SO SO BOMB!!!
Slander from Trash Talk’s Awake EP
Trashtalkhc.com
Directed and Animated by Jim Dirschberger
EightyFourFilms.com
Illustrated and Art Directed by Jay Howell
JayHowellArt.blogspot.com
by JARRED TIBBETTS
“We played a fest in Norway and we’re chilling there in the back area and it’s like Trash Talk, Yay Sayer, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, The Specials, Fucked Up, Surfer Blood, and MIA. And everyone is just hanging the fuck out and The Specials are asking us if we have weed.”
Trash Talk. Wow. If you’re into hardcore, punk, metal, doom, or any sub genre thereof you need to embrace this band with open arms and blown out ear drums. They are literally the biggest up and coming band out there bridging gaps between hardcore and mainstream playing fests with the Flaming Lips and Slayer, Iggy Pop and MIA. They recently just did a split 7” with Waaves that sold out in a day. A fucking DAY! I remember playing shows with Trash Talk on their first tour in 2006 and them opening for MY band! I guess there’s something in the water in Sacramento that forces musicians to never give up because Trash Talk hasn’t looked back from those lowly tours in station wagons playing shows in Veteran’s Halls and basements. It’s hard to imagine that an aggressive adrenaline fueled all-go-no-slow hardcore band can sell out a venue like the Echoplex or even the Roxy and pull off a split 7” with a band like Waaves. But they do and continue to do so, much to the amazement and satisfaction of critics and fans alike. After their over-capacity Scion show at the Roxy back in September 2010, I got to hang out with Trash Talk in their hotel room in true rock star fashion and ask their singer Lee and drummer Sam a few questions. Here they are. Enjoy.
Let’s start off with a really easy question: What’s your favorite Jennifer Lopez movie?
Sam: Well, I did see Gili one time.
Lee: Fuck dude. I don’t even know any Jennifer Lopez movies. I honestly couldn’t tell you. All I know about J-Lo is that she’s fine and she was in that Ja Rule song.
Sam: Yep, they had that video of her in a jungle with lasers. I watched the behind the video and apparently she got burned by one of those lasers on the arm. I didn’t know lasers could do that. Now every time I see pictures of raves I think “You’re fucked.”
Lee: (To Sam) Dude, what’s your favorite J-Lo joint? The Ja Rule videos good!
Sam: Wait didn’t she play Selena?
Lee: Selena’s a big staple in California.
What’s your favorite place to play? City? Country?
Lee: I don’t even know. Personally, I love Belgium. I love everything about Belgium because the way it looks, the kids are fuckin’ awesome, the shows are awesome, the food is good. Everything about Belgium I like. You can buy weed in Holland and just drive over to Belgium. I love Belgium. It’s just a personal favorite.
Sam: I like shows in California, in the bay and down here. It’s always the best.
Is it because you know a bunch of people?
Sam: Yeah, that’s part of it. But also it’s just like kids go fucking crazy here. Tonight’s show was a perfect example of that. It was definitely the most violent set of this entire tour.
Lee: And it was so sick to come back to California. We haven’t been here in like 3 months. It was like our comeback show. It was sick.
So you guys did your self titled record with Steve Albini. What was that like?
Sam: It was really cool. It was kind of intimidating at first just knowing the catalog of things he’s done. That speaks for itself. And just the reputation he has himself, you know as a person. He was so fucking cool man.
Lee: He pretty much helps you with tones and helps you find your sound. The studio we recorded at was amazing. They have everything you need as far as like cabs and heads and pedals and everything. I mean it’s Steve Albini. Big Black. Shellac. It had everything you could possibly think of and everything’s built to just be BIG. The drum room is a two-story tall cylinder room with microphones in the walls and shit. It’s all meant to be big.
Sam: The thing about Steve Albini now a days that people need to understand is that he’s not going to like produce your record for you. He didn’t produce our record at all. He used to do that a lot. What he does though, amazingly, is he captures what you sound like. Like how your band sounds, that’s how it’s gonna turn out.
Lee: I definitely think that Albini recordings are straight up as if you saw the band live.
Sam: And that’s what we wanted to do on the record. We wanted to capture a live show sound.
So juxtaposed to Albini, what was it like working with Joby (The Bronx)?
Sam: It was also fucking cool. It was not to tape, it was Protools. Joby knows us. We toured together and became friends. He had this idea when he first approached us about doing the record and when we went into the studio and started hearing the sounds coming back and stuff. The record is very in your face sounding. All of the levels are perfect.
Lee: The thing about working with Joby was that we were there to make a record that we liked and he was also there to produce a record that he liked. We were both working to make an awesome record. He didn’t say “Here, do your thing.” He had ideas and he envisioned what he thought it should be like. It was the first time recording ever that we had that much input, as far as someone else outside of the band. Usually we plug in, we record, we do our own thing. We kinda tell them what we want. This was the first time that we really collaborated with someone.
Sam: He kinda pushed us too. He knew what we could do. It wasn’t like we went in dry and he didn’t know us. Joby had seen us before. We would do a take and he’d say “I know you can do better than that. I’ve seen you do better than that. Why don’t you try this instead of this?” The other thing was that we had more time with Joby. We went in there for a couple weeks and our other recordings were done in a couple days.
Lee: When the Bronx fucking signed to Island/Def Jam they took all their dough and bought a studio. It’s the Bronx studio and we lived there while we recorded. So it was so much more relaxed. You go upstairs and you sleep and chill then you wake up and go down stairs and record. We never really had that kind of experience. Usually it’s like you’ve got two days, bang out your record. But this was like hanging out and when Joby shows up you record. If you wanna stop and go get food you can stop. It was sick.
That brings me to my next question. Analog or digital?
Sam: Well obviously I love the analog sound and when done right by a band that it works well for it can be great. Digital also has its place though. I think they both have their place. I feel that they shouldn’t discontinue analog recordings or anything like that. It’s very important to have both, you know? Just for the pure fact that some bands sound better on analog.
Lee: I also feel like analog is super cool but there’s only so much you can do with it. With digital you can record and make it sound analog. You can do SO much with digital that’s pretty much not possible with analog. I personally prefer digital because you can take digital and turn it into analog. Not turn it into analog but you can get the feel and the sound that you want, you just have to have the right mixer and the right producer. I definitely feel that in 2010 there’s more shit you can do with digital. But analog is always there.
For a band named Trash Talk I’ve never really heard of any beef you guys have with other bands. So now is your chance to explode.
Lee: We don’t really have any beef with anybody. People beef with us because fools get fucking weird and they can’t accept us being chillers. Haters wanna hate. Here’s the beef, every kid wants to hop on the internet and pound away on their computer and it’s fucking hilarious. We send t-shirts to their houses. We do it ourselves and we know who buys. I know think it’s great.
Is every aspect of Trash Talk DIY?
Sam: We try to have our hands in everything we can as much as we can. At this point we can’t.
Lee: It’d be physically impossible to do everything ourselves. We have a booking agent in Europe but everything is cleared by us and controlled by us. Everyone we’ve brought into the Trash Talk circle is like “We know where you’re at and we know what you want to do.”
Sex Pistols or Ramones?
Lee: Ramones.
Sam: I like the Sex Pistols but Ramones.
Does California have the best weed?
Lee: Yes. We get off the plane from London where we just lived for a month and a half. First thing we did was dropped our stuff off at the house then drive straight to the weed clinic. Then we smoked it and said, “It’s working! It’s really working!”
Sam: Yes.
For more info about merch, shows and anything else check out Trash Talk
