FEATURE: Spotlight: Truthpaste — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Truthpaste

__________

A lot of love and praise…

is pouring in for the Manchester-formed five-piece, Truthpaste. Their debut E.P., I Don’t Know Either, was released in April. I will end with a review of the E.P. Before getting there, there are a few interviews that I want to include. I am starting out with an interview from last year. Still Listening Magazine chatted with Truthpaste last year around the release of their debut single, See You Around:

“For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Esme: We are friends in a band called truthpaste.

Claire: and we met at uni in Manchester, but none of us are from Manchester.

James: It’s sometimes hard to say but essentially pop music with elements of folk and electronic.

Esme: We like to have fun with our music, it varies a lot. Sometimes it's slow, sometimes it's fast, sad, happy, angry, you name it.

Theo: We basically try to write catchy melodic songs -

Euan: Anthems of sorts.

You’ve built a strong presence in both Manchester and London, playing venues like The Windmill and Band on the Wall. How have those two music scenes shaped your identity as a band?

Esme: We had a really nice scene in Manchester with catbandcat, and a bunch of people in our year at uni who played a lot of experimental music. There’s a lot of stuff going on in Manchester like the Curious Ear gigs and our friends that run Skribble as well and things going on at venues like the Carlton Club. Last year we lived in this huge house with a bunch of different musicians, people would be walking past our house hearing all this crazy folk and experimental music coming from inside

Euan: Being surrounded by weird and wonderful music for five years definitely had an affect on our music. I think people are a lot more free to make stuff in Manchester, which makes a difference, and we’ve really enjoyed playing alongside bands like ANOTHER; COUNTRY $$$$ over the last couple years.

Esme: London is different though, it’s so big. A bunch of us grew up in London, so when we moved back it was kinda rejoining a scene we used to be a part of in different musical projects

Theo: I used to be in a band called Rattletooth which played at the Windmill a bunch, so it’s been nice playing to and with familiar faces but now as Truthpaste

James: But yeah returning to London has more been exciting than daunting for sure

Truthpaste is described as a "movement of fun." What does that mean to you, and how do you make sure the sense of playfulness stays at the heart of what you do?

We don’t take ourselves too seriously and I think that’s a really important quality in art these days. we want to invite everyone in, sometimes music is a bit intimidating and we just want everything to have a truly good time.

Euan: We just try to have fun whatever we’re doing, whether we’re rehearsing, writing a new song or playing live.

Claire: All those little jokes you make in rehearsals whilst you're just being silly with you mates, some of those moments make it into our songs.

Esme: Being playful and unafraid to look ridiculous at times definitely helps us create more weird interesting stuff - I love throwing in the occasional random lyric that we’ve sung as a joke because sometimes I think that that’s just as meaningful as any poetic metaphor. We play around a lot with what we do genre wise, which is why sometimes we are hard to place, and along with switching round a bunch of instruments in our live performances we keep the audience on their toes and I think that makes the live show fun as you may say.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Theo: Vagrant Stanzas Martin Simpson - used to listen to it in the car with my dad when I was like 12/13 then rediscovered it in lock down and everything I've done on guitar since then has been down stream from that. Also maybe Surfa Rosa - Pixies coz I've listened to it hundreds of times and it never gets old and I can do the washing up to it.

Claire: A Seat at the Table by Solange. It's important to me because I loved it at the time and i still love it. It's beautiful, and it reminds me to be resilient and resistant.

Esme: Marquee Moon by Television, it just sticks with me, just because all the interwoven parts are so beautiful and almost classical. I’d love to make music like that!”.

I am going to move to DORK and their interview with one of our most exciting young bands. Truthpaste do have a couple of London gigs coming in July, but I hope there are more dates in their diary soon. They are such a thrilling proposition. I have not seen them live myself, but it does seem like they are a truly memorable live act:

“We don't really do "one sound", but with debut EP 'I Don't Know Either', they're making a very convincing case for all of them at once”.

“Their first steps as Truthpaste feel fittingly hazy. "The first song we wrote together was 'See you around', I think," says Esme. "In my mind, it was 'Singing to You'," counters Euan. "Yeah, it was one of those two." What's clearer is how things have grown since. "It's fundamentally quite similar, but it will evolve more," says Euan, while Esme points to a shift in scale: "I think we're trying to do bigger sounds now, 'never gonna give' and 'bus song' are bigger sounds."

Their new EP brings together songs that have been part of their live set alongside newer, more full-throttle moments. "These are songs we've played since the beginning, so we're very ready for them to be out," Esme explains. "It's exciting, and it's a good kind of relief. Each song is very different, but it all comes together and feels right, and I guess that's what we're like as a band too."

Before any of that, though, there was the graft. Early Truthpaste gigs were "loads and loads of live shows in Manchester, mostly to all our friends at first and then suddenly not," says Esme. Theo pinpoints a turning point: "After we did a Tunes on the Terrace at Band On The Wall, it felt like we picked up because people we didn't know actually heard us." A modest milestone, but a meaningful one - nothing like the realisation that strangers are voluntarily paying attention.

From there, things moved quickly. "Then we found Josh at Memorials of Distinction and released 'see you around', and the rest is history," Esme says. That relationship would eventually lead to a wider partnership with Dirty Hit, though the band didn't immediately clock it happening. "Dirty Hit came to our show last year, and we all got along, but we didn't know it was happening," she explains. "Our manager kept it a secret from us for ages and told us in March." A surprise label signing reveal is arguably the best kind of admin.

Relocating from Manchester to London added another layer to the mix. "For a year half of us were still living in Manchester, so we had a long-distance band relationship which was hard," says Esme. "Last year we had to spend time perfecting the ones we had, but now we're mostly in the same place, we can write new stuff more easily, which is exciting. And yes, London has been very good to us indeed." Theo sums up the practical side with admirable brevity: "Practically, yeah."

Despite all the movement, the band aren't interested in settling into one fixed identity. "We've got our sound, but it's definitely changing," Esme says. "We're never going to lock ourselves into one thing." That philosophy is arguably their strongest asset: the freedom to follow an idea wherever it leads. As for expectations around the EP, Truthpaste aren't exactly setting traditional KPIs. Their main ambition? "To be used as frisbees." At least it's recyclable.

Looking further ahead, the band's long-term goals are similarly… specific. "Greece." Fair enough”.

Before getting to a review of I Don’t Know Either, I am keen to highlight a brief chat DIY had with Truthpaste. They got to know “London’s latest entrancing experimentalists”. I only discovered the band a few weeks ago, but I have heard them played on some pretty influential radio stations. Their debut E.P. receiving a lot of acclaim. This is a quintet that you need to know about:

“Driven by the quintet’s diverse tastes, Truthpaste are an outfit who pull together folk, electronic, and orchestral motifs under one delightful and distinctive umbrella. Originally formed while at university in Manchester, the group’s early output came together in small house-share bedrooms. Encouraged by a local scene that embraced both their weird and more delicate inclinations, the band developed a playful, organic approach to songwriting that’s shaped debut EP ‘I Don’t Know Either’ - a project that balances off-kilter and intimate tracks with new focus on their live sound, all while never losing their warm, melodic core.

Ahead of their turn playing The Great Escape fest this weekend, we catch up with the band - made up of Esmé Lark (lead vocals, saxophone), Theo Murchie (guitar, vocals), Claire Sun (violin, vocals), Euan McNeill (bass, guitar, vocals), and James Ballarò (synth, lapsteel, guitar) - for a very Serious And Professional chat about the story so far…

Describe your music to us in the form of a haiku.

Do you like this song?

Listen to it online then

Kind of weird if not

What are the stories behind your first instruments?

Esme: I started playing saxophone when I was 10, I wanted to play the harp but I wasn’t allowed because it was too big.

Theo: My parents bought me bongos for my first birthday.

Euan: I got piano lessons as a kid, not much of a story to it…

James: I had piano lessons, I also had guitar lessons for two months and then the teacher stopped coming and I never saw him again.

You formed at uni in Manchester - tell us a bit more about those early days.

Theo: I moved to Manchester to make myself a star - it’s always referred to as the city of dreams.

Esme: Theo went to Manchester because I went to Manchester.

Euan: I came to Manchester because it had a reputation for cool music and bands.

Esme: I wanted to be in Joy Division… But really, it was really nice; we had lots of very talented friends and the first year we were all trapped in our rooms making weird computer songs, and then everyone emerged and it was a rebirth - lots of bands making good music.

Did you have any fave local venues?

James: Fuel?

Esme: Fuel was the first venue for everyone, it’s very tiny and hot so 20 people constitutes a whole crowd and makes you feel quite famous.

Euan: Peer Hat, Castle Hotel…

Esme: We love White Hotel - we never played there, but maybe one day we will”.

I’ll end with a review of I Don’t Know Either from Still Listening. It is definitely among the very best E.P.s of this year. It will be interesting to see where Truthpaste head from here. Make sure that you connect with Truthpaste on social media. A band fully worthy of all the hype they have received:

“I discovered Truthpaste by catching their set before The Orchestra (For Now) at Scala, and as much as I adore TO(FN), the cataclysmic clunkiness of Joe Scarisbrick's screamed vocals made me yearn for the twee melodies and plucked guitar of Truthpaste, nought but an hour prior. They have been my go-to band since then; and most of their gigs are still a tenner or less — so please see them while they are still relatively unknown! Get in on the ground floor of the Truthpaste skyscraper!

This new batch of songs are all taken from their live shows, and are recorded in a neatly faithful way, which is a testament to how clean their shows sound. They always seem to know how to make their tunes fit within a room. Often with big, brash modern bands, everything just sorts of melts together into clatter, but the range of tones within their works are too broad: James Ballarò's sharp drumbeats, Theo Murchie's plucked guitar, Esmé Lark's utterly wonderful vocals and sax, rounded out by Claire Sun and Euan McNeill on violin and bass respectively.

‘Never Gonna Give’ is a live set staple, beginning with really hypnotic swirls of synth punctuated by Lark's vocals. Truthpaste's lyrics are on the more abstract side, sure, but still show characters in their little emotional battles, "I'm never gonna give you what you want" goes the repeating cry in ‘Never Gonna Give’. Their lyrics paint little charming portraits, but it's hard to universalise them or get specific without being abstruse — think of "We wrote this verse in Nathan's shed", it seems like a fun little in-joke, but doesn't really connect to anything. But perhaps that's the point!

I seriously enjoy the sense of whimsy that Truthpaste bring to the table in every aspect of their music. They are very good at being fun, which most bands are not. They seem like people who you might enjoy hanging out with, as opposed to the usual self-styled edgy south-London scene adjacent artists — which they might be mildly taking the piss out of in their new music video which accompanies ‘Never Gonna Give’.

Truthpaste are a band you will approach with a smile rather than a vacant expression. Even their names seem personable in a kids' picture-book way! Lark, Sun, Murchie — it's all very quaint. It's refreshing in an age that was definitely dominated by seriousness and cynicism, especially amongst bands who could never strive for anything above violence and takedowns. Reminds me of "No More Sprechgesang" by The Itch...

‘Bus Song’ has been out for a while now, and is a really lovely song with an excellently-edited music video to accompany it. It builds and has a lovely call-and-response deal between Murchie and Lark that works so well, and the lyrics make me think that they're one of the first bands of the post-Windmill scene that write lyrics about being older than their mid-20s. Even Squid (who are now in their mid-30s) haven't particularly grown up from their youthful abstractness, and to cross the pond, Car Seat Headrest's Will Toledo is penning songs like he's still in college.

And the final song, ‘Friendship Is The Truth’, is a little more subdued but definitely still Truthpaste. It's slow but very poignant, and showcases Sun's subtle violin at its best. The scope of Friendship makes me wonder if they're going to attempt to produce a Long Song — one of those 12-minute crescendocore epics that every modern musician eventually decides that it is their god-given right to create. (eg. The Magician, Basketball Shoes, Heath)

Truthpaste are excellent, and still working on new songs that always sound sparky and bright, live or not. Truth to Truthpaste!”.

I am going to wrap up now. Truthpaste are definitely going on to big things. They are a band you instantly connect with and know that they’ll have many years in the industry. Even though these are the early days, you can tell they will be playing big stages soon. I Don’t Know Either is a huge statement from…