Latest / The Christian Reeve Podcast / Tom Cunningham (of The Trusted) | The Christian Reeve Podcast #314

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Tom Cunningham (of The Trusted) | The Christian Reeve Podcast #314 · The Christian Reeve Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to another episode of the Christian Marie
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  Podcast. Today's guest is a returning
• 0:05
  guest from years ago. This is awesome, man.
• 0:09
  It is Tom Cunningham of the Trusted.
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  Welcome back. How you doing?
• 0:13
  I'm good. How are you?
• 0:15
  Good. Yeah.
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  I'm back from London, having gone to see you for the first
• 0:21
  time. Yeah.
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  Yeah. Madness.
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  Been meaning to to come and see you guys for a while now.
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  Obviously first appearance on the show was 2022, although I
• 0:34
  think I maybe came across you in 2021.
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  Maybe, Yeah. And I was just kind of waiting
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  for you to come up north, to be honest.
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  And then I was like, this one's in London.
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  I'm just going to go fuck it. And yeah, very, very good show.
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  Tight, solid. But how long have you guys been
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  playing now? Like like live.
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  Performances. The four, the four of us, same
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  four guys. We have been playing together
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  for 8 1/2 years. Wow.
• 1:13
  Yeah. Wait, hold on, wait, hold on.
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  How old are you guys again? We're like all our mid 20s so.
• 1:19
  You've been doing that. We were like, like, sort of
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  like, I mean, Finn and Dave are 15 and we started trusted.
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  I. Mean DAO like I'd say 1819 I was
• 1:30
  going to. Say like I, I think the last
• 1:32
  time you were on the show, I didn't delve into this as
• 1:35
  deeply. And I'm, I'm kind of what one
• 1:39
  thing I'll say when you see you guys playing live is it's, it's
• 1:44
  tight, but it's tight where I'm going to put this.
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  There's like a chemistry there and it's, it's, I've always said
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  this about any band like the, the Mace.
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  The most important thing is the chemistry, like everything else
• 1:59
  can be learned. You know, if, if you're, if
• 2:01
  you're joining a band and maybe you're not the world's best
• 2:04
  bassist or guitarist, it really doesn't mark as long as you put
• 2:08
  that time in to, to get the connection down, you know, and,
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  and the energy was everything that you hear on, on the albums.
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  It's just interesting to see. I think, I think that I've said
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  this to to fin the basis because we were chatting a lot about
• 2:29
  just and we'll get we'll get into some details in a bit about
• 2:33
  where the trusted is at now. But the thing that I've been
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  sort of scratching my head about for quite some time is how you
• 2:41
  guys are not just mega like famous at this point because,
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  OK, there are a lot of talented artists in the Uka lot of
• 2:51
  talented musicians. You guys have been going a long
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  time. Yeah.
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  And like the the streams are there.
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  I think self destruct has like was like 300K or 200K.
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  Yeah, I mean, I mean across, I mean including TikTok, it says
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  like nearly 1,000,000. Yeah, I mean, it's it's getting
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  noticed, I think. Yeah, but I remember I just I
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  was in that room and I was like, how is this not like absolutely
• 3:26
  Ramo? Like how is this not the most
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  spoken about thing ever? Like how you guys not
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  headlining? Like there was a lot of
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  questions in my head where I'm like, I'm scratching my head
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  because you're doing everything right.
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  And the only thing I can come up with is is it's just timing.
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  It's just carrying on as as we're as you've been doing and
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  it will come later on. But can you speak to that a
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  little bit? I don't know what how do you
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  feel about the the progress of the trusted right now?
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  I think like it's all about framing really, because the way
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  I look at it is, you know, I think people do this thing that
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  they when they're not making music or not doing something in
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  the sort of arts where they kind of view an art form as like
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  you've got like a on and off switch, like making it, not
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  making it kind of thing. I think a lot of people think
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  that you don't exist until you're at a certain point.
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  But for us, because we've been playing together for so long,
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  you know, you know, for us, the trusted is a very real thing.
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  And you know, for us, like, you know, everything, you know, for
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  us, making the music and performing is the main thing and
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  anything else is a bonus really. And I think, you know, you know,
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  for us, you know, we, you know, make music we want to make, we
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  do what we want to do. And you know, where that takes
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  us is, you know, not up to us. That's that's down to the
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  universe. But I think if you start trying
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  to question like, you know, why maybe AB and C hasn't happened
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  or yet or whatever, I think it you kind of put in a rabbit hole
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  flight, you know, you get that sort of existential kind of
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  territory. And so I think when you reframe
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  it and kind of look at it like, well, we're, you know, we're
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  making music and we still love making music music together and
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  we still love it. And the fact that, you know, we
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  know four of us have lasted longer than some marriages.
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  You know, it's the longest relationship in my life.
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  You know, it's like being married to three people.
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  And we've we've managed to stick together.
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  And I feel like, you know, we have our moments, we have ups
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  and downs and we have, you know, any band, you have fallouts, any
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  relationship, we have arguments and whatnot.
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  But you know, we're, you know, we, we're still here.
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  And I'd argue that at the moment we're in a very good place at
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  the moment. The four of us, like we've had
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  a, we've had a good, good, well, even like from a micro level, a
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  good week just in terms of like the dynamics in the band.
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  And I think like the secret to music.
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  And I think the one bit of advice you kind of see from
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  anyone who's kind of, you know, anywhere is it's all about
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  persistence and consistency. And I think you just got, you
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  just got to keep showing up because you, you are right.
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  It's about timing. And you know, I think like the
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  way you look at any artist is like you do your own thing and
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  the universe is here and you've got to wait for the moment where
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  you kind of bounce off the kind of universe.
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  And we haven't quite maybe we haven't quite bounced off
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  universe yet in terms of certain things, but we're going to keep
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  doing what we're doing. And then, you know, if we bounce
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  off it, we do. If we don't, we don't.
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  But we make music we want to make and we've not changed for
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  anyone. We've, we're very authentically
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  ourselves. And I think like, you know, it's
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  like anything, you know, if it takes 15 years, 20 years, that's
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  how long it takes. If it takes 5 minutes, takes 5
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  minutes. It's, there's a lot of bands we
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  know who started around the same time as us, who got a lot bigger
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  than us, who don't exist anymore, split up and they're
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  just, you know, lost in the ether.
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  And there's bands who formed, you know, a few years ago who
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  blew up or whatever and, you know, broke up.
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  So like, every journey is different.
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  And you've got to kind of just like, enjoy the journey because
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  like, you know, at the end of the day, it's about making music
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  and, you know, being a band. And that is what it's all about.
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  And everything else is a bonus. And you know that that's kind of
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  the way we look at it. This is why I like you guys so
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  much. You keep it real and you're 100%
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  right. You know, like I, people have
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  asked me with my album, like, oh, how's it going?
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  How's the music going? And when I was down in the dumps
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  about things, I was like, you know, it's not going well.
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  And then and then I, you know, I got myself out of that in a good
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  positive place. And now I look at it the same
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  way that you do. I'm like, there was a time when
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  an album wasn't even a possibility.
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  And now of that, it's there. And it's there forever.
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  Yes, You know what I mean? Like, you can always.
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  It doesn't matter now whether the band ends now, 10 years from
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  now, whatever. It's like the journey is what it
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  is. And you've done all of this.
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  And you can always be proud of that.
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  Yeah. Say we and.
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  The way you've got to look at it as well is like the thing with
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  like music and making music is like, you know, it's you can't
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  fault might make people like what you do.
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  You know, if if we say we can only write one song, that one
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  song was like the you you read one song and either, you know,
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  people like it, they don't, and that's it.
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  You, if you make a song, if people don't like it, that
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  that's it. Like don't like it.
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  That's the way it is. But if you can't do what you
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  know, you can only make music that you want to make, you
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  can't, you know, really make music for other people, because
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  that's not really you, is it? And I think as well, it's
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  interesting this whole idea of like, you know, idea of like
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  making it like what, you know, that means different things to
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  different people. And I think a lot of people get
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  confused. I think they think that like one
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  day one thing will happen, then their life will change.
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  And it's all, you know, it'd be it's smooth sailing.
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  Because obviously when you look at, you know, biographies and
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  documentaries about big artists, you know, a lot of the time
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  they, they, they might focus on some of the bad things, but a
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  lot of it's glossed over. And it's kind of viewed as a
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  very like very straightforward story of like, you know, we were
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  here, we did this that led to this had this one little moment,
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  but then this. But when you're within the
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  actual thing itself, there's probably a lot of things you
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  don't see. A good example be imagine you're
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  a a band and you've just recent album and you're doing really
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  well and you're playing arenas right?
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  And it's great. Then the next album doesn't do
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  as well and you kind of fall off the kind of cultural plane a
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  little bit. And all of a sudden you're
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  you're playing theatres. Like you go from the O2 to
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  Hamstff Apollo right now. If we were playing Hamstff
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  Apollo tomorrow, it'd be like the but greatest thing of all
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  time. I can't believe it.
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  This is amazing. But if you just if you were on
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  your last or playing an arena and then going down from the
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  arena, it's like hands of Apollo.
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  You know, you within the band itself and the management and
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  you know, the world itself. There's probably a lot of, you
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  know, turmoil and arguments and probably a lot of like work
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  related depression that kind of comes from Oh my God, I can't
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  believe we were here and now we're here.
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  Whereas bands who are not playing Hands of Apollo going.
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  I wish I was just playing there, but when you so I think like
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  problems evolve, you know, I think you could be the biggest
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  artist in the world, but then new problems arrive and you're
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  still struggling with that. Sort of like, am I doing enough?
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  Am I this? I haven't quite, you know, even
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  though I'm playing on the mainstage of Glastonbury, Why am
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  I not headlining yet? There's probably a lot of that
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  going on under the surface for for a lot of like big acts.
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  So I think like the confusion is, I think for a lot of people,
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  they think there's a moment when suddenly it goes from
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  everything's awful, everything's great.
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  But with music and art, it's always a journey.
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  It's always, it's always going to be problems and it's always
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  going to be like, you know, it's always going to be that sort of
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  like existential dread. I don't care where you are on
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  the, you know, whether you're at the very, very tip of the
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  iceberg or you're at the very, very bottom, it doesn't matter
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  that that dread is still there. It's just in different contexts.
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  Yeah, and I can think of so many bands that completely fit what
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  what you're talking about. Like for instance, Franz
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  Ferdinand just came to mind. They were huge 2000s.
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  They had they, I believe they might have even been their debut
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  album was the big, the big one. And then they had another one
• 11:42
  follow up, which did not as well, but still really good.
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  And then they kind of, you know, they still write music, they
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  still perform to this day, but they're not as big as they were.
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  And it's like, does that mean that they're not worth listening
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  to anymore? Does that mean they're not as
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  good? Well, again, it's up for debate,
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  isn't it? Like it's music is one of those
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  things. It's so as you say, like it's,
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  it's people will make of it what they'll make of it.
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  But something in there that you said I I found really
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  interesting, like, yeah, let's say that you you you play these
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  huge places and now you're playing like little places.
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  Like, does it really matter? Does does it make you any less
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  worth seeing, any less good? I would argue no, but I think
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  that's more of a a comment on society.
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  Like I think society needs to be a lot less judgmental like
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  because like, I'm dude, I'm the same in the same boat as you.
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  Like, all right, on the musical ladder, if you like, you guys
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  are killing it. You're doing really well and
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  there's a clear projection as far as like where things are
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  headed, right? But.
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  As you mentioned earlier that a lot of hard work and, and years
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  have gone into that. So you're, you're, you're kind
• 12:54
  of benefiting from all the work you put in for the last sort of
• 12:59
  eight years. It takes 10 years to be an
• 13:02
  overnight success. There we go.
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  Yeah, I saw that quote recently too, and I was like, I think
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  it's genius. It's when I, when I look at
• 13:09
  where I'm at now with my stuff, I think the reason why maybe
• 13:14
  people like the music and are paying attention to the music is
• 13:17
  that I became a better songwriter, The better
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  songwriter because I had to live first, you know, and, and when I
• 13:24
  look at your music, like Velikal was the first song I heard and I
• 13:29
  was like, this is, this is fantastic.
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  This is a really well written song and it was very artistic.
• 13:36
  And then, and I like the themes. I like the presentation.
• 13:41
  I just, you know, just became a fan and then I've been paying
• 13:45
  attention to all your music over the course of the last three
• 13:49
  years now. And I'd argue it's even better
• 13:53
  than before. I, it's, there's, I've not heard
• 13:57
  a bad song and I, I can't often say that about art.
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  There's only a few artists that I listen to ever where I could
• 14:04
  say they, they haven't written a bad song.
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  And you are one of them. And I think a lot of that comes
• 14:09
  down to honing your skills as writers.
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  You know, you, you kind of find something that works.
• 14:16
  You're not afraid to experiment as well.
• 14:18
  That's something I've, I've seen in your sound a lot.
• 14:20
  There's a lot of different like I would struggle just as I do
• 14:25
  with my own stuff to give you like, Oh, this is what is the
• 14:28
  trusted? What kind of sound do they like?
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  I because I'm always dropping your name in conversations like
• 14:35
  check out this band. I'm going to go see this band,
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  blah, blah, blah, right. And someone asked me that and I
• 14:39
  was like indie pop rock. Oh, maybe, I don't know,
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  there's. All those things, that whole,
• 14:46
  that whole universe. There's a bit of everything in
• 14:49
  there. I think a big reason why I like
• 14:52
  it and I fell in love with it is it reminded me of a lot of bands
• 14:55
  that I listened to when I was in the 2000s.
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  And, you know, I said to a friend, I was like, if this were
• 15:00
  the 2000's, the trusted to be the biggest band of all time,
• 15:03
  Right. But does that mean that you
• 15:05
  can't make it now? No, because also you've got this
• 15:08
  unique sound that's different from anything I've heard as
• 15:12
  well, which is you and yeah, I mean, it's, you know, like you
• 15:19
  said, it's all. About you also remember of us
• 15:21
  like we the the the the the sort of landscape of doing things is
• 15:27
  changing so quickly and I'd argue that every year the way
• 15:31
  things are done is changing even quicker.
• 15:33
  So within the time of us being a band, it's you can see like how
• 15:38
  things have changed. Even the way people post social
• 15:40
  media like it, we start off social media is very much like a
• 15:43
  very pristine everything. It had to be like pristine
• 15:45
  aesthetically, like perfect. It's all really well shot
• 15:48
  photos. Whereas now we're kind of at a
• 15:50
  point where people should post like them in them in their
• 15:53
  dressing gown in the toilet singing.
• 15:55
  Like it's kind of we've kind of like become more open and I and
• 16:01
  I feel like we've asked, you know, we started and we kind of
• 16:04
  built stuff, start building stuff.
• 16:06
  And then we would hit with lockdown and that kind of reset
• 16:10
  the band a little bit because suddenly we were starting to get
• 16:13
  some cool stuck traction and then suddenly boom, lockdown
• 16:19
  happens. And then that, you know, really
• 16:22
  until 2022, that kind of lingered because it wasn't until
• 16:26
  2022 really before things started to really open up again.
• 16:30
  So it's a good like 2 1/2, I'll argue maybe three years of like
• 16:37
  that sort of a constraint from the pandemic, but also, you
• 16:43
  know, coming out of the pandemic, the industry for it's
• 16:47
  changed again, the way gigs work, the way things work has
• 16:50
  changed. There's definitely a post and
• 16:51
  pre lockdown difference. And so we can't have to have to
• 16:56
  relearn how to be a band again. So there's that as well that we
• 17:01
  have to we have to kind of take into consideration.
• 17:03
  There's that big pandemic monster that kind of sits right
• 17:07
  in the middle there like, you know, but I think like, you
• 17:11
  know, we're always learning new ways to kind of like, you know,
• 17:14
  engage people. Like, you know, we found for us
• 17:17
  Tiktok has been a really good tool because it's such a Wild
• 17:21
  West. You can kind of post anything
• 17:23
  and you could, you know, things can get, you can have like no
• 17:26
  followers and post one thing and get like a quatrillion Brazilian
• 17:30
  whatever. So, you know, we've used that
• 17:34
  and using Tiktok lives has been really helpful and we've kind of
• 17:37
  found in the last year, especially, there's been a real
• 17:40
  big progress. We've took out, you know, that
• 17:41
  song self destruct kind of took off on tip tock a little bit.
• 17:45
  That combined like the live streaming, we've built a discord
• 17:48
  for our fan base. We kind of built a little sort
• 17:52
  of community of sort of fans. And we've, you know, I always
• 17:58
  think that when you're making a building a fan base, it's the
• 18:00
  hard, the hardest thing you can do in music, right, is getting
• 18:02
  someone who's a not a friend or family member to like your
• 18:07
  music. That is one of the hardest
• 18:08
  things to do because you've got to get a stranger to come along
• 18:11
  and invest. And it's not, and that's not
• 18:14
  just liking a song to, you know, they ask a song, you've got to
• 18:17
  get someone to come along not to like the song, but invest in you
• 18:19
  as an artist, like invest in who you are emotionally.
• 18:24
  And that is really hard to do. So excuse me, what you need to
• 18:30
  do is almost like the hardest thing to do is take these
• 18:33
  people, get them, you know, show them your music and then keep
• 18:37
  them in your universe. They keep they stay there and a
• 18:42
  lot of time you find sometimes you might get like a viral video
• 18:44
  or part of your song that goes goes quite well.
• 18:46
  You know, say you've got a bucket and new people will jump
• 18:49
  in. I love this song.
• 18:49
  I love this song. I love this song, but the
• 18:51
  bucket's got a hold in the bottom, so they just fall
• 18:53
  straight through. So you think, oh, great, look,
• 18:55
  we've got this song has got like a billion listens on this video.
• 19:00
  Great. Let's and then you actually look
• 19:01
  into into it. You go, we've actually gained
• 19:03
  maybe like no fans because we've not kept in a bucket.
• 19:07
  This OK, first of all, amazing analogy.
• 19:10
  Brilliant. I know my listeners are going to
• 19:12
  be like, absolutely. Let's OK, let's let's compare
• 19:17
  for a second. I came to I came to see you in
• 19:19
  London in in in a very central location.
• 19:23
  And I was like, oh, it's going to be Ramo, right?
• 19:28
  It was busy room, but when I was looking around, I was like, OK,
• 19:33
  well, let's start with that because I know that you had an
• 19:35
  interesting ticketing thing where it was like you, I
• 19:38
  remember when I bought the ticket, it said, oh, who are you
• 19:40
  here to see? And I was like, yeah, they
• 19:41
  trusted. I was like, OK, cool.
• 19:43
  So they're collecting numbers and, you know, the, the musician
• 19:49
  in me from years of doing this, I, I knew it was like, oh, maybe
• 19:53
  there's that arrangement where it's like, oh, if you bring X
• 19:55
  amount of people, then, you know, you get a share of the
• 20:00
  sales or it's just counted numbers or, you know, whatever
• 20:03
  the arrangement is. But it's one of the toughest
• 20:06
  things about being in a band, being a musician is if you're
• 20:08
  trying to get gigs, promoters, the first thing they will always
• 20:11
  say is how many people can you bring?
• 20:13
  Yeah. Now the trusted is a band, as
• 20:17
  you say, that has millions of, of lessons online.
• 20:20
  The the, the resume speaks for itself.
• 20:23
  But getting people to come out and see you?
• 20:26
  Different story. 100% different. But also your M as well, if you
• 20:31
  took the map or the world back on that table, those streams
• 20:35
  would be spread out across that thing across that map.
• 20:39
  And for us, like we've always struggled with London, I think a
• 20:42
  little bit I think I've I've always kind of viewed London as
• 20:44
  kind of like AI love London. I love it.
• 20:45
  It's you know, it's we we don't you know, for us it's pretty
• 20:48
  much like right next to us. It's like you can look at the
• 20:50
  window. You can kind of see it
• 20:51
  metaphorically, but it's a tough town.
• 20:55
  We've always found it quite tough.
• 20:57
  It feels quite what's a good word?
• 21:00
  It feels very like a like a traverse, like a town people
• 21:03
  traverse into like it's like a kind of like a a moving town.
• 21:08
  And we've always we always find London has always been hard for
• 21:12
  us to sell tickets in, whereas other places around the UKA lot
• 21:17
  easier. And when you look at our, a lot
• 21:20
  of our fans when we were into music, we always joke it's like
• 21:23
  anywhere but London. So we, we, we, we were talking
• 21:28
  to promoter once I was like, I think it was like last year.
• 21:30
  And it's about getting gigs. They keep going.
• 21:32
  What about London? Where like anywhere about
• 21:33
  London? Well, London though, anywhere
• 21:35
  about London, it's like keep us out of London.
• 21:37
  Like I love London, but I feel like it's, we've always
• 21:41
  struggled with that, that maybe that's just an us thing.
• 21:44
  Maybe we, we just haven't engaged in the communities in
• 21:47
  London. I mean, it's not really hit
• 21:49
  those people emotionally or, or something.
• 21:52
  But for us, London has always been a tough one.
• 21:55
  And what's ironic about the whole thing is it's, it's right
• 21:58
  there. It's the easiest place for us to
• 22:00
  play because it's right. You know, we can, you know,
• 22:03
  it's, it's like basically our, our local city.
• 22:06
  But when you look at stuff, you know, we have so, so many people
• 22:10
  want us to play Birmingham. We've got, we've got a lot of
• 22:13
  fans in Birmingham, we've got a lot of fans in Brighton, we've
• 22:17
  got a lot of fans in Scotland. And you know, the big thing is
• 22:23
  about we, we know we want to our plans to get up there.
• 22:27
  We've just signing management and our, our, our big
• 22:31
  conversation with them. At the moment we're in talks to
• 22:34
  some booking agents and our big thing is to kind of do some gig
• 22:38
  swaps with some artists up north and just get out there and and
• 22:42
  support some. Obviously we don't think we're
• 22:44
  big enough to like maybe set out a gig in these places, but we
• 22:49
  can certainly pull people in so. Well, this is how a lot of
• 22:53
  artists like grow as well, isn't it?
• 22:54
  Like the traditional ways you get on the the, the bill of
• 22:58
  bigger artists and you gain fans and, and attention from from
• 23:01
  that bill. Like when I saw you guys playing
• 23:04
  and then I saw who was booked against you, I was like, well,
• 23:07
  whoever's booked this bill did a fantastic job because it's been
• 23:09
  a great night. Yeah.
• 23:10
  All these bands sound similar. Yes, it works together.
• 23:15
  Like I, I found a band I fell in love with a romance.
• 23:19
  I was like, yeah. Fantastic.
• 23:21
  Honestly, it was like, I love playing gigs with bands who are
• 23:24
  like top of the game, But what's really I found interesting as
• 23:27
  well is they're always the nicest bands or the nicest
• 23:31
  musicians. The most friendliest, nicest,
• 23:33
  coolest bands are the ones who really could you play these gigs
• 23:38
  and they're like really lovely and really accommodating and
• 23:40
  kind of like you feel like you're part of you feel like
• 23:42
  you're 1 big band, but but these, but these bands are like
• 23:47
  amazing. They're incredible.
• 23:48
  They're like really talented and it's like, well, it just shows.
• 23:50
  These bands are so good. They don't need to, you know,
• 23:54
  they've got nothing to prove because they, they, they're good
• 23:56
  so that they don't need to put a front on or be horrible because
• 24:01
  you know they're good. Well, I always think as well,
• 24:03
  like you're shooting yourself in the foot with that because you,
• 24:06
  you might have attention, you might even be famous or
• 24:09
  whatever. But like at the end of the day,
• 24:11
  when it comes to getting gigs, making it in the industry and
• 24:15
  stuff, it's the same in acting, It's the same in a lot of
• 24:19
  industries. You're going to get it based on
• 24:24
  the relationships and the connections you make.
• 24:27
  Everything I've ever achieved has been through making the
• 24:30
  connections with the right people, talking to people and
• 24:33
  just being like, what about this?
• 24:34
  What about this? You know, I know that with this
• 24:39
  podcast, for example, people have said, how did you get this
• 24:43
  person? And I was like, I spoke to them.
• 24:44
  I talked to them. I asked, you know what I mean?
• 24:48
  Like, you make a good connection.
• 24:51
  I think it helps that, yeah, I've had stuff in common with
• 24:54
  people on the show before. I think that sure helps.
• 24:57
  But at the end of the day, it's, it's, it's about having the
• 25:01
  right attitude and like I've experienced the same as you.
• 25:05
  I've, I've had people be, you know, like it's the word.
• 25:12
  I can't think of the word, but like when they're when they're
• 25:14
  kind of like they think they're better than you and it's that
• 25:16
  all right, cool, which. Which is, which is, I think, you
• 25:20
  know, I think one of my, you know, I love music and I love
• 25:24
  making music and but it's like any sort of world, there's,
• 25:27
  there's downsides to it. And one of my, you know, there's
• 25:29
  a few things I hate with music. And one of the things I hate is
• 25:33
  the snobbery that that comes from certain people, not just
• 25:36
  bands, but sometimes it can come from listeners and whoever.
• 25:40
  But I think there's definitely a snobbery there because it's such
• 25:43
  a like, it's such a, you know, lucrative world to be part of.
• 25:50
  Not, I'm not talking money wise, but in terms of like, you know,
• 25:54
  everyone wants, you know, musician, being a musician or
• 25:56
  making music is such like a, you know, it can be such like a, you
• 26:02
  know, empowering thing. And it's a very like egocentric
• 26:07
  kind of universe. And I think it leads to a lot of
• 26:11
  snobbery and a lot of like, as you say, people put sticking
• 26:15
  their nose up and looking down on people.
• 26:17
  And, and again, it's not just bands, but you see, you know,
• 26:19
  it's like when people go, you know, I listen to this, someone
• 26:21
  looks at you like that's, that's terrible.
• 26:23
  How how dare you listen to that? Like that's, that's not real
• 26:26
  music. Or you say I listen to so and so
• 26:28
  and they go, well, name 5 songs, like all that sort of stuff.
• 26:30
  I find that quite difficult because it, it kind of, you
• 26:34
  know, or who's been the most obscure gig or, you know, who's
• 26:37
  this or is that side of it I don't like.
• 26:41
  And it's quite and, and it's kind of a big part of music.
• 26:45
  I just think it's dumb as fuck like I if if someone speaks to
• 26:49
  me and they say something like that I just I tune out on my
• 26:54
  like what? Yeah.
• 26:57
  Music said to be listened to it like who cares how many songs
• 27:00
  you know? Even if you know like one song
• 27:02
  like. Who gives a shit like?
• 27:04
  Really. Like, what does that?
• 27:05
  Yeah, I remember when I was a kid and and like someone pulled
• 27:07
  me up on a Led Zeppelin shirt and they did that.
• 27:09
  And at the time I was listening to the three album quite
• 27:12
  religiously and I just named every song off the three album.
• 27:15
  And then he was just like. It's like like if you couldn't,
• 27:20
  it shouldn't, it shouldn't matter.
• 27:22
  Like, or also, why can't you? You could just wear AT shirt
• 27:24
  because it's a cool T-shirt. Like you need to listen.
• 27:26
  I've I've I don't I haven't got a problem with people wear.
• 27:29
  If someone wears AT shirt and they don't listen to the artist,
• 27:32
  that's like, it's just a cool T-shirt.
• 27:34
  Like you, you could like wear a really cool 1, I don't know,
• 27:37
  talking heads T-shirt, not listen to any talking heads, but
• 27:39
  the T-shirts cool. So I'll wear the T-shirt.
• 27:42
  That's like, that's not a problem, but I think people have
• 27:44
  a problem where it's like people that take ownership of things
• 27:47
  are like, well, I'm really into this thing.
• 27:50
  It's mine, you know. Yeah, but it's not ever going to
• 27:54
  stop being yours. Like like the whole argument.
• 27:56
  Of that's the point. Yeah, it's like, oh, I listened
• 27:59
  to this band before they were famous.
• 28:00
  Like, OK, cool. So.
• 28:05
  It doesn't make. Me any less of a fan like it's.
• 28:08
  Exactly. And that's, that's the thing
• 28:10
  people like to like to like that like, but you know, it's no
• 28:13
  one's fault. It's just, it's just kind of
• 28:14
  baked into the kind of fabric of how music is kind of consumed
• 28:19
  and spoken about, you know, because it's been around for so
• 28:22
  long. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is,
• 28:25
  to be honest. I think, like you said, there's
• 28:27
  a lot of things you just have to accept.
• 28:28
  Like I've been criticised for my songs being like really basic
• 28:31
  and I'm like, well, I don't know, I always just kind of felt
• 28:35
  like what works for the song works for the song.
• 28:38
  And I've always tended to focus more on my lyrics and my singing
• 28:42
  rather than guitar work. Sometimes there will be more
• 28:44
  complex, but some of it is down to like playing as well.
• 28:49
  Like sometimes it's easier to have a more basic song that you
• 28:53
  can focus your attention elsewhere so that it's more like
• 28:57
  it just works for the live situation, you know?
• 29:03
  Because like, I feel like the more layers you add, the more
• 29:06
  difficult it's going to be to sort of make it happen on the
• 29:09
  stage kind of thing. Yeah.
• 29:11
  Yeah, anyway, let's move on. Oh, I did want to ask you real
• 29:15
  quick about TikTok. Yes, sure.
• 29:18
  So there's something interesting that you do that I don't see a
• 29:21
  lot of artists do. You sort of do like a live
• 29:26
  performance style stream now? A lot of artists perform on
• 29:30
  stream, but like you actually will, you'll do backing track
• 29:34
  stuff and you'll perform right and you'll show people like,
• 29:37
  well, this is this song like and to request what they want and it
• 29:41
  works well. Let's just speak to those
• 29:44
  efforts for a second. What would you say that's
• 29:49
  translated into? And because I think like the way
• 29:52
  that you approach TikTok has changed a lot over the years.
• 29:55
  And I would argue because of things like drawing a blank,
• 30:02
  self destructs, getting the the streams that it has, clearly
• 30:06
  you've changed tasks. So let's just talk about, like,
• 30:08
  your strategy on TikTok and how it's working out.
• 30:10
  Yeah. So I think that's an interesting
• 30:12
  one because you know, what it wants out of you changes a lot
• 30:17
  and what and how people, it's not just what it wants, but what
• 30:20
  people want changes a lot. And it's very saturated now.
• 30:24
  There's a lot on there. It's kind of, you know, people
• 30:26
  kind of cotton on to it. I think like in 2020 and 2021 it
• 30:31
  was still it was very popular, but the algorithm felt very Wild
• 30:36
  West like. And I think a lot of bands were
• 30:39
  kind of, you know, including us at the beginning with a bit like
• 30:41
  I don't go on that's a dance. What's that all about the dance
• 30:44
  app? And then they sort of start
• 30:47
  seeing the power power of it when they start seeing the, you
• 30:49
  know, the very smart bands who kind of got got on early and got
• 30:53
  a lot. I'm out of it and they're like,
• 30:54
  oh, oh shit, I'm missing the trick here.
• 30:56
  And now every single person and their brother and sister and
• 31:00
  mother and father is on there. So for us, it's the, for us, the
• 31:09
  strategy of TikTok now is when we find people who are really
• 31:15
  into it and there are people who are really into the trusted, who
• 31:18
  really, really like get it and love it and go and every day
• 31:22
  show up every day where it's, you know, commenting or
• 31:25
  whatever, it's honing, honing in on those people.
• 31:30
  So for us, what's really important is comments, you know,
• 31:34
  I don't really care about the views too much.
• 31:36
  I think for us, it's getting comments when, when we see, you
• 31:39
  know, as when we keep seeing the same people showing up in the
• 31:42
  comments over and over and over again.
• 31:43
  We know we've got them. We know that, OK, these people
• 31:46
  believe in the music, they like what we're doing.
• 31:50
  And they, they, they are, they are in the trusted bubble.
• 31:56
  And for us it's to keep in keep giving them stuff, keep giving
• 31:59
  to them, give to them, give to them, give them something, keep
• 32:02
  showing up for them. And you know, it's about keep
• 32:07
  posting content. Because if, if we just get, even
• 32:09
  if we post a video and it gets like, I don't know, like 200
• 32:12
  views, right? If we get one new person in,
• 32:16
  then that's a win. Like one person who likes the
• 32:19
  music and they and it and it that's a win.
• 32:21
  And then what's a slam dunk is that person then keeps showing
• 32:25
  up and showing up and showing up.
• 32:27
  They're doing Discord, then they buy a T-shirt, then they come
• 32:30
  and then the ultimate the end of the trail is you go to a gig and
• 32:33
  they're there. That is the end of the line.
• 32:36
  So it's like, it's like a line of like they like a song.
• 32:40
  They keep showing up. They start engaging on other
• 32:43
  platforms, Instagram, Discord, YouTube, whatever.
• 32:48
  Then they start being more intense in in in comments and
• 32:53
  being more interested. Then they show up.
• 32:56
  And I think when they show up, that is the ultimate.
• 32:58
  There's two things I think are the ultimate compliments. 1 is
• 33:02
  them shout out to a gig, which I don't care if if we play to the
• 33:05
  embassy room and one person turns up, they're wearing a
• 33:07
  trusty shirt or they've come a long way like yourself, or that
• 33:11
  is a win. We've done the impossible.
• 33:15
  We've taken a complete strange someone who's not related, not a
• 33:19
  friend, not some neighbor, but someone who's got no connection
• 33:22
  to us. Their their entry point wasn't a
• 33:25
  joke I told at a pub or you know, they're related to me.
• 33:28
  The entry point is a song. A song got them involved.
• 33:33
  The song music came first, we come second.
• 33:36
  Then they're they've turned up to a show and they're there and
• 33:39
  they're and they're and that is the win.
• 33:41
  We've that we've done the thing that every artist in the entire
• 33:44
  universe wants to do. Obviously the second thing is
• 33:48
  someone who's got musical talent, you know, or, or if not
• 33:53
  that that covers your song. Those two things covering the
• 33:56
  music, like take it or, or, or artwork.
• 33:58
  So I guess it's like turn up to a show or repurposing your art
• 34:03
  into like a cover or like fan art.
• 34:06
  Those two things are like the golden Whenever those happen,
• 34:11
  even who it is, it like makes your day.
• 34:14
  It's like, Oh my God, you feel like a real a real boy.
• 34:19
  There's a few things that happened to me, Reese, I want to
• 34:20
  talk about my fanship of you in a SEC, but I I it just brought
• 34:24
  up my experience. People saying that certain songs
• 34:29
  on my album are their favorite. I'm like what?
• 34:31
  Or they know the lyrics. I'm like, what?
• 34:34
  I did a gig and people were singing along like people, and
• 34:39
  they're people I know. But still I was like what?
• 34:43
  It's great. It's the best, yeah.
• 34:45
  And they started trying my name at one point.
• 34:47
  I was like life. I was like, is this a good time
• 34:49
  to tell you I've got anxiety? But the, the thing that blow me,
• 34:54
  blew me away recently was like yourself.
• 34:56
  I know a lot of musicians and we all play together and stuff and
• 34:59
  we love each other's music and whatnot.
• 35:01
  Like gentleman, like as fans, like I, we were at the the pub
• 35:05
  the other day. It was after this open mic that
• 35:08
  we do that I do every Wednesday. And I was saying like, oh, I
• 35:12
  love this song that you wrote. Like, oh, show me the chord,
• 35:15
  show me the lyrics. And we were like singing along,
• 35:17
  singing other people that weren't their songs.
• 35:19
  And then two of my friends started playing my song on
• 35:23
  guitar and I was just like, stunned.
• 35:26
  I didn't know what to say. I was like, this is surreal.
• 35:31
  And what you were saying there like, oh, if we took the online
• 35:33
  stuff, like anytime, like I threw away that whole streams
• 35:38
  and, and this like I'm grateful for it and I've celebrated it.
• 35:40
  I got over 2K recently. I was like, Oh, thank you, but I
• 35:44
  I'm not you. I'm like any comment, any person
• 35:47
  showing attention for more than like a week, celebrate that.
• 35:51
  Like artists, if you're listening, celebrate the people
• 35:55
  that show up each and every week.
• 35:56
  Don't pay attention to the numbers.
• 35:58
  Like keep it in mind, but pay attention to the people that.
• 36:02
  What numbers? You can fight to a point, like
• 36:04
  if if you if you numbers are your favorite thing in the
• 36:06
  world, you can you can fake those.
• 36:08
  It's not hard, sure, but it's about about what do those
• 36:11
  numbers actually mean? The question you've got to ask
• 36:13
  someone. Would you rather have 20
• 36:14
  listeners, but those 20 people will turn up to every single one
• 36:17
  of your gigs, buy them merch, be there, tell their friends, be a
• 36:22
  proper fan? Or would you rather have a
• 36:23
  million just people who just like listen to it one yeah, it's
• 36:25
  a good song and don't whatever. Like I think logically, but for
• 36:30
  me, what is it you really want? For me, the goal is to have a
• 36:34
  fan show up to a gig of mine. As you say, someone that is not
• 36:40
  a friend of mine does not know me, just showed up because they
• 36:43
  saw that I'm playing. Like that's the.
• 36:46
  Next, that's the ultimate win that is that is when you know
• 36:48
  you've done something because that's when it goes past it just
• 36:51
  being your you suddenly your music becomes someone else's
• 36:54
  music and and it's it's not it translates into the real.
• 36:57
  They have to make a real world decision.
• 36:59
  They've had to spend their own money, use their own time and
• 37:04
  probably like, 'cause some kind of disruption in their own life,
• 37:06
  they've got to like take an evening out.
• 37:08
  They might have to travel, They might have to, you know, it's,
• 37:10
  they might have to make a difficult decision to get to
• 37:12
  that gig, but they've, they've, they've decided to make that
• 37:15
  sacrifice to come and watch you. That's when you know, your
• 37:18
  music's had an effect. And I always say that I think if
• 37:22
  you're an artist and you and you, you sell out, say you, you
• 37:26
  sell out, you sell out like a local show and you sell out a
• 37:28
  London show, everyone in the street will take notes of you
• 37:31
  straight away. They'll be like, because that's
• 37:33
  what they care about. They care about butts on seats
• 37:35
  so that you know that because they know how hard that is.
• 37:38
  It's like that is the hard, that is the hardest thing to do in
• 37:41
  music. That is the, if you boil it down
• 37:42
  to a simple, very simple thing, it's bringing someone along in
• 37:47
  real life to a show who doesn't know you.
• 37:50
  That is really hard. And so any, any artist who does
• 37:52
  that is, you know, they've, they've got OK, if you like the
• 37:56
  music or not, they can do that. They're obviously good at what
• 38:00
  they do because, you know, you know, there's lots of really,
• 38:03
  there's lots of bands you might go, I don't like their music or
• 38:05
  whatever. But if they're bringing, you
• 38:08
  know, loads of people to their gigs who don't, you know, just
• 38:10
  who are not friends or family, they're just like fans of their
• 38:12
  music. They are doing something
• 38:14
  special. And that's what that is the goal
• 38:17
  that everyone is trying to do. That's what the online is.
• 38:19
  All of that is just is just trying to get to that point.
• 38:22
  You know, people want viral moments or whatever because they
• 38:26
  want that moment of they can do a gig and these people will turn
• 38:29
  up. That's what they want.
• 38:31
  Really. It's it that translates to that.
• 38:34
  It's that it's the physical world that matters that people
• 38:37
  use the online world to to make the physical world real.
• 38:42
  And that is it. That's what it boils down to.
• 38:46
  And that and whenever we get there and we get a lot more
• 38:48
  recently, which has been great, especially in a lot, I said the
• 38:50
  last for us, the last 1230 month has been like a like a the, the
• 38:58
  tectonic plates have kind of shifted a little bit.
• 39:01
  And we've noticed that the wind has kind of gone from east to
• 39:04
  West. And we're like, oh, something's
• 39:06
  happened here. We've gone from a real low point
• 39:09
  at the start of last year where things are starting to, we're
• 39:12
  like, and you're struggling with it.
• 39:13
  And then all of a sudden really self destruct.
• 39:15
  And there's like a little like little light switch, Brent
• 39:20
  Dean's the tiny one. There's a little crack in the
• 39:22
  wall. And it was like, OK, and that is
• 39:25
  kind of we've noticed the trajectory of the trusted kind
• 39:29
  of change in the last very, very slight, but it's but we kind of
• 39:34
  feel it and all four of us, four of us alike, OK.
• 39:38
  So I'm going to talk about me becoming a fan because it
• 39:44
  connects with everything that you've said, right?
• 39:47
  And, and I completely agree with everything you've said, by the
• 39:52
  way. I I think that it's, it speaks
• 39:55
  to that progression thing that you were talking about and also
• 39:57
  presentation. I think to a certain extent,
• 40:01
  like I said earlier, I came across you in like late 2021,
• 40:04
  early 2022. Yeah, for Bellacoire was a cool
• 40:09
  song. I think I might have messaged
• 40:11
  you and you were like, oh, nice one.
• 40:13
  And I was like, oh, cool, these guys are nice.
• 40:15
  Reach out to you about, hey, do you guys want to be on the show?
• 40:18
  You said yes, you come on my show.
• 40:20
  We have a great show. I'm like, yeah, awesome.
• 40:23
  So now I'm like keeping tabs on you as I do with with most of
• 40:26
  the artists that I've been on my show over the years.
• 40:30
  I'm like, oh, cool. And then you keep releasing
• 40:35
  stuff and I'm like, oh, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool,
• 40:37
  cool. And then yeah, I think it's
• 40:40
  self-destructive. I'm like, oh, mad.
• 40:42
  And then I, so then I just start going like and delving into all
• 40:45
  the, the back catalog and I'm just sort of just falling in
• 40:50
  love with the songwriting and going like, these are really
• 40:52
  fucking good songs like these. These are just good songs to
• 40:57
  listen to. It's very, I think anytime you
• 41:01
  listen to an album and it's easy to kind of go from from A to B,
• 41:05
  it's, it's like, OK, cool this because that's kind of a lost
• 41:08
  art form. I think EPS and albums.
• 41:11
  I like that you guys are still doing that.
• 41:12
  I I stick by it as well. I think it's good to tell a
• 41:15
  story with it to pinpoint a certain time because your sound
• 41:21
  is different Over the years, it's not like changed so much
• 41:24
  that you're not the same band anymore.
• 41:26
  But it's just, yeah, I think you've kind of stepped into the
• 41:29
  pot realm a little bit more and you're not afraid to.
• 41:32
  And it's blended well into the sound.
• 41:35
  And maybe that's what people are connecting with because it's,
• 41:40
  and that and the presentation factor, you know, when you see
• 41:43
  you guys on stage, it's a confident band.
• 41:46
  It's a band that knows what they're doing and, and that's
• 41:49
  exciting to see. So that's how I kind of became a
• 41:54
  fan. And then I was just kind of
• 41:56
  going like, well, I want to see them, but when, how?
• 42:00
  And as you know, like it's like, oh, I hope they come to
• 42:02
  Manchester because. We will and I mean we are this
• 42:06
  year. I think like probably that, you
• 42:08
  know, we want to reach all these people.
• 42:10
  We've been all over the place. If you can't come to London or,
• 42:14
  or, or come down here. So you know, we, you know that
• 42:19
  I've got, I've got from what, who've been talking to and
• 42:22
  what's been going on. I've got confidence that will be
• 42:25
  in Manchester very, very, very soon.
• 42:27
  You'll be very well received there and like, I won't shut up
• 42:31
  about it. So I'll be able to bring some
• 42:33
  people, I reckon. But I think that the the maybe
• 42:39
  the biggest thing, and maybe to anyone who's thinking about
• 42:42
  seeing the trusted, I'll say this.
• 42:45
  The way that you guys come across very open, very humble.
• 42:51
  Yeah. In in real life, I was.
• 42:55
  This is a weird position for me to be in because to an extent, I
• 43:00
  feel like I know you guys. I like I I'm still a stranger,
• 43:02
  but I know you may be a little bit.
• 43:06
  Yeah, you know, but I came there just as a fan.
• 43:10
  I didn't expect anything. I just thought it'd be like a hi
• 43:13
  and then that'll be it. But then you guys maybe after
• 43:16
  they come talk to me, I was like.
• 43:18
  And one of the things Flynn said, which I thought was
• 43:19
  interesting, was, yeah, he's like, this is surreal.
• 43:23
  And I was like, yeah, it's it's it's a bit weird, but yeah, in a
• 43:27
  in a good way. And that meant a lot to me, by
• 43:30
  the way. So thank you to all of you for
• 43:32
  making me feel so welcome. And and yeah.
• 43:37
  And like we were saying before, no attitudes, no.
• 43:40
  Oh, I'm an artist. Just come approach me, talk, buy
• 43:44
  AT shirt, you know, great. And I did.
• 43:47
  I got one. It's going to wait today, but
• 43:49
  it's in the wash. That's all right.
• 43:53
  I mean, it all ties in, I think like the I think when someone
• 43:57
  asks about our music, you know, trustee, What is the trustee?
• 44:00
  I'm like, well, I want to be like this.
• 44:00
  You know, all our songs are quite whether you know, it's a
• 44:03
  good thing or not. It's all it's all very like
• 44:05
  heart on the sleeve kind of stuff.
• 44:06
  It's very like emotionally open and very all out there on the
• 44:12
  line. It's not, you know, it's not
• 44:13
  very reserved. And that, you know, when you
• 44:17
  look at bands like, you know, big bands like bands like, you
• 44:21
  know, R.E.M. or U2, you know, their music is very out there
• 44:25
  and people either love that or don't like, you know, it's
• 44:28
  definitely a thing. People like the kind of cool
• 44:31
  kind of, you know, hide behind the the shield kind of thing,
• 44:34
  but we're very open and I want it to translate not just into
• 44:37
  the music, but you know, I think as people we're kind of like
• 44:42
  that anyway. So it kind of feeds into the
• 44:44
  music and obviously we call the trusted it all kind of like
• 44:46
  linked. That's kind of like where we're
• 44:48
  coming from. It's that kind of like very, you
• 44:49
  know, when we play live, it's like open heart surgery.
• 44:52
  You know, it's kind of. Yeah, there there was a comment
• 44:55
  recently, someone commented on one of your videos and they
• 44:57
  said, oh, you're like my emotional support band and you
• 45:00
  shared it on the story. And I was like, yeah, no, I know
• 45:02
  what you mean, that it's a comforting band.
• 45:05
  It's a you're. A therapy band.
• 45:06
  Someone else said that. So I'm like, yeah, that's who we
• 45:08
  are. Yeah, like, dude, someone
• 45:10
  commented on I, I was so thrown away, thrown by this, but
• 45:14
  someone commented on one of my videos, one of my songs on
• 45:18
  YouTube and and they said like just something about like the
• 45:23
  lyrics, like it meant a lot to them.
• 45:25
  And I was just like blown away by that.
• 45:27
  And I was like, because it's part of you.
• 45:31
  You put it out there because you love it.
• 45:33
  It's music, it's what we do. And then someone connects with
• 45:36
  it and it's like it could not. Be That's the win, that's the
• 45:39
  moment, that's the thing. That's the golden goose right
• 45:41
  there. Right, let's move it on many
• 45:45
  questions. I want to talk about the
• 45:48
  management for a second. Obviously, I know from a legal
• 45:52
  standpoint there won't be a lot that you can say, so let's just
• 45:55
  kind of look at how that came to be and what it might mean for
• 45:59
  you. So one thing about music was
• 46:02
  interesting is a lot of times things come at the end of like a
• 46:06
  line of things. So kind of spiring off that
• 46:11
  little bit. Obviously recently we we got
• 46:13
  picked by BBC Introducing to play right, and that on if if
• 46:20
  you didn't know who we are, you just see, you know, band plays
• 46:22
  that right, A to B. But actually it's like a long
• 46:26
  line of things. It's us like how the music
• 46:29
  playing the BBC Introducing to having a relationship with the,
• 46:32
  you know, the the host playing their gigs for them, like some
• 46:35
  gigs for them, like, you know, do BBC Introducing gigs and just
• 46:38
  like being consistent with our music uploading all the time.
• 46:41
  It's taking a long time to get to that point.
• 46:44
  And if the management, for example, like, you know, it's
• 46:46
  like a relationship when you're when you're looking, if you like
• 46:48
  a I'm looking for a girlfriend or a boyfriend, it's like you're
• 46:52
  kind of like, you tend to find most relationships kind of come
• 46:56
  from they, they just kind of happen.
• 46:59
  You know, they, they, they, you know, and you and I think the
• 47:01
  management's the same thing. You can't, you can't just go, I
• 47:03
  want a manager and go manager shopping and just go, I'll have
• 47:06
  you. They kind of come.
• 47:07
  It's like a natural progression to that point.
• 47:10
  So if the managers we have also, there's a, it all begins with
• 47:16
  there's a music blog called Phantom Power Music.
• 47:18
  Phantom Power Music. They're a really great music
• 47:20
  blog based in Nashville that love that love our music.
• 47:27
  And they got involved in this. There's this new, there's this
• 47:30
  whole sort of new industry forming in some kind of very,
• 47:34
  very, very, very, very deep corners of the music world where
• 47:38
  people were playing around with that sort of kind of Bitcoin
• 47:41
  and. Interesting.
• 47:43
  Kind of like using, you know, platforms where you have radio
• 47:47
  stations where these Bitcoin radio stations where they play
• 47:50
  new music and people can donate sats, you know?
• 47:54
  Tatoshi's the music. They like, and there's a whole
• 47:57
  like industry, it's very, very fresh, very, very new and it's
• 47:59
  still very, very easy infancy, but that's kind of going on and
• 48:01
  we kind of like upload some some of our songs for that and
• 48:05
  whatever. And the, the people who run
• 48:08
  Phantom Power, they were, I'm not hunting sure on the story,
• 48:14
  but they kind of met Avengers who rat somewhere.
• 48:17
  They met them and they're like, oh, this is band.
• 48:20
  And they they asked the band recommendations.
• 48:22
  They sent us to them and they got in contact with us and we
• 48:26
  just started chatting and we kind of got to a place for like,
• 48:28
  yeah, I thought we could work together.
• 48:29
  And then we kind of and that was it.
• 48:31
  And we kind of signed the, the, the stuff in April and there we
• 48:37
  just started, you know, getting things together.
• 48:39
  But it was kind of like a, like a, like a journey from this blog
• 48:45
  to this, to that, to that, to that.
• 48:46
  And then here we are here. So I was trying to think about
• 48:49
  this, This is like unbelievable news.
• 48:53
  Like I knew that you had management.
• 48:55
  I didn't know they were from America.
• 48:56
  I was like, holy shit. And I, I, I just said to him
• 49:00
  point blank, I was like America tour.
• 49:03
  And it's like, maybe, yeah. And look, America would fucking
• 49:08
  love you. When you look at our stuff, you
• 49:10
  can see we've got a lot of listeners in the States.
• 49:13
  This is something I wanted to ask you.
• 49:14
  Yeah. What's what's the demographics
• 49:15
  for the trusted? It's.
• 49:17
  Going all over the place really. As I say, anywhere, anywhere,
• 49:20
  anywhere but London. No, Come on you.
• 49:22
  I must have fans. Oh, we.
• 49:23
  Do we do? Yeah.
• 49:25
  But I think like, yeah, it's kind of play all over the place.
• 49:29
  It's quite fascinating, really. Like we've got some great fans
• 49:33
  in South America, we've got some great fans in the States, we've
• 49:36
  got loads of great fans across the UK.
• 49:38
  What about Europe? Yep, Europe.
• 49:40
  We've got some great fans in Germany, Amsterdam, from the
• 49:44
  city of Amsterdam. We've got some people from from
• 49:46
  Netherlands, fans from Berlin, fans from Italy.
• 49:52
  Got a lot of fans in Italy. Yeah, all all over the place.
• 49:57
  And that's what's so great about the Internet is you can kind of,
• 50:00
  you know, you can kind of reach these people very.
• 50:04
  Quickly, I do think your sound is is one of those that would
• 50:08
  work in a lot of different countries like because obviously
• 50:11
  Europe is big for rock and indie and stuff.
• 50:13
  So that's kind of easy. But then the more popular side
• 50:16
  of things, I think appeals more to the America.
• 50:18
  To say rock doesn't even. But it's quite a versatile
• 50:22
  sound. I think like, again, I think
• 50:24
  like I, I like to look at people's kind of like a, a
• 50:27
  universal thing. Like people wherever you're
• 50:30
  from, you kind of like what you like.
• 50:32
  Everyone's kind of their own individual kind of sort of
• 50:36
  curator of, of art. Everyone's got their own taste
• 50:39
  of what they like, what they don't like, food, music, film,
• 50:42
  whatever. And so I feel like across the
• 50:46
  globe, you're going to have all these people who, where they're
• 50:49
  from, they've obviously get the thing that we're trying to do
• 50:53
  and that, and I think it's like it's a nice little like trusted
• 50:56
  family that's kind of spread across.
• 50:58
  But that's the thing I think like going back to the very,
• 51:00
  very first point is the entire of the entire chat, we're
• 51:04
  talking about this idea of making it and, and how long
• 51:08
  we've been playing together for and stuff.
• 51:10
  What the main, one of the main main reasons why the four of us
• 51:13
  haven't stopped doing it, like it's the same four guys.
• 51:17
  Why blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah is because we know
• 51:19
  there's something there. Like there's something there and
• 51:24
  we've seen it obviously in the real world.
• 51:25
  We can see it resonating people. And there's there's we know we
• 51:29
  believe in the noise we make and part of us is like, well, we
• 51:34
  believe in it. And you know, you know, that is
• 51:39
  like 3/4 of the battle. We believe in what we do.
• 51:42
  We believe in the music we make. We haven't left it because we
• 51:46
  like all like, feel something there.
• 51:50
  So, you know, and then we see it connecting across people from
• 51:54
  all over the place. And I think that's what keeps us
• 51:56
  going. And I think that's what keep us
• 51:57
  going. And that's, yeah, that's what
• 52:01
  has kind of been like one of the big fires, that and our
• 52:03
  relationship with each other. But that is a big part of it.
• 52:07
  I've been a musician since I was 11 years old.
• 52:09
  I'm now 32. I've been in bands.
• 52:13
  Obviously I do solo stuff now and I've released music.
• 52:18
  I have an album out now. I'm doing my own thing I do.
• 52:24
  I've been re pursuing music for the last, let's say for two or
• 52:30
  three. Years.
• 52:31
  And I, at the beginning of this year, I started doing like sound
• 52:34
  engineering stuff. So every Wednesday, in addition
• 52:37
  to me playing, I also do sound for other bands, artists,
• 52:41
  etcetera. I, I go to gigs again and I'm a
• 52:47
  big music fan still. You know, I think any, any
• 52:50
  musician that really is into their craft is also a huge music
• 52:55
  fan. I said to a friend the other
• 52:59
  day, and maybe maybe I'm crazy for even saying this, but I feel
• 53:05
  like I know when a band has it, when an artist has it, I can see
• 53:10
  it. I couldn't tell you what it is.
• 53:13
  I just know it when I see it. And of course, it's beyond our
• 53:15
  control. When I look at you guys, I'm
• 53:18
  like this band has it, they just have it that whatever it is, you
• 53:23
  have it. And I completely agree.
• 53:25
  You have to just keep going. It is that is that is it because
• 53:29
  I think like so many artists, it's, it's not no fault of their
• 53:32
  own because obviously, like you know, it is, it's a it's hard
• 53:35
  out there and you know, you can't you get it.
• 53:38
  But it's like, I think the secret sauce is, is keep going
• 53:42
  and consistency and you know, you, you just got to keep
• 53:47
  pushing and that's what will carry you.
• 53:51
  Is, is it's showing up, making it, making music and doing
• 53:54
  stuff. Is, is, is the easy part of it.
• 53:56
  The hard part is, is to keep doing it.
• 53:58
  Absolutely. And I feel like people, you
• 54:02
  know, I'm very proud of the fact that the four of us are still
• 54:06
  here. The, the fact that the four of
• 54:09
  us, four people have kept together so long.
• 54:13
  And I said, I said, you know, longer than some marriages and
• 54:16
  you know, some, you know, for us that you know, that we've been
• 54:19
  married for, for eight years. Like it's, you know, it takes a
• 54:22
  lot of willpower to keep the same four people, you know, who
• 54:27
  have 4 very different people. Like we're very different
• 54:29
  people, but keep us all in the same marriage.
• 54:34
  We'll be, you know, we're all married to each other.
• 54:37
  That's. Let me ask you this.
• 54:38
  I mean, you, you clearly believe in this band.
• 54:41
  Would you say every member of the band is like, yeah, I we've
• 54:44
  got it? Yes, yeah, I think yeah, we do.
• 54:47
  We also have our moments and like, you know, it's just
• 54:49
  natural, you know? And I think that wouldn't change
• 54:51
  you even if we were because obviously, because The thing is,
• 54:54
  even the biggest bands in the world break up or lose members
• 54:56
  or whatever. That that it, it, it never
• 54:58
  changes like, but they they lose.
• 55:01
  You can lose, you can lose faith in something even if it's
• 55:03
  successful, as people have done, you know.
• 55:06
  Yeah, that's, it's just about you've got, doesn't matter about
• 55:09
  the outside world, whether you're playing Wembley Stadium
• 55:10
  or, you know, Wembley, Wembley, Tesco's, it doesn't matter
• 55:15
  because if, if you love it, that's what matters.
• 55:18
  You could be playing Wembley, Tesco's and Tesco, Tesco and
• 55:21
  Wembley, be in love with it and all get on and love it.
• 55:24
  You could be playing Wembley Stadium and we'll argue behind
• 55:28
  the scenes and hate it and leave the band the next day.
• 55:29
  You know, look, you see a lot of bands, happens to a lot of
• 55:32
  bands, but you've got to like, love it and believe in it.
• 55:35
  And that's something to do with success.
• 55:37
  That's just about the belief in it, the sound, the music.
• 55:40
  And yeah, I, I, you know, the four of us.
• 55:43
  And I think the, The thing is, when we've had really tough
• 55:45
  times, we've had, you know, we've had rejections here and
• 55:48
  there. We've had rough moments.
• 55:50
  We've had all, you know, all the classic things that come with
• 55:54
  any sort of pursuit of anything. And we've went the sort of
• 55:59
  arguments. We've went, you know, big
• 56:01
  disputes where you think this is it, whatever, but we weather the
• 56:05
  storm, you know, we because, and I think that comes from a place
• 56:08
  of everyone's like, you know, I, I get this, I get it.
• 56:13
  The four of us, we get it, We we get it.
• 56:15
  It's our thing. You know, trusted is very much
• 56:18
  us for it's always been us for it's our thing.
• 56:23
  It's very we're very much a band band.
• 56:24
  I always say since the start, we're a band band.
• 56:27
  We we are a band. Like it's very, you know,
• 56:31
  dependent on the the four legs of the table, these specific
• 56:35
  people in these specific roles doing these specific things or
• 56:39
  makes it work. And so, yeah, definitely 100% in
• 56:43
  the Greek and it and it. So yeah, I can't, I don't don't
• 56:45
  always know what they're thinking.
• 56:47
  So I'm not inside their heads. And sometimes I'm like, am I the
• 56:50
  new one here? But like, you know, here we are.
• 56:55
  Like we're we're, you know, we're still here and we're also
• 56:58
  doing it. There's plenty of opportunities
• 57:00
  where anyone could have gone, see you later.
• 57:03
  And yet, you know, we're all still married, so.
• 57:10
  You, you get, Yeah. And that comes across as well,
• 57:13
  like having met you guys, seen you on stage, seeing what you do
• 57:17
  online, everything like you're doing the right thing.
• 57:20
  Though it helps the performance as well, like when you have a
• 57:23
  good relationship it kind of makes falling on stage better.
• 57:26
  It just looks like you're having fun.
• 57:28
  There's there's no seriousness like it's OK.
• 57:30
  Like I got a video of like sort of bopping to the base.
• 57:35
  I didn't post it at the end because I was I was looking for
• 57:38
  stuff I could put on one of my instagrams that's kind of like a
• 57:41
  semi professional video looking few thing and I was looking at
• 57:45
  it and I was like, this is just fun.
• 57:46
  Like he he just likes the music. I.
• 57:49
  Think like when we're up there, we're kind of like half the
• 57:52
  battle's not been self-conscious.
• 57:53
  Because I think when you're on stage, if you're self-conscious,
• 57:55
  you'll look more embarrassing and you've got to kind of just
• 57:57
  like look like everything you do, whether it, it looks
• 58:00
  completely ridiculous. So if I want to wear a rubber
• 58:02
  duck on my head, if I believe, if I have a rubber duck like,
• 58:06
  you know, inflatable on my head while I'm performing, it might
• 58:09
  look completely ridiculous. But if I believe in that and I
• 58:11
  and I go, this is this is it. This is, this is important and
• 58:13
  part of this thing, then people will go along with it.
• 58:15
  But if I go on going, I don't feel comfortable wearing this,
• 58:18
  people will like feel embarrassed that they can tell
• 58:20
  you're embarrassed. I think as well, like being that
• 58:22
  you're the front man, you kind of got a lead a lot.
• 58:25
  And I've been a front man before.
• 58:26
  It's it's hard, yeah. You got to kind of exude this
• 58:32
  confidence, not just for you, but so that the rest of the band
• 58:35
  can like stretch its legs a bit because if you're not confident,
• 58:38
  everyone else gets that. Oh, oh, you know, and.
• 58:42
  And I see that with you on stage.
• 58:43
  And it's it's, it's good to see. It's like, yeah, he he's filling
• 58:47
  this role well. And the rest of the band can can
• 58:50
  do their thing because of it. I mean, in real life I'm I'm
• 58:54
  painfully shy. Yeah, I noticed I'm.
• 58:57
  Very, very shy. I've always been, ever since I
• 58:59
  was a little, I'm very, very shy.
• 59:00
  I really, I really struggle talking to people.
• 59:02
  I always have done this. I just, I just, I'm, I'm really
• 59:05
  been a very shy person. So, you know, fucking smashing
• 59:09
  it today in like last time. Yeah, but then I.
• 59:12
  I get it. I get.
• 59:12
  It I, I always think the reason why when you're on stage,
• 59:14
  there's an element of scripted, A scripted nature to it.
• 59:17
  Like when I'm in real life, the conversation we're having right
• 59:19
  now, you could say, you could say anything.
• 59:21
  You could say whatever you want. I could say you want.
• 59:23
  There's no, it's limitless in what we could talk about.
• 59:26
  Whereas when you're on stage, the songs are the scripts.
• 59:30
  They are the, they are your boss.
• 59:32
  They are, they are telling you what to do.
• 59:35
  So I'm kind of being, you know, the songs are kind of
• 59:37
  controlling what you do. Whereas in real life you're kind
• 59:40
  of like on your own, like, you know, buying something from a
• 59:43
  shop or calling the doctors is like the most scariest thing in
• 59:46
  the world. And playing for the roofless
• 59:48
  strangers and making you feel like an idiot and jumping around
• 59:50
  like a complete idiot is easy because I'm like, well, you
• 59:53
  know, the songs are telling me to do that.
• 59:55
  So great. So, but yeah, but the 4th, we're
• 59:59
  quite shy. We're painfully shy.
• 1:00:01
  One reason we get on with each other so much is we are very,
• 1:00:03
  very shy, very introverted. And we all kind of like, you
• 1:00:08
  know, we're very, you know, we're like, you know, we're not,
• 1:00:14
  we're not extrovert at all. Yeah, my, my, my, my girlfriend
• 1:00:21
  is very, she's very common and very extroverted.
• 1:00:24
  So it's like you kind of. And then obviously I'm in a
• 1:00:26
  band, which is a very extroverted activity where
• 1:00:29
  you're online put yourself out there.
• 1:00:30
  So I think like introverts are attracted to extrovert like
• 1:00:35
  things that kind of exhume extrovert energy.
• 1:00:38
  It's true, man. Yeah.
• 1:00:39
  OK. I've always said you believe it
• 1:00:41
  or not, I'm ambivert. So I, I taught myself to be an
• 1:00:45
  extrovert and I, I can do it confidently and I push past the
• 1:00:50
  point of, of doubt anymore, But that, that was a journey to get
• 1:00:54
  there. You know, like yourself.
• 1:00:56
  I'm first thing I'm going to do when I get off stage is you get
• 1:01:01
  a drink, relax, not talk to anyone.
• 1:01:05
  And you'll notice when you guys came off stage, I gave you a
• 1:01:09
  wide berth before I said anything because like, that's
• 1:01:13
  the last thing you want just finished.
• 1:01:15
  I don't want to talk to anyone. I want to just just decompress,
• 1:01:21
  relax, get my shit off the stage.
• 1:01:22
  That's yeah. Yeah, and like cool down.
• 1:01:25
  It was very hot. There, Yeah.
• 1:01:27
  And. And.
• 1:01:27
  Oh my God, they were pumping so much smoke.
• 1:01:29
  I I was like, how's he going to breathe?
• 1:01:31
  It's all right Sing I'm I'm I'm immune to on stage smoke.
• 1:01:35
  That's like my my superpower. I could.
• 1:01:37
  Barely see you on player. I was like, this is crazy man.
• 1:01:39
  I can hide, I can hide away, so if it goes wrong I can blame
• 1:01:42
  someone else and go. It was not me, it was the other
• 1:01:44
  band, the smoke, the other band on the plane.
• 1:01:46
  I was off by that point. Yeah.
• 1:01:49
  The smoke, the smoke, the smoke took me over.
• 1:01:52
  Yeah. No, I think like, like you said,
• 1:01:54
  like it's kind of, I think as well, like when, when you're in
• 1:01:56
  music, most people, you know, when you're out will they say
• 1:02:01
  nice things. And I and I think it's harder
• 1:02:05
  when people compliment you because it's, it's, it's always
• 1:02:07
  hard to know how to react because you want to like show
• 1:02:10
  you appreciate it, but it's hard to know in lots of ways.
• 1:02:14
  I I actually find it's easy to respond to negative because
• 1:02:18
  it's. Much more easy.
• 1:02:19
  And obviously being you're an artist, you it's like a seesaw,
• 1:02:22
  you kind of it balance itself out.
• 1:02:24
  If you're going to get loads of praise, you're going to get a
• 1:02:27
  lot of like negative, some maybe positive, negative.
• 1:02:31
  Like maybe it's stuff that they like you, they've got positive
• 1:02:33
  criticism and some of it just pure, just nihilistic awful
• 1:02:38
  shit. But it balances itself out.
• 1:02:41
  And I think that's kind of part of the job.
• 1:02:45
  Dude I'm the same as you. I get so shy when someone's
• 1:02:48
  really complimented. I'm like it's.
• 1:02:49
  Hard. It's hard.
• 1:02:50
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 1:02:55
  You know, and it's really hard when someone, you know,
• 1:02:57
  especially when you get some people who who say some very,
• 1:03:00
  quite intense things, you know, about how the music's made them
• 1:03:03
  feel or, you know, it's there's a clearly like an effect and.
• 1:03:07
  And they're. They're a little bit like, I
• 1:03:08
  don't know, sometimes you get people who are a bit like not oh
• 1:03:12
  not star, I think that word starstruck, but you know what I
• 1:03:13
  mean? Like that.
• 1:03:14
  Kind of like. I think to an extent you got,
• 1:03:16
  you got to accept it though. Like I'm, I'm the same as you.
• 1:03:19
  I'm just a guy making music. That's all I'll ever be.
• 1:03:23
  But you're because you're, because you're putting it out
• 1:03:26
  there and you are a public person.
• 1:03:29
  Yeah. It's, that's what's going to
• 1:03:31
  happen, you know, and it's, it's part of it and it's, I guess you
• 1:03:35
  just have to kind of find your way of dealing with that.
• 1:03:37
  Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, I, I
• 1:03:41
  love it. I think it's great, you know,
• 1:03:44
  and but you just want to show these people that the you know
• 1:03:47
  that you do that, you know, you are that I'm thankful for it and
• 1:03:52
  you know, I don't I don't want people to ever like not you
• 1:03:56
  know, it's great. I love it.
• 1:03:57
  I love the fact that people like it same way.
• 1:04:01
  I like the fact that like, you know, you get a lot of stick as
• 1:04:04
  well. Well, that's part of it as well.
• 1:04:07
  It's how you deal with that and you know, some people take it,
• 1:04:09
  you know, I think that's big part The the you know, the I
• 1:04:12
  always check the band. Like when you start a band, it's
• 1:04:13
  going to indeed.com like, you know, thing of CBS that we do
• 1:04:17
  this here. The the pros and the cons of
• 1:04:20
  being a band or being a musician.
• 1:04:22
  Like, you know, you put your head above the parapet, you're,
• 1:04:23
  you're going to get some hate and some.
• 1:04:28
  I I think the worst thing you can ever have as an artist is
• 1:04:31
  apathy. Yeah, or nothing really.
• 1:04:34
  That's what that's what I mean. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:36
  Nothing. At all just just amethy, just
• 1:04:37
  pure nothing, just pure oblivion, complete just darkness
• 1:04:43
  like just nothing. And I think some people will
• 1:04:46
  struggle with hate comments, but for us, we've like kind of found
• 1:04:52
  a way around it where we kind of use.
• 1:04:56
  I do. Hate comments and make it into a
• 1:04:59
  thing and that's the best they can do because what they when
• 1:05:01
  people leave a hate comment, they want to you to like react
• 1:05:04
  like get angry back or get upset.
• 1:05:06
  When you play into it, it's like run into the knife.
• 1:05:09
  They're like, what are we doing? The best one I ever had was once
• 1:05:13
  someone when your song is like shit, I can't know what it was
• 1:05:18
  or something like that. So I use it as like the comment
• 1:05:21
  in the corner of the video and the video about it.
• 1:05:22
  And he pointed back when please don't use my comment in the
• 1:05:25
  video. My mental health is not great at
• 1:05:27
  the moment. Can you please take this down?
• 1:05:29
  I'm like, you're telling me my song's shit and whatever and
• 1:05:34
  that we're all for whatever. And then you're upset when we
• 1:05:37
  use your comment in the like try like don't say like I, I I get
• 1:05:44
  funny when you like use their and I like someone's leaning
• 1:05:48
  into it. Like people will say you're this
• 1:05:51
  or whatever. And then you'll like go, yeah,
• 1:05:54
  like you kind of go reinst that sort of.
• 1:05:56
  Sarcasmic. And the sarcasm of it, which
• 1:05:59
  kind of plays into the whole the way like using social medias at
• 1:06:03
  all, like paying for the whole like sarcasm of it, the sort of
• 1:06:05
  non serious side of being a in a band.
• 1:06:08
  All this stuff all ties in. So like the the bigger picture
• 1:06:13
  of like presenting yourself. You can use all this stuff to
• 1:06:15
  kind of I love like bands like the 1975 do a lot and used to do
• 1:06:21
  it a lot in the 90s and a lot of bands where they kind of like
• 1:06:24
  they pave, like the sort of like the absurdity of it.
• 1:06:28
  And I love that stuff that's sort of ironic, kind of sort of
• 1:06:32
  postmodern, kind of like almost like take almost like slightly
• 1:06:35
  spinal tappy kind of side to it. And I love it.
• 1:06:40
  I love it. It's it's just because everyone,
• 1:06:41
  we all we're all aware of all the tropes that I always argue
• 1:06:44
  that pop music, pop music started of Elvis Presley.
• 1:06:46
  We've now had like, you know, nearly they're like 70 plus
• 1:06:52
  years. They said 70 years of like
• 1:06:54
  modern day pop culture. We're all set.
• 1:06:57
  We all know all the tropes. We all know all the things we're
• 1:07:00
  not. It's nothing's, no nothing's
• 1:07:03
  kind of surprising anymore when it comes to like present how
• 1:07:06
  music presents itself. So I think the best thing to do
• 1:07:09
  now is kind of play with the form, play with it, like make
• 1:07:11
  fun of it, like the absurdity of it, like the I love all that
• 1:07:15
  stuff. And you can kind of use hate
• 1:07:17
  comics and kind of you can kind of use that as part of that
• 1:07:22
  whole facade. It's just, it's just great.
• 1:07:24
  I love it. In reality is you're haters.
• 1:07:26
  Haters are like some of your biggest fans.
• 1:07:28
  Oh, it's so obsessed. Fun.
• 1:07:30
  I love it. I love when someone leaves a
• 1:07:31
  comic you can use in something. It's just great.
• 1:07:34
  It's the best. Right, moving it forward.
• 1:07:37
  For the first time ever, I am announcing this segment.
• 1:07:41
  Welcome to Vilma's questions. So Vilma's a good friend of
• 1:07:46
  mine. She's been following my stuff
• 1:07:48
  for years and she always comes up with fantastic questions.
• 1:07:54
  Sometimes she saved the show in many cases.
• 1:07:59
  And yeah, I I was looking through some of these questions.
• 1:08:02
  So thank you to Vilma. First ever time I've announcing
• 1:08:05
  it as official. Vilma's segment, Vilma's
• 1:08:06
  questions. There were some some questions
• 1:08:10
  that got me thinking here, so let's dive into some of them.
• 1:08:14
  Would you say The Trusted has a distinctly British sound, and if
• 1:08:18
  so, how do you think that influences how international
• 1:08:22
  audiences connect with your music?
• 1:08:25
  Very, very. I that's a great question.
• 1:08:29
  I love good questions because, you know, a lot of people ask
• 1:08:31
  the same questions and this is great.
• 1:08:33
  I think. Yes, I think because obviously I
• 1:08:38
  think geography plays a big part in music and especially where we
• 1:08:43
  are Southend, but sea and the music scene down here is very
• 1:08:46
  healthy and sort of the architecture and kind of the
• 1:08:48
  vibe that all plays a big part in how we create music.
• 1:08:51
  And I definitely feel like a lot of our beast influences of the
• 1:08:54
  art come from, you know, there's a lot of British bands, British
• 1:08:57
  arts are kind of like, yeah. And I think how that translates
• 1:09:01
  to international audiences is a great question.
• 1:09:04
  I think the way to look at it is I think music, it can be
• 1:09:08
  influenced by a a country or a place, but I still think into
• 1:09:14
  the way it can still, it's still, you know, it still
• 1:09:16
  translates universally. So it might sound like
• 1:09:18
  something, but when you look at like some of the biggest asses
• 1:09:20
  in the world, like The Rolling Stones, Beatles, very British in
• 1:09:24
  there, you know the sound. But people like that it kind of
• 1:09:30
  because underneath all of that, the messaging is universal.
• 1:09:34
  You look at songs like all you need is love, very, very, I say
• 1:09:37
  quintessential British folk song, modern day British folk
• 1:09:40
  song in the way it's very, you know, all you need is love by
• 1:09:44
  The Beatles is the very first song broadcast on international
• 1:09:47
  when when TV became global and they did, you know, it's the one
• 1:09:51
  of the first songs that's kind of broadcast and the reason And
• 1:09:55
  but the even though it sounds very British, wherever that
• 1:09:58
  means underneath it, the messaging is so universal and
• 1:10:03
  that's what translates out. And I've like trusted the
• 1:10:06
  messaging in that song is all about the human experience.
• 1:10:09
  I feel like that's what people connect with.
• 1:10:12
  Yeah, You know, like I was thinking this the other day when
• 1:10:14
  I was listening to Self Destruct.
• 1:10:16
  Like I was just, I was just sort of pondering on the lyrics and I
• 1:10:19
  was like, yeah, because the vibe I get from it is, yeah, I want
• 1:10:24
  to self destruct. I know I like it.
• 1:10:26
  It's like the kind of it would be good for a minute to just
• 1:10:29
  kind of allow that to happen so I can kind of piece back things
• 1:10:33
  afterwards. It's that that frustration of
• 1:10:36
  being in that and just feeling like you will just explode kind
• 1:10:40
  of thing. It's it's interesting because
• 1:10:41
  that, that, that, that question that the British influence for
• 1:10:45
  me, what we inspired the lyrics for that was I think in, in, in
• 1:10:50
  Great Britain, people when I, when I go on nights out, for
• 1:10:53
  example, there's an element of like people, but you see a lot
• 1:10:57
  people push themselves mentally to, to self destruction when
• 1:11:01
  it's, you know, drugs, alcohol, especially in UK culture.
• 1:11:04
  It's very like people push the limits of what their body, you
• 1:11:08
  know, can do. And that sort of like, you know,
• 1:11:12
  self destruct to me is like, is like a sort of odyssey.
• 1:11:14
  It's that kind of like 3:00 AM people push themselves the limit
• 1:11:18
  of like, you know, that that point of like no return.
• 1:11:23
  And so there's the British influence.
• 1:11:24
  That's why I see. But I think you kind of feel
• 1:11:26
  that all over. But then you kind of learn that
• 1:11:29
  it's quite common all over the place that people when they when
• 1:11:31
  they get, when they, when they're in a tough time or they
• 1:11:34
  want to go out and forget themselves, they will get
• 1:11:37
  plastered, they'll get drunk, they will get off their heads
• 1:11:41
  and go and just completely lose it.
• 1:11:42
  And they kind of lose that sort of like that sense of like, you
• 1:11:46
  know, that viral instinct goes out the window and it's like, I
• 1:11:49
  don't care if I die, but I just want to have fun.
• 1:11:53
  And that's kind of where self destruct kind of came from.
• 1:11:55
  Like it's that idea of like, I might die, but I'm going to have
• 1:11:58
  fun and push myself to the limit because I'm having a potentially
• 1:12:02
  having a tough time. And all that matters right now
• 1:12:05
  is me. Just forget having fun.
• 1:12:07
  Forget about everything. Is there any particular places
• 1:12:11
  that you draw inspiration from like lyrically is it or is it
• 1:12:14
  just kind of like whatever comes to mind, like what?
• 1:12:18
  I like to write. I mean, I'm inspired.
• 1:12:22
  There's a lot of lyricist out there.
• 1:12:23
  I was, I've always, when I first started, the first time I was in
• 1:12:26
  the band, I was about 11. The first band I formed, I was
• 1:12:28
  about 11 at school. And obviously I couldn't play
• 1:12:31
  anything at that point. I was just a singer.
• 1:12:32
  So I, I began when I started writing songs, you know, when I
• 1:12:36
  was at 12:13, you know, I was a lyric writer.
• 1:12:41
  I wrote lyrics. So lyrics was always been my
• 1:12:43
  first place when it comes to music.
• 1:12:46
  That's where I started when it came to creating music, as
• 1:12:49
  there's a lot of great lyric writers out there were inspired
• 1:12:51
  by the, you know, the, the great.
• 1:12:55
  But in terms of actually writing lyrics, where the inspiration
• 1:12:58
  comes from, it tends to come from a human experience.
• 1:13:00
  A lot of our songs are about how we as people respond to things.
• 1:13:04
  I like to write from the inside out rather than the outside in.
• 1:13:08
  So it's about how things in the world affect me rather than
• 1:13:13
  what's happening in the world. So it all comes from a very
• 1:13:15
  like, you know, our first ever single Turbulence is about
• 1:13:19
  paranoia and about, you know, basically a panic attack.
• 1:13:24
  And obviously we wrote that song, the trusted formed Brexit
• 1:13:27
  happened, the trusted forms that Donald Trump was voted in.
• 1:13:31
  So it was a very much like a that in 2016 was, you know, and
• 1:13:36
  also Prince died, David Bowie died, 2016 was a very
• 1:13:39
  politically and sort of creatively a very, you know,
• 1:13:43
  very roller coaster of the year of things going on.
• 1:13:45
  And obviously like lots of different, very culturally
• 1:13:48
  significant things happened. And so it felt, we all felt very
• 1:13:53
  tense. And the first thing we released
• 1:13:54
  and write is a song about feeling like, Oh my God, we're
• 1:13:58
  Oh my God, I'm panicking, I'm panicking.
• 1:14:00
  I can't all this stuff's going on.
• 1:14:02
  I can't take it. It's a lot of information.
• 1:14:04
  And that's kind of where a lot of our songs come from is that
• 1:14:09
  idea of like, that's a good blueprint.
• 1:14:11
  Turbulence is a good blueprint for the rest of our music
• 1:14:13
  because all our songs from then onwards are like your response
• 1:14:17
  to outside stimuli. When you listen back to your
• 1:14:20
  older tracks, is there one or a series of hits that hit
• 1:14:25
  differently now compared with when you first wrote them?
• 1:14:29
  Yeah, I think like when you listen to it's always changing
• 1:14:35
  and but what I like is obviously there's a lot of songs that we
• 1:14:38
  still play that obviously, you know, I wrote lyrics when I was
• 1:14:40
  1819 that I still feel very close to relevant to, that they
• 1:14:45
  still feel very relevant. I feel still very close to.
• 1:14:48
  But yeah, like, I think like sometimes you write things and
• 1:14:52
  years later you go, oh, actually this is more, you know, I hate
• 1:14:57
  this word more profound than I thought it was in terms of mine
• 1:15:00
  experience. Like Turbulence probably didn't
• 1:15:03
  realise at the time lyrically actually, what how important
• 1:15:07
  that song was to me. Now looking back at.
• 1:15:09
  No, we still play that song a lot.
• 1:15:12
  It's turbulence of the song. It still feels very, even more
• 1:15:16
  now. It feels very relevant.
• 1:15:20
  Definitely, Yeah. And I feel like, you know, the
• 1:15:24
  songs, the lyrics kind of like, you know, like, like, you know,
• 1:15:27
  you kind of write the lyrics and they go out into the world and
• 1:15:29
  they kind of like slowly evolve over time.
• 1:15:31
  And they kind of the meaning of the songs kind of become more
• 1:15:34
  and more prevalent as you let them breathe.
• 1:15:38
  So yeah, definitely. Is there any songs that you
• 1:15:41
  dislike, like you just don't enjoy playing or something?
• 1:15:45
  You know what? I.
• 1:15:47
  Mean, I always say, actually, this is a Bono quote.
• 1:15:50
  I'm going to say I this is he says that songs are like your
• 1:15:53
  parents. They tell you what to wear.
• 1:15:56
  They tell you what to think and sometimes, you know, you know,
• 1:16:00
  you fall out of them sometimes. And I so I think like my
• 1:16:04
  opinion, opinions about songs change with time.
• 1:16:06
  There's some songs that I fell out of love with and then can't
• 1:16:08
  then fall back in love with. And that can be on a a yearly or
• 1:16:13
  daily basis that some songs that, oh, I don't like that song
• 1:16:15
  right now and you go next day. Oh, I love that song again all
• 1:16:18
  the time. It I, I think like I try and
• 1:16:25
  look back at stuff and go, yeah, but obviously I, I, we release
• 1:16:29
  stuff, especially the early stuff, the very, very early
• 1:16:32
  trusted songs feel very like us finding our feet.
• 1:16:36
  And I'm like, maybe they're not us now, but like at the time,
• 1:16:40
  that's where we were at. Like that's what we did.
• 1:16:43
  Yeah, I know what you mean. I like when I hear like Velocor,
• 1:16:47
  I'm like that's, that fits then that fits now.
• 1:16:51
  Yeah, some of the earlier stuff I still think has a lot of
• 1:16:54
  value. I I.
• 1:16:56
  We still, I mean, we still play Turbulence, our first song.
• 1:16:58
  We still play still in a lot of shows and I still love that
• 1:17:01
  song. It's got a lot, it's got like a,
• 1:17:03
  a youthful kind of punk energy that I love.
• 1:17:06
  And I still really love that song.
• 1:17:09
  And it's kind of like those songs that I I'm really proud
• 1:17:12
  of. I think it keeps it interesting,
• 1:17:13
  doesn't it? Like it's, it's like like lately
• 1:17:16
  when I go on stage, I I perform obviously stuff for my album.
• 1:17:20
  I might perform a few covers that fit with what I do.
• 1:17:24
  I started playing some stuff I haven't released.
• 1:17:26
  I also started playing like stuff I wrote years ago and I'm
• 1:17:30
  just kind of like throwing things around and seeing what
• 1:17:33
  fits. And that was one thing I noticed
• 1:17:34
  with your set because you started with Vela Core, I think.
• 1:17:37
  And then because there's there's still a few songs that I might.
• 1:17:40
  I don't know what the totals are.
• 1:17:41
  I I know that you played Millennium self Destruct.
• 1:17:44
  I think you ended on. Did you play?
• 1:17:47
  Eli. Yeah, I think I heard.
• 1:17:48
  Eli, did you play Rebel Song? Did I imagine?
• 1:17:50
  Yes, we did. Yes.
• 1:17:52
  Third song in I think. Yeah, I was.
• 1:17:54
  I was first of all, I was having the time of my life.
• 1:17:56
  I was like, oh, my God, I know all the lyrics to these.
• 1:18:00
  But also, you know, I guess from a musician standpoint, it's
• 1:18:04
  impossible not to look at it through that lens.
• 1:18:06
  And I looked at it like, oh, this is intelligent.
• 1:18:09
  The way they've kind of broken this down, like, you know, start
• 1:18:12
  with a classic, work your way through like all these different
• 1:18:16
  songs and then end on your on your sort of your main single
• 1:18:20
  that you push. It's just intelligent.
• 1:18:22
  And you could have done it the other way.
• 1:18:23
  And I'm sure you've done that before you start.
• 1:18:25
  Yeah, you always. Experience to set this
• 1:18:26
  construction like where to go with things you know that's very
• 1:18:30
  you know that's that's that's I think it's very important the
• 1:18:33
  journey. What are your What are your
• 1:18:35
  favourites to play? I, I, I really love playing
• 1:18:40
  terrible fight. I love playing that.
• 1:18:42
  Song. That's a good one.
• 1:18:43
  It's so joyous. It's so like I, I said it on
• 1:18:46
  stage, writing upbeat songs is really tough.
• 1:18:50
  Writing sad songs is easy. You just wallow and be like, oh,
• 1:18:54
  and it comes across very authentic and very like, you
• 1:18:56
  know, brooding. Well, writing happy songs is
• 1:18:58
  hard because being happy is quite a hard thing to make sound
• 1:19:02
  interesting because it's so though it's it's tough to not
• 1:19:06
  sound cheesy and I think terrible fight is is so joyous
• 1:19:09
  and so it just build. Whenever I play that song, I
• 1:19:13
  just it feels, it feels very, I know, like your arms reaching
• 1:19:17
  out. I just love it.
• 1:19:17
  It's just it's just just great. I just love that song so much.
• 1:19:21
  I feel that way about Eli. I feel like that that's a mature
• 1:19:24
  song. Like I remember listening to
• 1:19:26
  that for the first time and going these are serious artists.
• 1:19:30
  There's yeah, they have their fun moments, but this is a
• 1:19:32
  serious tune. I really like Eli.
• 1:19:35
  Eli's cool because it's kind of like, it's very quirky.
• 1:19:38
  It's kind of very, I know it feels like if, if, if songs were
• 1:19:42
  characters at a party, if it was that some guy sitting in the
• 1:19:45
  corner, if if his, you know, head down and everyone's like,
• 1:19:48
  oh, why, why was he invited? It's like he's not, you know,
• 1:19:51
  he's got some interesting thing to say and he's like, well, you
• 1:19:54
  know, he's a bit weird. And I kind of get that from Eli.
• 1:19:57
  It's kind of a little bit. He's got like a sort of quirky
• 1:19:59
  kind of like nature to it. It it's it's also like, it's got
• 1:20:04
  some like really like lovely elements.
• 1:20:06
  I love it's like lovely descending.
• 1:20:09
  I remember when we wrote that, that was a very clarative
• 1:20:11
  process, that song, because I remember Finn, I remember we
• 1:20:15
  were in the in front of my computer and Finn had the piano
• 1:20:18
  part that the main part of Eli and it was all him.
• 1:20:22
  And he all started like coming up with things.
• 1:20:24
  And I remember Dao coming over and then he like had his guitar
• 1:20:27
  parts and them two were really in it and me and Dave weren't
• 1:20:30
  really in it. We weren't.
• 1:20:31
  They were kind of constructed and I came and came along and
• 1:20:35
  had those little synth parts in. He's kind of like very naturally
• 1:20:39
  kind of came together. It's just got like a really like
• 1:20:42
  kind of like quite haunting, kind of bit quirky, a bit like,
• 1:20:45
  oh, but it's kind of like it's quite pretty as well.
• 1:20:48
  I, I really like Eli. I love that song.
• 1:20:52
  So this next question is interesting because I feel like,
• 1:20:56
  and I'll add some context before I ask it.
• 1:20:58
  Yeah, sure. I feel like you're not afraid to
• 1:21:01
  try anything, and I think it makes the music exciting.
• 1:21:06
  You never know where it's going to go, but it always kind of
• 1:21:09
  comes back to, OK, this feels like it belongs.
• 1:21:12
  Kind of, yeah. So the question is, if the
• 1:21:15
  Trusted were to break every rule you've set for yourselves
• 1:21:19
  musically. Yeah.
• 1:21:21
  Like, no genre limits And at all.
• 1:21:24
  What would that experimental record sound like?
• 1:21:29
  I mean, I would love to hear that and I hope actually we get
• 1:21:33
  to that point because I would I, I don't want it to be rules.
• 1:21:36
  I want, you know, I love, I love artists and bands who don't play
• 1:21:41
  by the rules. They just keep the ones that we
• 1:21:43
  all love are the ones that keep evolving.
• 1:21:45
  I want to, you know, we want to evolve and I feel like you want
• 1:21:48
  to stay somewhere and I feel like rules in music are made to
• 1:21:52
  be broken. You've got, you've got to keep
• 1:21:54
  trying things. I mean, we've got this stuff.
• 1:21:56
  We've got a lot of songs written.
• 1:21:57
  We've got a lot, a lot, a lot of music, a lot of demos.
• 1:22:00
  Like we've got this demo. We've got hundreds and hundreds
• 1:22:02
  of songs. And we've obviously got demos
• 1:22:05
  that are more the way we look at songs.
• 1:22:06
  We've got demos that are just like voice memos.
• 1:22:09
  Some demos are like Logic demos that are kind of like, you know,
• 1:22:11
  there, but they're missing bits. We've got more complete demos.
• 1:22:16
  We've got like, there's like 30-40 songs that are like, I
• 1:22:20
  think are great and I'd love to put out.
• 1:22:22
  And there's some stuff in there that I'm like this if we do
• 1:22:27
  this, I think people would be like, what the fuck are you
• 1:22:28
  doing? There's some interesting things
• 1:22:31
  in there that we're like if we got the, you know, having the
• 1:22:37
  balls to drop them. But like, yeah, I, yeah.
• 1:22:41
  I'm in the same boat as you and like right now I've got 2 albums
• 1:22:46
  and two EPS worth of stuff that I want to receive.
• 1:22:50
  That's not counting all the other chair I wrote.
• 1:22:53
  It's just like stuff that's kind of ready almost.
• 1:22:57
  Yeah. But also I think something
• 1:23:01
  that's interesting is like when you put something to record,
• 1:23:04
  then you start playing it, sometimes you'll switch it up
• 1:23:06
  and change it. Like for instance, I've
• 1:23:09
  transposed some of my songs so I play them a couple of keys
• 1:23:12
  higher because they just. Fill keys and tempo are a big
• 1:23:15
  part of the sound of the song. Like very important.
• 1:23:19
  Is there anything you've done like live that's different from
• 1:23:22
  record now? No.
• 1:23:27
  Actually. Skeptic.
• 1:23:28
  Consistent. Yeah.
• 1:23:29
  Obviously a lot of our songs we play with the SPD pad or or our
• 1:23:32
  Simpson keyboards or like a pad. So we can kind of like that acts
• 1:23:36
  like the 5th instrument, but so we're kind of playing to a
• 1:23:39
  click. But I think we spend a lot of
• 1:23:44
  time we we really do focus on the the speed of the song when
• 1:23:47
  we're in, like when we're in the studios, like how fast a song,
• 1:23:52
  how slows a song and trying to get that perfect tempo.
• 1:23:57
  So it feels, it doesn't feel like it drags, it doesn't feel
• 1:23:59
  like it's too fast. But yeah, I think everything we
• 1:24:03
  play on stages at the moment is pretty much the tempo of the
• 1:24:07
  song as recorded, yeah. Do you have any pre show
• 1:24:11
  rituals? Mine is just walk a big Walker.
• 1:24:17
  Big. I love walking a big pace.
• 1:24:20
  Yeah, I pace a lot and I like, I feel like people just let me
• 1:24:23
  pace. I walk up and down.
• 1:24:25
  I walk around the block. I walk back and forward.
• 1:24:27
  Not not to grab anything to do, just to walk.
• 1:24:29
  I walk back in and out the green room.
• 1:24:32
  So something I get and I, I wanted to ask you about this
• 1:24:35
  because I noticed that I always get super, super nervous when
• 1:24:41
  I'm watching the band before or the artist before.
• 1:24:44
  And I know I'm next. I saw you watching and I could
• 1:24:49
  tell you were nervous. And I was thinking like, I
• 1:24:51
  wonder what's going through his head?
• 1:24:52
  What goes through your head when when you're sort of like?
• 1:24:55
  Really, this isn't sound very contradictory, but really, I
• 1:24:59
  don't get nervous. That's all really, because I
• 1:25:05
  don't like, because I'm like, when I'm up there, when you're
• 1:25:10
  up there like nothing else matters.
• 1:25:11
  What happened came before or after doesn't matter.
• 1:25:13
  It's what's happening in the moment.
• 1:25:16
  And I'm like, we're going to do our thing and you're going to
• 1:25:19
  like it or you're not. And that's it.
• 1:25:21
  And I don't because I again, yeah, the only, the only thing I
• 1:25:26
  get nervous about is things not working.
• 1:25:27
  Like, you know, I'm always that fear that like the pads are cut
• 1:25:30
  out or whatever. But actually for me, I'm like,
• 1:25:35
  no, once I know the stage, I know where I'm playing, I've got
• 1:25:38
  enough room to move. I'm not going to fall over.
• 1:25:42
  You know, I've got nothing in my way, then you know, I'm all
• 1:25:45
  right. And I think the band before I
• 1:25:48
  was, I was admiring, I was really just admiring how great
• 1:25:51
  they were and how tight they were and, you know, the fact
• 1:25:54
  that they had two guitars and no, no bass and.
• 1:25:58
  Yeah, I noticed that that the the backtrack was very good
• 1:26:01
  considering. Amazing they jumping on the and
• 1:26:03
  I was like great. I mean it's good.
• 1:26:04
  I I want that because I think that matched you up your game,
• 1:26:06
  like if the band before you or after you is really good, not
• 1:26:09
  just really good, but great performers and it's like, well,
• 1:26:12
  we've we've got to be amazing then otherwise we're going to
• 1:26:15
  look awful. We've got to match them.
• 1:26:17
  We've got to be as good as them. What you don't want is someone
• 1:26:20
  before used to be crack, because then it's like, well, you know,
• 1:26:23
  whatever you've got, they've got the element of like they've got.
• 1:26:26
  They were so good. It's like great, They're really
• 1:26:29
  good. That means we have also got to
• 1:26:30
  be really good. It's like inspiring.
• 1:26:32
  It's like great. It means we feel like we're this
• 1:26:35
  feels real. This feels like an actual, you
• 1:26:37
  know, they were so good. I'm like, well, they're great.
• 1:26:40
  Their songs are great. They're a really good cover of
• 1:26:42
  that Fontaine CC song. They're great.
• 1:26:45
  So we've got to be great, otherwise we're going to get
• 1:26:48
  swamped. What are some hilarious or weird
• 1:26:53
  fan encounters that you'll never forget?
• 1:27:00
  I think with 90, sort of like weird, like weird because
• 1:27:05
  obviously all the fan, all the fan encounters we've had have
• 1:27:08
  been lovely. Really.
• 1:27:11
  We've had some unusual ones, like me and Finn were in Vegas
• 1:27:15
  the year before last. We're just there.
• 1:27:16
  Las Vegas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:27:19
  And we're at this bar in near the old strip near Fremont
• 1:27:23
  Street. It's just, it's just this bar
• 1:27:25
  where like the all the, all the bar stuff, like dance at the
• 1:27:28
  tables. It's really cool.
• 1:27:30
  And he walks in there and there's this girl at the barge
• 1:27:32
  went, Oh my God, you're in the trusted.
• 1:27:34
  Oh my fucking God. Wow, and she's got a picture of
• 1:27:37
  us and that was really cool because it was like random
• 1:27:40
  place, this random city in the middle of the desert.
• 1:27:44
  So that was that was one of my favourites.
• 1:27:46
  I also. I also.
• 1:27:50
  Dude, that must have blown your fucking minds.
• 1:27:52
  Yeah, yeah, I was. Like, oh, I mean, at first I
• 1:27:54
  didn't believe it. I was like, oh, come on.
• 1:27:56
  She just like looked. But then it was real.
• 1:27:58
  I was like, Oh my God, I just couldn't believe it.
• 1:28:00
  I I I was like, this can't be this is someone's that was that
• 1:28:04
  was one of my favourites. That was really cool.
• 1:28:08
  But yeah, just like, you know, it's nice, especially like when
• 1:28:11
  you're out locally at like, you know, bars and people with
• 1:28:14
  conference, which is really lovely.
• 1:28:15
  And, you know, pictures is, you know, one of the pictures really
• 1:28:18
  nice. Yeah, My favorite encounters.
• 1:28:24
  I love I see my favorite fan interactions is went on post a
• 1:28:27
  cover. I love that, especially when you
• 1:28:30
  get like a female voice. We've had, you know, some really
• 1:28:33
  talented female artists have like done like a trusted cover,
• 1:28:35
  like Arkansas, for example. And I I love hearing our songs
• 1:28:42
  my my lyrics of voice through like a different Tombra, like a
• 1:28:45
  different voice, like a higher voice, like a different kind of
• 1:28:49
  that's great. That's that's so cool.
• 1:28:53
  Yeah, I wouldn't. I I've not had any and they've
• 1:28:56
  all been amazing. Everyone's cool.
• 1:28:58
  Yeah, I've not. There's nothing been, there's
• 1:28:59
  never been anything uncomfortable or it's all been
• 1:29:03
  lovely. OK, this is a bit of a fun one.
• 1:29:08
  If you had to trade lives with one of your band mates for a
• 1:29:11
  day, who would you pick and what's the first thing you'd do?
• 1:29:14
  Oh, I've got none of them. Sorry guys.
• 1:29:18
  I don't be any of them good. You try and spin out of them and
• 1:29:21
  you'd be like God, Jesus, it's all about me.
• 1:29:25
  It's all annoying. They're all annoying.
• 1:29:26
  All three of them. They're really annoying.
• 1:29:29
  I've had enough. I've had enough of them.
• 1:29:30
  I've had enough. Or I'd say for practical reason
• 1:29:36
  maybe I have dramas so I can play drums.
• 1:29:38
  I can't play drums. It's my blind spot.
• 1:29:40
  I can play guitar, all right. I've had a few chords.
• 1:29:43
  I can play piano. OK, a few chords.
• 1:29:46
  That was a question I was going to ask you actually with with do
• 1:29:50
  you do you just prefer not playing guitar on?
• 1:29:53
  Stage I like. I like being like I'm the
• 1:29:56
  opposite. Both people want to play guitars
• 1:29:57
  they can hide, you know, which is fair enough.
• 1:29:58
  Like they've got something to do with their hands.
• 1:30:00
  I like not having any. I like being completely free and
• 1:30:04
  using my effort, just being a really good singer.
• 1:30:09
  You're very. You're good at that.
• 1:30:11
  You're very expressive. Like, I've got some great videos
• 1:30:13
  of you. And I was like, this is a guy
• 1:30:14
  who's very comfortable in his skin when he's on stage.
• 1:30:17
  Yeah. I don't feel comfortable so much
• 1:30:20
  off stage, but on stage you're very comfortable.
• 1:30:22
  I like just, you know, because he it's not even for the
• 1:30:26
  audience. It's more from like all the life
• 1:30:29
  changing gigs I've been to where I've been to gigs where I've
• 1:30:31
  seen people at the front who've been very like, that's such a
• 1:30:35
  big impact on me. I'm like, I want to be like
• 1:30:37
  that. So it's more like me that paying
• 1:30:41
  tribute and and almost imitating that kind of that style of
• 1:30:50
  frontmanship because that to me is what I like.
• 1:30:53
  And it's like it's more for my own sake.
• 1:30:55
  Like I enjoy, it's not I enjoy doing it.
• 1:30:58
  I just love being up there and performing.
• 1:31:00
  I love being a front man. I love it.
• 1:31:02
  It's my favorite thing to do ever is doing that and guitar.
• 1:31:06
  And it's funny, my band always take the piss because it's
• 1:31:08
  always like half the band are like I'll play more guitar and
• 1:31:12
  every half's like don't play guitar.
• 1:31:15
  It's like, Oh, I'm not the guitar.
• 1:31:17
  Oh, Tom playing the guitar again.
• 1:31:18
  Are you too loud? It's too if you just didn't play
• 1:31:21
  guitar. We'll have to bring it along
• 1:31:22
  with US1 lesson to bring another one.
• 1:31:24
  Can you play guitar so I can do more this?
• 1:31:26
  I'm like, Oh for God's sake, my, me, me playing guitar is like a
• 1:31:31
  is like a looks like it. Could be an odd image, I can't
• 1:31:33
  imagine it. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's
• 1:31:36
  like I, I play on some songs, some trusted songs.
• 1:31:38
  I, I, I We need it for and. Does it feel wrong when you do
• 1:31:43
  it? Yeah, I I, I, I don't know.
• 1:31:45
  I, I don't, I don't feel. I don't, I don't.
• 1:31:47
  Yeah, listen. But on my well, my way, I never
• 1:31:49
  play guitar again. Well, I can you know, I'm not a
• 1:31:53
  great guitarist. I know chords I can't do.
• 1:31:57
  I can't solo. I know that chords.
• 1:32:00
  I I'm I'm a very I'm mediocre guitarist best.
• 1:32:04
  Do you ever write any of of the riffs or do you just?
• 1:32:06
  Focus. Yeah, I mean self destructs my
• 1:32:08
  riff. OK.
• 1:32:10
  That chord sequence? No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 1:32:12
  That's me. So you're, you're, yeah, when
• 1:32:14
  you're, when you're writing, you'll sort of pick up a guitar
• 1:32:15
  or piano or whatever. And stuff and like, yeah, but
• 1:32:18
  like, that's why I, I learnt guitar really.
• 1:32:20
  I mean, I learnt guitar late. I was 16 when I learnt guitar.
• 1:32:25
  I learnt piano. I was just purely a singer.
• 1:32:27
  And then I started learning piano when I was like 13.
• 1:32:30
  But I got, you know, a classical teacher who's very, very, you
• 1:32:33
  know, wrong note very like very, you know, very, which is the way
• 1:32:39
  it should be like very formulaic.
• 1:32:40
  But obviously I started like kind of like learning sort of
• 1:32:43
  like the more sort of pop chords.
• 1:32:45
  And then I did that mainly because I was like, well, I'm in
• 1:32:48
  a band with, with these bunch of guys and they can all like they,
• 1:32:52
  you know, they can write and I all I can do is write lyrics and
• 1:32:55
  all of these. I won't be able to constitute
• 1:32:57
  something musically. So I kind of forced myself to
• 1:32:59
  learn guitar more from my writing point of view, so I can
• 1:33:02
  write stuff, not because I want to play songs.
• 1:33:05
  Like weirdly, the first songs I was playing guitar were my own.
• 1:33:09
  I was, well, I was 16. I was in his band just before
• 1:33:11
  the Trusty. I was in a band called, We were
• 1:33:14
  called Duke. We were like a sort of like
• 1:33:16
  garage rock kind of Blues, Jack White kind of thing.
• 1:33:19
  And the guitarist of this band, he was, you know, he was
• 1:33:23
  teaching me chords and I was using those chords that kind of
• 1:33:27
  write the songs we were playing. So I was playing first things.
• 1:33:31
  I was the first songs I was playing were the songs that we
• 1:33:34
  were writing. And that was my way in.
• 1:33:37
  I didn't learn guitar to play with people's songs.
• 1:33:39
  And I obviously then went on to learn how to play with people's
• 1:33:42
  songs. But that's kind of how it
• 1:33:43
  started. It wasn't so much, you know,
• 1:33:46
  learning guitar for because I wanted to play, you know,
• 1:33:49
  whatever it was because I wanted to, like, write with guitar.
• 1:33:53
  Yeah. What has music taught you about
• 1:33:56
  life? Oh, everything it, it, it's
• 1:34:00
  taught me everything really. It's, it's like I come from a
• 1:34:04
  very musical family, not talent that I've got no, but my family
• 1:34:08
  can't. There's no one in my family who
• 1:34:09
  plays any music but music lovers.
• 1:34:11
  My dad, massive music fan, he was born in the 60s and kind of
• 1:34:17
  obsessive music, like obsessive. It's the point of like, you
• 1:34:20
  know, it became his entire identity, like following David
• 1:34:23
  Bowie around and Genesis and Talking Heads and Ian Drury and
• 1:34:27
  Elvis Castillo and being at early YouTube gigs and then like
• 1:34:31
  Prince, all that stuff. Van Morrison.
• 1:34:33
  So on the word go, it was, I had no, no choice really.
• 1:34:37
  I was kind of like, you know, you look at any sort of baby
• 1:34:40
  videos of me and there's always music on in the background.
• 1:34:43
  You know, they, I was exposed to the Blues Brothers very early on
• 1:34:47
  as a movie and was obsessed with it.
• 1:34:48
  And there's, you know, me being two.
• 1:34:50
  I was performing at 2:00 to stuff, always do music, always
• 1:34:53
  performing. He took me to my first.
• 1:34:55
  I saw, he took me to see Peter Gabriel when I was 7.
• 1:34:58
  And it was at that moment when I was like, that's what I want to
• 1:35:00
  do. That was it.
• 1:35:01
  I mean, watching that gig, I remember we were at Wembley
• 1:35:03
  Arena. I was seven years old.
• 1:35:05
  I mean, walking down those staircase Z to the car park, I
• 1:35:10
  mean, walking down those steps, I remember there's a window in
• 1:35:11
  front of me and I'm going, that's what I want to do.
• 1:35:13
  That's, that's it, that's it. I was 7.
• 1:35:15
  I was like, that's what I want to do.
• 1:35:17
  So it's been very much a very, very powerful heartbeat in my
• 1:35:22
  life. It's there.
• 1:35:23
  It's kind of like influence. Every single decision I've ever
• 1:35:26
  made, ever, for good, bad or bad, for good or bad, it has
• 1:35:31
  been the the thing that's influenced everything.
• 1:35:35
  I've got to say like, because I I deliberately don't go back and
• 1:35:40
  watch old shows. I never do.
• 1:35:42
  I just leave them as is. They are a moment in time.
• 1:35:45
  I live in the moment, much like yourself.
• 1:35:47
  And I did think about going and watching an old show together,
• 1:35:51
  but I thought, no, I'm going to leave it.
• 1:35:52
  But I do remember kind of the feel of the conversation versus
• 1:35:57
  this. And one of the questions I was
• 1:35:58
  going to ask you, but I kind of feel it's already been answered,
• 1:36:00
  really was about like, what is the difference between now and
• 1:36:04
  then? But I feel like the real
• 1:36:07
  difference is that you, you've grown and matured so much in
• 1:36:11
  that time and you understand your sound being an artist, you
• 1:36:16
  seem more confident, you seem more self assured, like it's
• 1:36:21
  just click in there. But I, I want to ask the
• 1:36:24
  question to you, what, how do you feel you've, you've sort of
• 1:36:26
  developed in the last three years?
• 1:36:27
  Yeah, I, I, I think you, you've answered the question perfectly.
• 1:36:31
  I think like you've kind of like you just you keep doing music
• 1:36:34
  stuff and it keeps you keep refining things.
• 1:36:37
  And yeah, again, if you ask we do this again in another three
• 1:36:40
  years or six years, you know, Yeah, it'd be great.
• 1:36:43
  You'd see hopefully, you know, you look back down and go, God,
• 1:36:47
  I was. So this then, like the plan is
• 1:36:49
  you, you want to be evolving to the point until you die, Like
• 1:36:53
  actually, you're always like until you know, I, I want to be
• 1:36:56
  like, you know, you want to be like in your 80s and still
• 1:36:58
  learning like how to be a better musician.
• 1:37:01
  Like it's a it's a never ending thing.
• 1:37:02
  That's what's so great about it. It's kind of you know, you see
• 1:37:05
  all these big artists who like, you know, they'll play Wembley
• 1:37:07
  Stadium, headline Glastonbury, they'll be the number one
• 1:37:10
  selling whatever. And yet they're still, they
• 1:37:13
  don't just go, well, I'm done, I'm going to go disappear.
• 1:37:16
  Some people do, but a lot of them keep going is the reason
• 1:37:18
  why The Rolling Stones didn't retire, the reason why Paul
• 1:37:21
  McCartney is still playing, because they they're still feel
• 1:37:26
  like that an 18 year old who's like, wants to learn and wants
• 1:37:29
  to evolve and wants to be better.
• 1:37:31
  And that's, that's what it should be and the way it'll
• 1:37:33
  always be. And you know, I feel like I'm
• 1:37:36
  always evolving. And yeah, I feel like every
• 1:37:41
  conversation we, we would say we had a, we had a set day every
• 1:37:44
  year for like 20 years. You know, I, I'd hope you'd see
• 1:37:49
  a progression, you know, over those 20 years.
• 1:37:52
  That's that's the hope, you know.
• 1:37:55
  I want to say a massive thank you for for being on the show.
• 1:37:59
  Also, just for being just lovely over the years, lovely in
• 1:38:02
  person. Thank you for taking your time
• 1:38:04
  to, to talk to us, talk to me, talk to the band, come to the
• 1:38:07
  show. I know it's, you know, not easy
• 1:38:10
  to come down from Manchester to London.
• 1:38:12
  It's, it's a long trek. I was in Manchester.
• 1:38:14
  You know, you have a week seeing Bruce Springsteen, I don't know,
• 1:38:17
  at the very briefly Bruce Springsteen.
• 1:38:18
  And you didn't tell me. Oh, I.
• 1:38:20
  Was in and out. She was there sort of dig out.
• 1:38:22
  I didn't have time for anything. It was like.
• 1:38:24
  I was there for. Like a day or two I've been
• 1:38:26
  like. But like, yeah, come, come, hit
• 1:38:28
  me. Up man, it was very much like I
• 1:38:30
  was in out. I would have watched him had a
• 1:38:32
  great time and I was gone. I, I didn't even, you know, I
• 1:38:35
  would love to like, you know, you know, spend some time in
• 1:38:40
  Manchester and chill out and hang out.
• 1:38:42
  It'd be great. But like, I know it's a long
• 1:38:45
  journey and it's, it's, it's not easy.
• 1:38:48
  And I appreciate you taking time to come down, check out our
• 1:38:52
  show, you know, chat to us. And yeah.
• 1:38:57
  It was so worth it. You know, like I, I am.
• 1:39:02
  I'm a big fan. I'd love what you're doing.
• 1:39:05
  I'm excited for the future. I just, it just, that meant a
• 1:39:10
  lot to me just on, on a, on a level, just in general, it was,
• 1:39:15
  it was just cool. It was just, you know, it was,
• 1:39:17
  it was cool seeing a band that you listen to doing their thing
• 1:39:22
  and doing it so well. And and also just how humble and
• 1:39:25
  down to earth you guys are. I think it just lends to the the
• 1:39:28
  credibility of the band that. Does it ever change?
• 1:39:31
  I don't want ever to not be because I always hope that
• 1:39:35
  there's people that I look up to and there's artists and
• 1:39:37
  musicians that I love and would love to meet one day.
• 1:39:41
  And, and I just, you know, your dream is going to be, you know,
• 1:39:46
  nice and whatever. And I, you know, for me, I want
• 1:39:51
  to be, I don't want to change really.
• 1:39:53
  I want to, OK, what happens? Say whatever happens doesn't
• 1:39:56
  matter, but say things happen in the, you know, you know, a good
• 1:40:01
  way. I hope I'm the same person that
• 1:40:03
  I am now, you know, I, I always will like the same things.
• 1:40:09
  I won't change. That's that's the plan.
• 1:40:11
  I don't want to change. I like who I am and I and I, you
• 1:40:15
  know, I don't want to change. So I hope that remains.
• 1:40:20
  Right. Final question for you, tie
• 1:40:22
  things up for today. Now I will let you know that we
• 1:40:25
  are recording this on the 27th of May.
• 1:40:28
  I believe this is going to be hitting somewhere in mid to late
• 1:40:34
  June, so. Just keep having a new song out
• 1:40:36
  by then. We're going to the studio on
• 1:40:39
  Thursday to record something and there's two songs you're
• 1:40:42
  recording potentially, and we're not sure which one's coming out
• 1:40:45
  first. So it's going to be a very
• 1:40:48
  joyous song or a really angry song.
• 1:40:51
  And so right now, when this is out there in the world, you'll
• 1:40:55
  probably know what that song is and it's either something really
• 1:40:57
  angry or really happy. And that'll make sense.
• 1:41:01
  But you know, running out doesn't make sense.
• 1:41:04
  So that that's the, that's the next thing.
• 1:41:06
  Yeah, I was, I was going to ask about that, yeah, upcoming
• 1:41:10
  projects, dates, etcetera. But.
• 1:41:12
  Studio with an latitude. We've got lots of festivals
• 1:41:15
  lined up. Oh yeah?
• 1:41:16
  Well, where else are you playing?
• 1:41:18
  We've got, we're playing a festival called Lazy Days, which
• 1:41:21
  is great. That's we're playing the
• 1:41:23
  Lightning Seeds and that's been great.
• 1:41:27
  We're playing with Sporting Rat Boy at a festival called Summer
• 1:41:30
  Slam. Yeah, but.
• 1:41:33
  He's a great artist, got other things in the fire and yeah,
• 1:41:38
  and, you know, new music, which we're really excited about,
• 1:41:41
  which can be interesting. Again, I have no idea which song
• 1:41:44
  it's going to be, so I can't say it's going to be this because it
• 1:41:46
  could be the complete opposite thing that's causing the
• 1:41:49
  arguments in the band at the moment.
• 1:41:50
  But they're good arguments and I've got my opinions.
• 1:41:53
  But you know, I'm just a front man, you know?
• 1:41:55
  That's what I'm saying. Absolutely.
• 1:41:58
  The pleasure, Tom, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 1:42:01
  And yeah, just thank you. Yeah, let's talk again.
• 1:42:05
  Let's keep. Let's keep talking.
• 1:42:06
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:42:07
  Yeah, we'll set we'll set a date down the line and we'll see
• 1:42:12
  where we're at then. Exactly.
• 1:42:14
  Cool. And to all the listeners of
• 1:42:16
  Christian Reed Podcast, thank you so much for watching and
• 1:42:18
  listening. I hope you enjoyed this show as
• 1:42:19
  much as I did. Go out of your way to check out
• 1:42:22
  the Trusted. Go listen to them everywhere
• 1:42:24
  online. I promise you, you won't regret
• 1:42:26
  it. They absolutely have my seal of
• 1:42:28
  approval. And go see them live because
• 1:42:30
  they're brilliant. And I, I was so stoked that I
• 1:42:33
  went. I'm clamouring for the next time
• 1:42:36
  I can go see them. So yeah, go check them out.
• 1:42:39
  Thank you so much for watching and listening, and I'll see you
• 1:42:41
  in the next one.