The Trusted

The Trusted are a Southend – on – Sea indie pop rock four – piece made up of brothers Tom Cunningham (Vocals, Guitar), Finlay Cunningham (Bass, Vocals), drummer Dave Batchelor and guitarist Dale Holt – Mead. The Trusted formed in mid-2016, but their relationship dates back to their early days at secondary school. The initial spark that formed the band was the bond over music that lead singer Tom and guitarist Dale made through their mutual appreciation of creating edgy atmospheric pop with strong melodies. The Trusted focuses on casting a dynamic range of emotions, whether it comes from a happy or sad place, the band want the listeners to feel the raw emotions radiating from their music.

Tom was kind enough to answer a few questions for us, here’s what he had to say.

Growing up who was your musical influences?

“It depends on who you ask in in the band. We were all inspired by different artists. For me, it a wide mix of stuff. Artists/ bands like Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, U2, Springsteen, Bowie, The Who, St Vincent, Talking Heads, Otis Redding, Prince, Jack White, R.E.M. All of these helped shaped my world view on music and how music is made”

What made you want to be in a band? & Where do your idea for songs come from?

“I think it all comes down to a pure love for music. When we first played together in the same room, it just felt great. There is something special about being in a band, it’s hard to explain. It’s like finding your own personal frequency.

In terms of where the songs come from, It’s kind of random. A lot of our music is born when the four of us jam in a room together. We have always tried write our songs together as a band.

The lyrics come from just reacting to the world. Most of songs are about the human soul and raw emotions”

Describe your music in three words

“Heart and soul”

Do you have any funny/interesting gig stories you can share with us?

“I remember once, we were on a tour on route to a gig. We were heading there in a little tour van and our tour manager decided to stop off at shop to pick up some food. This particular shop was on quite a steep street and when he got out he left the handbrake off. The van basically started rolling down the street onto this busy roundabout and three of us basically dived into the front to grab the handbrake.

By the time someone reached it, the van had rolled in front of a bunch of cars haha. There were no collisions, but hey there we were, in a van, in the middle, parked in middle of road surrounded by angry cars in a random town.

Our finest moment”

What has been your Best/worst gig?

“There have been loads of special gigs over the last few years, it’s hard to pick a best. I guess our first headline hometown show was one of the real magical ones. That was a wild night.

In terms of worst, we played this gig in Leicester. It was the last gig of this tour and everything went wrong. The pedalboards turned against us and our drum kit fell apart multiple times. We sounded like a band falling down some stairs haha. Afterwards, I was worried that this gig was going to destroy the band (it didn’t)”

What would you say the music scene is like where you’re based?

“It’s great! I would say it’s extremely rich and diverse. Southend is home to a really heathy music scene. It’s been very inspiring for us”

You have a new single out can you tell us about it?

“It was one of them songs that took us a while to write. We had a verse and no chorus, so we just left it for about eight months and then all of sudden, it kind of wrote itself in a couple of hours. Lyrically, I took some of the ideas from Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run,’ and did my own thing with them it’s basically about someone who has grown tired of pain and dreams of running away to find something better. At some level, it’s a reflection of my own frustrations about the current political social landscape”

Favourite venue to play?

“Hmm, tough question. We’ve played some great rooms. I mean The Camden Assembly is up there. Great venue”

Tell us about your music?

“If you had to put our music in a genre, I guess it would somewhere in-between the indie/alternative rock worlds. However, when we write, we don’t think about style or genre. We just write what we want to hear. We’ve been influenced by everything from The 1975 to Brockhampton. We kind of want our music to talk for itself”

Any other gigs coming up?

“We’ve got a big hometown show at Chinnerys in Southend on the 28th December. Tickets have just gone and sale which is exciting. It’s going to another special one, we can’t wait!”

What are your plans for the rest of 2019 and 2020?

“We are sitting on a ton of unreleased tracks, that we are currently planning on getting out there asap. I think the main plan for 2020 is just to build on everything we’ve been building this year. It will be interesting to see where things take us”

Any other information you would like us to add to the interview?

“Just a big thank you for taking time to ask us some questions x”

By Siân Parker