Today, we sat down with the band Trank to talk type of music they listened to growing up, advice for musicians and much more. Be sure to check out their music below after the interview on Spotify!
Interview:
What is your inspiration to write your music? Is it your
surroundings?
Mostly it’s the huge gap between how life is and how we think it should be. Same gigantic fault pretty much everyone who plays rock has tapped into forever. That’s one of the ways in which we’re “old school.”
What type of music did you listen to growing up?
The answer to that one would be very, very different depending on which member of the band you ask.
I’m reading Jimmy Page’s autobiography right now, and John Paul Jones makes a comment about how they were the only band of their generation that had radically different tastes from one another, and how that informed the Led Zeppelin sound. Well, we’re not Led Zeppelin YET (we wish !), but we do all have very eclectic tastes, some of which we share, some of which not. Each of us has a core set of references we love.
David (bass) comes from 90’s metal, mainly stoner and things like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden; but he also grew up listening to A-HA and Supertramp so there’s a pop side to him as well. Johann (drums) grew up on progressive rock and remains a huge fan of Porcupine Tree or Dream Theatre, and he has huge admiration for Toto – as stylists and masters of their craft. Julien (guitars) is the ultimate Muse fan and also plays a lot of alternative metal, things like Bring me the Horizon – whose engineer, Brian Robbins, mixed our album. And I (Michel, vocals and programming) grew up listening mostly to Depeche Mode, Simple Minds, The Cure, New Order – the whole 80’s post-punk lot, DM being he favorite. But I have something like10,000 albums in the house ranging from Billie Holiday to Nine Inch Nails, so the list could go on for a while.
Someone was asking about which of those influences transpired in our music recently – and I replied that TRANK’s sound is the bastard child of SoundGarden and Depeche Mode, with Porcupine Tree as the midwife and Muse as the Ob-Gyn. That about sums it up.
Is there someone you looked up as a hero?
You mean musically ? For me, that would have to be David Bowie – or Dave Gahan. For David – probably Slash or Chris Cornell. For Johann – I guess Jeff Porcaro. And for Julien – Matt Bellamy.
If you weren’t a musician, would you be doing today?
Wishing I was one. A few years ago I would have added “while managing a record shop.” These days, might as well be living under a bridge, unfortunately. Vinyl forever !
What advice do you have for our fans out there that want to create
music?
Don’t listen to our advice yet. Wait until we’ve made it – we have album, “The Ropes” out now in a Deluxe edition with proper distribution and we’re very proud of it : if all goes well, ask us for advice again in 2 years. We’ll be happy to sign it for you to re-sell on eBay.
Music:
