“We’re just riding the wave, man,” Trash Boat front man, Tobi Duncan, pardons the pun as he tucks into a Graze box whilst talking to us before their sold out Liverpool show. It’s becoming apparent that the UK pop punk scene is entering yet another golden age and St Albans band, Trash Boat, are right in the mix.
Their lengthy-titled debut album, ‘Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through’, was released earlier this summer to immensely positive reviews. The album’s refreshing pop punk sound with its twangs of hardcore, complete with emotive, creative and brutally honest lyrics – as well as massive choruses – stapled the album as one of 2016’s most celebrated releases.
“It’s hard to critique your own work because there are always aspects that you’re not going to like. I definitely like it though. We did something right, people are really digging it,” says Duncan, explaining his opinion on their debut full-length. Some music fans criticise pop punk for the various clichés attached to the genre; whiney vocals, the same guitar sounds/sequences for 12 tracks, and every front man thinking he is Tom DeLonge. Actual fans of the genre know this isn’t the case, and Trash Boat’s debut is an impeccable piece of work to silence the critics.
“There are certain tropes in pop punk around writing about relationships and stuff, and it is not like I actively avoided that, it was just what flowed best for me. It came naturally. I did me and we did us,” Duncan explained, continuing to open up about his song writing process and occasional struggles. “In terms of ideas, I can go a month without having anything and in a day I’ll write three songs. I do most of my writing while driving and before I go to bed. I can lie there for weeks with nothing and one night stay up all night writing.”
The final track on the album, ‘You Know, You Know, You Know’, is a particular example of the front man’s expertise, and begins with unfortunate circumstances. A close family friend of Duncan and his mother took his own life earlier in the year, and the song starts with the reading of the first paragraph of the note he left for Duncan’s mother.
“He was an avid musician and he knew I wanted to be a musician whilst I was growing up. Quite often I would talk him. The first time I got my drum kit he was there to teach me. He was always a part of my life and he was always there to support all the musical stuff because that got him excited” Duncan said as he opened up about the relationship between him and the man in question.
“When he died I was trying to walk a really fine line between appropriating his death for the purposes of writing a song, and just writing him a song. At the end of the day, it didn’t take much thinking as my heart and my head were in the right the place. I like to think he would have loved it” Duncan continued. The song is one of the major standout tracks of the record as it showcases a respectable homage to a good man, and offers hope to those in need. Life can be shit, but there is always help out there.
The song is a testament to the talent of Trash Boat. Few acts can create a track with such personal links and based around such a sensitive issue and still pull it off in such a respectable and mature manor, especially on their debut album.
Trash Boat signed to Hopeless Records in 2015 and released their sophomore EP, ‘Brainwork’. When word spread throughout Hopeless that the debutants were making an album, Dan “Soupy” Campbell wanted to get involved. The Wonder Years’ front man wanted to take a step back from performing and take a hand at producing a record. Hearing the news that pop punk royalty wanted to help produce the album, it sent the Trash Boat lads to cloud nine.
“He wanted to do a bit of production work and we wanted to write an album, so it all just came together at the right time. It started as quite an open opportunity and it was no brainer from us. Then we heard he was up for it and we went from there. We were blown away,” Duncan says, describing his initial feelings before the process of creating the album.
The initial work was mainly conversed over Facebook, Duncan continues. “We’d send him a riff if we were stuck he’d offer help and opinion. He would help with lyrics, too, saying “yeah it is good but maybe if you changed the syllables here and moved to G chord,” stuff like that. The week before we moved into the studio he came over from the US and stayed with us and work commenced.”
Being the front man of one of pop punk’s biggest bands, as well as leading a critically acclaimed solo project, Campbell offered unending wisdom to the young band explains Duncan. “He was really good to work with. I was just trying to absorb as much experience as possible. He’s done everything and it was so incredible. My voice is still learning and on its way. I would record a vocal track and listen back and it wouldn’t sound great or it was a bit flat, and he would step up and nail it all in one take. He was really helpful and really enthusiastic so it was great.”
Campbell was announced as a producer when the albums opening track ‘Strangers’ was unveiled, which he made a guest appearance on. Duncan discussed what other influences that “Soupy” had on the album. “He had the largest influence on ‘The Guise Of A Mother’ because in the chorus he wrote the chord sequence, as we originally had it in a minor key. He suggested we drop to a major and I changed his lyrics a bit but the vocal line in the chorus was his idea. We didn’t like it at first but it grew on us. Aside from his part in ‘Strangers’, that was the only part he fully wrote, the rest was shaped by his opinions on our music.”
The stellar debut was applauded on its release for its variation of sounds and style throughout the album; classic pop punk riffs in ‘Tring Quarry’, the heavy hardcore sections in ‘How Selfish I Seem’, and massive choruses in ‘Catharsis’ and ‘The Guise Of A Mother’ demonstrate what UK pop punk is best at today.
“All of that came from arguments,” Duncan explains. “When you’re in bands there are two types of people; the kind that just want to play and have fun and the people that have a direction and vision. A few of us would butt heads and at first, I was a bit disillusioned because we were arguing a lot, but it really helped to shape the vibe because we’d have to compromise and please everyone.”
A self-confessed fan of heavier and hardcore bands such as Turnstile, Duncan tells us about how he was partly tempted to create a sweaty pit anthem record. “I wanted to write a kind of old Title Fight / H20 thing. That would have been great, but I feel that if I was allowed just to run away with it, it wouldn’t come out the way I wanted and what has come out is the best.”
The short tour ahead follows a summer of firsts for the St Albans lads, from a first album release to their first sold out shows. The sold out Liverpool show was the first show they wanted to play after missing it on their album release tour with WSTR and Weatherstate, and the faithful were lively as ever. Having played to larger crowds at 2000 Trees, Slam Dunk and Reading & Leeds, Duncan feels much more at home at the quaint Studio 2 venue. “I’m always going to be a fan of the smaller, sweaty shows because that’s where I went to gigs and had the best time.
“Being on the road is where I feel most comfortable. It’s where I feel I have purpose. I like being at home and it does sometimes suck being away from home but this is what I want to do and I’m loving it” Duncan further confessed. “Summer flew by but I guess it was a good sign, and a testament as to how much fun we were having. Everything is going really really well. Circumstances are definitely with us and we’re working our arses off. I’m not going to complain.”
‘Nothing I Write You Can Change What You’ve Been Through’ is available now via Hopeless Records.