Interview: A Conversation with Trudy and the Romance.
- Jun 6, 2017
- 10 min read
Trudy & The Romance – formerly known as Trudy – have a dreamy nostalgia about them. ‘Behave’ has an almost tangible nostalgia. It was released only last year but that song stands as example of how a song can sound like a memory if it were a physical thing. The moody blues track that sings of the blues that coincide with a reminder of better times – all conveyed through Oliver Taylor’s song writing. All of their videos, bar 1, are homemade and filmed in a very natural, vintage montage type style – reminiscent of “The old Beatles films with all their heads popping round corners and stuff”. Visual arrangement is something they consider to be integral to their ethos and aesthetic – confidently aspiring to such film scores as Henry Mancini’s ‘Breakfast At Tiffany’s’ and composer, Bernard Hermann’s ‘Taxi Driver’.
Comfortably sitting in TMB's must-watch list for the upcoming Live at Leeds festival this year, we had to take up the opportunity to speak to the lead singer. Getting hold of Oliver Taylor proved to be a bit of a shambles as neither of us had the means of calling each other. I’m still using a pay as you go phone and he never has minutes –
“Like, I’m always blagging people to call me.” Eventually, he was directed to my Facebook profile so we could call on messenger.
He told me he was homebound to a “boring town near Sheffield”, Chesterfield – writing music that he’s set to record in a couple of weeks with producer David Pye who’s worked with Epyptian Hip-Hop and Wild Beasts.
What is it like starting a band in Chesterfield?
Well, I went to college in Sheffield and we used to play the worst gigs ever in Sheffield. It was like erm, you know like when the promoters? They take like five-pound and then you get one-pound or 6-pound tickets. You know? They shaft ya. So our tickets were getting sold by young, shady guys who kinda seem like they shouldn’t be doing that job and taking advantage of young, aspiring musicians. But that was Sheffield anyway, and I’d say we probably started getting better gigs in Leeds.
Was there a lack of venues in Sheffield or was it a case of bad luck getting shows?
Really hard to get shows I’d say. Like I used to be in a band with Brad Mullins, the drummer – Trudy. We probably played better shows together than we ever did in Sheffield. We got support from another Chesterfield band and we were quite young for that. But yeah we’ve played a lot of places like… – a support slot at the O2, and er West Street Live. I dunno, they’re not the best things.
Sheffield has some big acts that grew up there Arctic Monkeys, etc. So people from Sheffield tend to take a big pride in the music scene.
Oh yeah, well definitely like it’s had a lot to show over recent years, like we’re big fans of Richard Hawley, from Sheffield. Obviously then there’s Jarvis Cocker and of course Alex Turner. But yeah – it’s a pretty good place to be fair – for music. I don’t really know if there’s actually a scene there at the minute. I’m not really that aware of any scene to be honest you know like – we don’t really get that involved. You kinda feel like you need to prove yourself cause it’s like playing gigs but not really knowing if you’re playing the right gigs, you know what I mean like. We need to get out more. Seeing. All the talent.
Although you wouldn’t say you’re aware of any kind of scene, would you say your music is being reflected by other bands?
No, I don’t think so. You know I think we sound a tiny bit American sometimes – early Strokes sound to it maybe you know what I mean? I like to think of it like that anyway. I mean I guess you can interpret it as anything. But I guess that’s where we’re sort of influenced by. Maybe we can see it as a bit of a misfits band where it’s not exactly part of a scene which can make things a bit tricky sometimes but Liverpool have actually been really good at taking us on. And yeah people are being nice to us and stuff. It’s not been too hard.
*After asking me where I’m from, I told Olly of the abundance of indie clubs in Cambridge, and any small venues that would pop up tend to be closed down pretty soon – due to noise complaints and a serious lack of younger people interested in live music.*
Yeah, they just opened up a 1,600 capacity venue or something in Chesterfield. Where the town doesn’t even have a venue, and then suddenly they just open up this indie club and I think it’s supposed to be one of the biggest indie clubs in the country! Like they opened it up on New Years Eve and – fuck, man that’s not gonna last. I think the guy who opened it up just did it for his son’s band as like – just somewhere to play, which is kinda cute but I dunno. I don’t think it’s gonna work out man like there is not 1,600 people, just out and about in chesterfield on a night out you know what I mean?
I think the sound is gonna change… we just bought a new sampler
So you’re currently recording and writing music between now and the start of the tour – I assume. Do you want to revolve further around the field that you’re currently playing – music wise? Or is there something else you would rather move onto or just doing whatever feels good at the time?
Well, I think the writing is maturing a little. I think you can hear that in the new songs that are coming out. I think it’s cause I’ve been listening to more Bacharach and Scott Walker and Frank Sinatra. I mean everything you’re listening to… it all seems to find its way out in the writing anyway. I think the sound is gonna change, like, we just bought a new sampler. Got more of a Billie Holliday kind of vibe to it, adds a bit of atmosphere. That’s the next step I think after finding a sound and making it a complete, one thing. You know something that you can distinguish as being its own element.
I completely agree, I think for a band isn’t that established and playing amongst a very explored scene it’s nice to see that you’ve managed to hone your own sound. How exactly do you achieve these tones with guitar?
I was always a bit of a guitarist since birth, to be honest, or I’ve always wanted to be a good guitarist. I got an old guitar from 1959, a second-hand electric Silvertone, U1 model. So that’s for my older, groovier 50s swing and blues kind of tone and I use my fender Musicmaster fender from like the 70s – I use when I’ve broken a string really. I got my Silvertone on eBay, had to get it from America. I think Lewis just got a new bass – a Gibson from the 1960s. Then I’ve got a Fender blues junior amplifier. And that has a pre-amp pedal that’s got a sound like a dying animal. And then this memory boy pedal which is really wobbly and kinda 50s and dreamy. A little slapback delay and it’s like tremor. I don’t really focus on it too much anymore, I guess I’ll have to at one point. When we started though, obviously my guitar didn’t sound that great live, like it does get better as you get more stuff over time. With recordings, we could always tamper with stuff so that was never really such a problem. But live now I think we’ve got something like eight pedals. No. Nine pedals. I have nine pedals. We don’t really need all of them but they’re fun as fuck. Brad still needs to get some drums though.
I saw your video for ‘Wild’ where you’re all on a beach and he’s playing with nothing but a floor tom and snare!
Yeah! Well I mean that’s all he’s got in real-life! That was our first professional video and yeah we had some help with that one. Cause we make all the others ourselves. The idea for the video was all ours but we met this one guy from Liverpool, Tony. He’s got all the same sense of humour as us all and yeah it was funny. The premise was for video was meant to be like a bad date between us and 10 other girls but it turned out to literally be as awkward as we wanted it to be. Well not really! It was great.
It’s reminiscent of the old Beatles movies where they’re all in fast forward, visiting different places and fooling around sort of thing.
Yeah well we wanted it to look like we just got our first budget for a music video and yeah, kinda going for that cheeky chappies round Liverpool, you know poking our heads round a wall.
So the album you’re producing now, when are you expecting release?
I think maybe June for, for the EP but the singles I think we’re hoping to drag them out a bit further. So yeah and we’ll gig a lot over the summer and then an album early next year, hopefully. But we kinda want it to have all of its own songs like we don’t just want to pile them together as one big compilation, do you know what I mean? If we can help it, at least. I mean that might end up happening but I want that album to be all produced by the same producer so it’s all the same sound and everything but I think we’re keeping with similar kind of themes and characters, stories and concepts.
Who is your current producer?
Well, we’ve had a few now we first had Tarek Musa from the band, Spring King. Then we worked with Bill Ryder who used to be in The Coral who’s got his own thing now, new album’s really good. And we now work with David Pie, he’s done work with Egyptian Hip-Hop and Wild Beasts and stuff like that. So yeah did ‘Sandman’ and ‘My Baby’s Gone Away’ and. hopefully, they’re gonna be the sound of the album. And then we’re gonna go record 3 EP tracks with him next week but yeah I’m still writing them. It’s good though it puts the pressure on to get it finished. We usually gig a lot more with a song until it’s actually recorded but in this case, we’ve not gigged them yet so that’s kinda cool. Makes it more of a studio project. There’s quite a few songs that no-one’s heard yet. But then I think I think I’m probably gonna pocket them for the album because I feel like they’re quite strong.
So what’s the theme that you want to portray in the album?
I’ve got this idea, like I’ve come up with this concept. They’re little stories with reoccurring characters and stuff. I don’t exactly wanna say what the point of the stories are yet because I don’t want to sound like a crazy man. But so far, I can say we’ve got a Sandman and a Sandgirl and they’re gonna get involved. We’ve got a girl on board with the artwork too, she can be well grotesque when she wants to be, I mean not with us she’s done stuff for other bands too but that kinda gives us this freedom for a more wacky concept. It’s just worth building something like that up for an album because you want the entire thing to have a bit more context than just a compilation of songs. But it’s coming of age stories, stuff we know – not anything too special, nothing too dark but who knows where we’ll go next. The visual arrangements are really important to us cause there’s this guy called Henry Mancini and I quite like him. He did like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and all that sort of stuff. There’s also Bernard Hermann who did the score for Taxi Driver. And that’s the sort of direction we want to go onto afterwards. So I think that’s quite a visual concept, especially with the art that can parallel the music. It is quite tricky, but I think when you’re in the studio it all comes together and becomes more real.
Looking forward to the upcoming tour?
Yeah, yeah. Well I’ve actually been getting quite nervous about it if I’m honest like it’s quite strenuous isn’t it like doing a lot of shows and you’re scared you’re gonna get ill then you’re scared that you’re not well practiced enough but no when we’re in it we tend to really enjoy ourselves and this year especially is going to be non-stop I think.
You’re visiting Live at Leeds Fest this year, have you been before?
I went when King Krule played I think that was about 2 years ago. I was really ill but I bought a ticket just to go watch him. He played in Trinity Church. He was really great and I went to watch Spring King as well. It’s a great festival, really. Last year, we were playing Goldstar festival instead and Homeshake were there. I don’t know what venue we’re going to be playing this year, hopefully the Brudenell Social Club. Which, if you know about it/ It’s actually like a proper working man’s pub or at least it looks like it but it’s actually legendary venue which gets loads of international acts. American bands will come over and they will be recommended that one venue. I think it’s supposed to be The Cribs favourite venue. Hopefully we’ll get a bit of time to go around the festival when we play this year – though I don’t know who’s gonna turn up for Pigeon Detectives. Like I really liked them growing up but I don’t think they’ve really moved on from that sound.
I went on to discuss my time at Live At Leeds fest and the interview I had with TRASH in a restaurant next to Oporto bar. Turns out Olly knew them from Chesterfield…
They’re lovely. Lovely chaps. They’re little fuckers, but they’re great aren’t they? They actually wanted me to do a little music video with them the other day but they always fuck with me like they always try stitch me up so I just wouldn’t dare do it like I didn’t know what was gonna happen.
I think you should invite them to one of your shows.
Tom actually messaged me the other night asking if we could support them which would have been good. I think we’re gonna have to just get local supports everywhere just to boost ticket sales or well, maybe not we tend to surprise ourselves with the people that come along to shows. Hopefully we can get TRASH to support us in London and Sheffield though, that would be cool.
Finally, what releases are yo looking forward to this year?
Happyness – ‘Not Even Happiness’. Also, King Krule, Pink Kink and the new Lemon Twigs EP.
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