the years, both critical and from the casual listener. Does that put pressure on you as a songwriter and as a band to deliver each time out?
Cook: Yeah, I would say so. I think that any artist who tells you that they don’t crave validation is a fucking liar. I mean, it matters. You can’t think about it too much during the process, but one always hopes that people will accept it with an open mind and enjoy it. I wouldn’t say it’s so much a part of the writing process, but definitely it’s part of sweating through your mattress at night while you’re waiting for it to come out.

TrunkSpace: You have done a slew of interviews since The Yawpers came together. What’s something you wish you were asked over that time, or an area of yourself or the band that you’d like to share that people don’t normally ask?
Cook: Honestly, I don’t know how to answer that question. We’ve been asked pretty much every question that there is under the sun, and I always do my best to answer them honestly. I feel like whatever people want to know they can know, but I don’t have anything specifically that I’ve been itching to share.

TrunkSpace: Do you wish people would focus on a particular area of the band more?
Cook: I think people have focused a lot on my writing, which is what I’m most proud of. I feel like that’s already kind of happened for us, so I’m pretty happy with where and how the attention’s been spent on us.

TrunkSpace: Tommy Stinson of The Replacements contributed to “Boy in a Well” on the production side of things. What was that experience like?
Cook: Tommy’s a cool guy. We actually got to go on tour with him after the album as well. He’s a great dude. Obviously I’ve been a Replacements fan since I could listen to music. Working with someone like that, just the league and… he was fucking awesome and really into the project. Yeah, I couldn’t have been happier with it, to be honest.

TrunkSpace: Did he offer any advice or did you absorb anything via osmosis in terms of career longevity?
Cook: I wish I could say we had the prescience to ask any of those questions, but we didn’t. I would say that just, osmosis is probably a good word for it, there’s kind of a collected-ness to an artist that’s been doing it that long that rubs off. I hope that we’ve somehow managed to glean some of that knowledge.

TrunkSpace: Everybody has bad days. As much as you love music, writing and recording is still work. When you’re having those bad days, is it easier to get over it when you’re like, “Tommy Stinson’s in the room!”?
Cook: Yeah. If Tommy Stinson and a bottle of whiskey are in the room, it’s usually gonna be okay.

TrunkSpace: Do you see yourself on a similar path as Tommy in terms of having a career as long and as fruitful he has had?
Cook: I would like to think so, as long as I don’t drink myself to death.

“Boy in a Well” is available August 18 on Bloodshot Records.