Kieran Webber
Director and Founder of CLUNK Magazine, CLUNK Events, and other CLUNK affiliate businesses. You’ll probably find me tucked away somewhere sending emails, listening to music, and creating content.
The Newcastle band TRUNK talk us through how they all met, their shared influences, and more
There is a wave of 90’s nostalgia sweeping across the globe at the moment, people are dressing like Bratz dolls, baggy jeans are back, and genres of music such as grunge are having a come back. A perfect example of this throwback sound is the Newcastle band TRUNK, who recently shared their latest single ‘Blind Stare’. The track is a perfect encapsulation of the retrospective grunge sound, striking similarity to The Smashing Pumpkins. It is a slow burner of a track that builds momentum as it goes along, building to a boiling point where all the bands energy comes rushing out towards the listener. It is a fantastic example of a modern take on the genre.
We caught up with this rising outfit to chat about how they met, new music, and much more!
Kieran: Hey! Thank you for taking the time to chat with us!
Trunk: No bother at all it’s a pleasure, thanks for having us!
Kieran: How have we all been?
Trunk: Ahh pretty good bit of this bit of that you know the usual stuff.
Kieran: How’s the summer been treating you so far?
Trunk: Good, thank you! Just got back from a sweaty weekend at Outbreak Fest, and in true fashion, got my glasses smashed to pieces. Should’ve seen it coming!
We’re all very excited at the moment given the upcoming release of our debut EP, ‘Tembo,’ which is out on the 21st of July. So excited, in fact, we’re playing it in full at Zerox’s Shooting gallery in Newcastle the day before release, so get yourself down for it!
Kieran: So, let’s start at the beginning, how did you all meet and at what point did you decide to form TRUNK?
Trunk: Dylan and Connor both met at college back in 2018, whilst Connor and Sam roughly met around the same time under different circumstances. Joe met Dylan and the rest of the lads much later in 2020/2021 when we collectively moved to Leeds for university. Given the period that this fell under and the global climate at the time, we were all feeling immensely uninspired and unfulfilled and because of this, we started writing music together under the name of Trunk mid 2022. Tembo had always been there, we had ideas and what not being consistently thrown left, right and centre.
Kieran: Did you have any particular people or artists influence the band’s sound?
Trunk: For sure! I’ll stick to a select few as the list could go on for an eternity. But the handful that are mentioned the most (between us and within the opinion of our listeners) would be The Pixies, The Smashing Pumpkins, Guided by Voices, Hum, Sebadoh and naturally, Radiohead. As I say, the list would be never-ending if I allow it to be!
Kieran: Did your influences vary and if so, how did that blend into your own sound?
Trunk: As mentioned above our common ground is alt/indie rock, as for the rest it’s pretty much open season. We all have our own niche’s that we’re into, and these are the kinds of things that add a twist to the Trunk sound. We’re constantly on the lookout for new music, and always end up spouting on to each other about what we like and don’t like. I think over time we’ll further align our visions and hopefully blend our influences even more!
Kieran: You recently dropped your latest single ‘Blind Stare’, can you talk us through this release and what it means to you?
Trunk: ‘Blind Stare’ is one our spookier songs – it’s a take on the underbelly of city life and for us gives off an ominous and suspenseful energy. We’re proud of this one, it’s our opener live and will be the first track on ‘Tembo’; it feels like a song that should set the scene. What means the most is that it’s finally out there in the world, a lot of hard work has gone into writing, recording and promoting the EP and knowing it’s release is on the horizon is nothing short a dream come true.
There’s a massive wave of nostalgia in music now and your grunge sound is an example of that. Why do you think artists and musicians are looking backwards to this era for influence?
As harmful as it is to musicians and writers, streaming has given listeners access to a vast number of artists to explore, old and new. With the help of social media, it’s no surprise that there are bands from 30+ years ago more popular now than they’ve ever been.
For us I just think it’s a case of us listening to the music we love, and trying to make something for ourselves that gives us that same feeling.
Listen to ‘Blind Stare’ here:
Kieran: Lastly, what else can we expect from TRUNK in 2024?
Trunk: As previously mentioned, our debut EP is out this month – we’re beyond excited for you all to hear it! The Zerox show will be great too, aside from this, expect more shows, more music, more pretty merch and what have you. All the best stuff! We’re also supporting Glitterer on the 1st of August which will be awesome. Title Fight along with the rest of Ned Russin’s discography has been of immense influence on us both sonically regarding our creative output and our day to day lives. So yeah, all exciting things to stay in the loop for. You won’t regret it.
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