Chris DeLine

Finding inventive ways to keep garage punk vibrant isn’t really as necessary in the genre as simply being good; or “feeling it”; or simply having fun. And when you start adding up all of those factors, it becomes natural start making the comparisons: “Not comparing TRMRS to the Black Lips would just be weird” (Stuck on an Island), “This quartet sounds like the zombiefied Ventures” (the Portland Mercury), or “What would the Sonics sound like if Link Wray played lead and they were molested by the Germs?” (OC Weekly) all having been batted around at some point. It’s not as if any of these are unwarranted–the quartet themselves liken their sound to the Black Lips, the Strokes and Link Wray–but in doing so it becomes easy to overlook the fact that they’re not simply a run-of-the-mill knockoff. A quick scan of live videos shows a band actually enjoying themselves, which translates to a bit of rowdiness on stage. Take the group’s single and subsequent music video for “Hello Self” as further proof of the passion for psych-punk fury; it’s something the guys bleed, not a mindset they fall in and out of when it comes time to record or perform. Sure the group’s music might come be similar to something else you’ve heard, but TRMRS retains an authenticity that gives them a sound of their own. In this edition of Influenza Tommy Stewart (guitar/vocals) and Anthony Perry (guitar/vocals) break down what “Hello Self” represents, what it means to be “trash pop” and how they hope to help change Orange County’s rep.

So, I guess you would have to understand our band in the right perspective to get what “Hello Self” is really about. We are from Orange County, CA which has long been described as a bubble or sort of a white washed culture that lacks a young lower class atmosphere. I think just from touring and traveling a lot, we’ve realized that most of North America and the world doesn’t realize what makes OC cool is the rapidly growing counter-culture in response to the whole “bubble” thing. It was never about making popular music it was about making collaborative art that really represented all four of us. We wanted to create music that was dirty, modern, provocative, and embodied the pride in our friends and the very culture that we represent. With that in mind we just started calling it “trash pop” because nothing else seemed to fit better.

“Hello Self” is one our songs that simply represented all of that. Inevitably, it gets people SO worked up regardless where we are, just about every single time we play it live. The verses talk about your up and down attitudes on life. It talks about where we live, what we want, and knowing if we would still be the same person regardless. Everything we do is a collaborative effort with our friends, family, and community. The official video for “Hello Self” was filmed by our good friend Taylor Bonin. The video isn’t so serious rather than it being a projection of our silly artistic tastes, and overall we are stoked on it and what more is to come.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]