TRUSTcompany shifts out of ‘Neutral’

Photo by Myriam Santos-Kayda Alabama natives TRUSTcompany are currently on the Pop Sux! Tour opening for Korn and Disturbed. They are promoting their latest record ‘The Lonely Position of Neutral.’

Most Americans might recognize Alabama more as the birthplace of Forrest Gump than as a breeding ground for new rock bands. The members of TRUSTcompany do hail from Montgomery, Ala.—but unlike Gump crossing the nation in his magic shoes, TRUSTcompany will spend the next few months on a bus, touring the United States in the Pop Sux! Tour as a supporting act for Korn and Disturbed.

"It took so long to get signed because no one looks in Alabama," said TRUSTcompany drummer Jason Singleton. "If you’re thinking, ‘I am going to find this cool rock band’—or cool anything—you’re not going to look in Alabama.

"It’s definitely not a New York or an L.A., but there are talented kids there putting some good stuff together. Unfortunately, there’s just not that many clubs or many outlets for those guys to do that, so coming from that music scene is a very difficult thing to do."

To many bands, touring before being signed to a label might prove difficult. But for TRUSTcompany, which features singer/guitarist Kevin Palmer, guitarist James Fukai, bassist Josh Moates and Singleton, touring before the release of their debut album The Lonely Position of Neutral proved even more difficult for the quartet from Montgomery. "Basically all we did was play away from there," Singleton said.

"We would play some [in Alabama] too, but there were places that would stay open for just a couple months and you would be able to do a certain amount of shows there, and it would just close down and it wouldn’t last," Singleton said. "So, that’s why we just went to Florida and Tennessee and Georgia and Texas, and anywhere else we could go."

Released in July, The Lonely Position of Neutral (Geffen), has seen steady sales, partially as a result of relentless touring and the release of the single "Downfall" with its catchy chorus: "Push me away / Make me fall / Just to see / Another side of me." TRUSTcompany recently returned from a European stint with Korn, has toured with Puddle of Mudd and also held a spot on this year’s Vans Warped Tour.

Singleton said that the album got its name from a recollection from TRUSTcompany bassist Josh Moates. "We were doing this for so long and we were just thinking that we we’re never going to catch our break, so there came a point where each member in the band at different times was maybe considering giving up on living our dream and the chance of ever being a touring band," Singleton said.

"It’s that feeling of being stuck in the middle; you don’t know which way to go. We felt like we were in the lonely position of neutral. You are being pulled this way and that way, and it can be primed to anything like a relationship or any situation in general where you don’t know what to do."

The debut album’s 11 tracks read more like a teenage diary than a screaming tirade machine to which TRUSTcompany’s nu-metal cohorts are accustomed. Take your average rap-rocking, screaming front man—think Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach— and replace his vocals with the often delicate vocal style of Kevin Palmer. Before you know it, you have a hybrid of chorus-laden rock with pop vocals.

TRUSTcompany is beginning to learn a thing or two along the way from its friends in Korn and Puddle of Mudd by learning to write while on the road. "Those guys are always in their dressing room playing guitar and having recording equipment with them," Singleton said. With this process, Singleton hopes to have some new songs written before TRUSTcompany is done with its current tour.

One of TRUSTcompany’s tracks, "Changing," was written for Los Angeles radio station KROQ while the band was in the Netherlands. The station annually produces a CD filled with Christmas covers and holiday tunes. "Changing" deals with the changing of seasons and has nothing to do with Christmas. "We could not see ourselves being cool singing ‘Jingle Bells,’ or something like that," Singleton said.

TRUSTcompany’s stint in support of Korn and Disturbed on the Pop Sux! Tour begins in Manchester, N.H. on Oct. 8 and is tentatively set to end on Nov. 22 in Colorado Springs, Colo. There are currently no dates set for a stop in the Chicago area. For more information, visit www.trustcompanyband.com.