Tomorrow, Southend-on-Sea indie rock quartet The Trusted will release their bracing new EP, Love And Suicide, but today we’re excited to provide an exclusive stream of it below.
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“[Love And Suicide] kind of came together at the start of the year, just before lockdown hit,” vocalist / guitarist Tom Cunningham tells American Songwriter over email. “I don’t think we wrote these tunes with the intention of putting them together as an EP however, once they were all in front of us, they kind of thematically fitted together.”
“The whole process from the song writing to the finished EP was very natural,” Cunningham continues. “I don’t think you can force things with music—you’ve got to let it take you where it’s going to take you.”
The Trusted is rounded by drummer Dave Batchelor, guitarist Dale Holt-Mead, and multi-instrumentalist Fin Cunningham. Love And Suicide comes after their 2019 Vicious EP.
Asked what song the band is most excited to perform live, Cunningham points to the EP’s nervy title track. “Whenever we play that tune live, the room lifts, especially when the chorus drops,” he says. “Even though it’s a song about feeling paranoid, I think musically it’s extremely joyful and that really becomes apparent on stage. Oh, and it’s also incredibly satisfying to play and sing.”
With the EP as a whole, The Trusted “wanted to create something that represents who we are as a band,” explains Cunningham. “We didn’t really have a sound or vibe in mind going in—we just kind of let things go where they needed to go. Stylistically, it kind of does go in a few different sonic directions [but] we think it still all ties together nicely and captures the essence of what The Trusted is.”
The band’s musical touchstones span several lanes of classic, alternative, and pop rock, all of which surface on Love And Suicide.
“Our influences come from all over the place and they change all the time,” says Cunningham. “I guess we try to listen to everything we can and streaming makes it really easy to tumble through different styles and genres without really trying. I definitely think in some ways, the EP reflects [that]. You can hear us going through a Foo Fighters / Kings of Leon / Queens of the Stone Age phase with ‘Horizontal Mind,’ and ‘Wild Love’ kind of features elements taken from Coldplay and The 1975. We are a band that was born into the Spotify age so I guess musically we find it really hard to stand still.”
Though Love And Suicide isn’t officially out yet, The Trusted are already looking ahead to their next project.
“Since the lockdown restrictions eased back in June, we’ve managed to spend quite a bit of time in the studio writing and recording new material,” says Cunningham. “We’re sitting on so much stuff at the moment. I think the plan is to release as much music as we can over the next five to six months. This EP kind of feels like the beginning of something really cool.”
Love And Suicide is out Sept. 11 via Kerry On the Cake. You can pre-save it here.
