The New Trust is:
Josh Staples: bass, vocals
Julia Lancer: drums
Sara Sanger: guitar, vocals
The New Trust has been:
Matthew Izen: guitar, vocals (dark is the path)
Michael Richardson: guitar, vocals (we are fast moving,
wake up...)
contact the band:
thenewtrust [at] yahoo.com
booking:
mahmood [at] flowerbooking
flowerbooking
press contact:
riot act media
hi res press photos:
link
releases:
dark is
the path which lies before us, CD, 2007, slowdance records
-a spoiled suprise, a cheap reveal
-the life of the infidel comes crashing down
-absence makes the heart go wander
-evolve into nothing
-there's been a terrible accident
-holy wars
-chill the fuck out
-wake up, it's the nineties
-this person is a palindrome
-when the dead start rising
-the body and the brain
-you've got to be fucking shitting me
dark is
the path which lies before us, special edition 4 7" box set,
with bonus track, 2007, pandacide records
-bonus track: those incessant bells
wake
up, it's the nineties/luckiest woman in the world, 7" vinyl,
2005, pandacide records
-wake up, it's the nineties
-luckiest woman in the world
we are
fast moving motherfuckers. we are women and men of action CD, EP,
2003, slowdance records:
-this invitation has meant the world to me
-don't even get me started on jebus
-all
things are moving toward their end
-crashed out
-i thought we were getting together
-i'm
a sucker for backwards drums
-live like you mean it
-when the bombs go off
Winter 2006 Bio:
Depending on which part of its story you choose to focus on, The New
Trust is either extremely straightforward or tantalizingly complex. In
one corner, the co-ed band from Santa Rosa—located about 55 miles
north of San Francisco—plays unpretentious, fired-up indie-rock
songs that bring to mind the mid-’90s heyday (think Boilermaker,
Knapsack, early Promise Ring, etc.), are catchy as all get-out, and rarely
reach the three-minute mark. In the other is a European tour the band
booked only a year after it formed, lyrics that quote Jermaine Stewart’s
“We Don’t Have To Take Our Clothes Off” while dissing
religion and championing a DIY lifestyle, and a guitarist who originally
thought her six-string would be used to sing her future kids to sleep.
“My goal was someday I would at least be good enough to play ‘Puff
The Magic Dragon’ to our children,” says Sara Sanger, who
happens to be the wife of singer-bassist Josh Staples, who also handles
The Velvet Teen’s low end. To some, their married-and-in-a-band
arrangement is another oddity, but it’s hard to get anyone in the
band to see it that way—in fact, Sanger would probably still be
completely focused on her photography if it wasn’t for Staples’
encouragement. “Josh was so serious, and such an optimist—he
doesn’t do anything unless he knows that it’s going to happen.
I didn’t realize that for a long time. I just thought, ‘Oh,
this is just something he’s doing for his wife to make me feel better.’”
Instead, Sanger is part of the band’s 10-year plan, which began
back in 2003 along with drummer Julia Lancer and guitarist Michael Richardson.
Simply put, Staples made a promise to himself and his bandmates that they
were in it for the long haul, and even though they recently amicably parted
ways with Richardson—replaced by Polar Bears’ Matthew Izen—all
signs on The New Trust’s first full-length, Dark Is The Path Which
Lies Before Us, point to the group having the creative energy to make
it to the next decade and beyond.
“The ‘dark is the path’ thing is about the fact that
we know we’re going to be struggling,” says Sanger. “Yes,
Josh wrote a song about zombies, and there’s an ominousness to the
record, but we have the perspective that even when you work hard as an
artist and you work hard as a musician, there’s still so much work
ahead of you. Making a record and making a song, it doesn’t make
your life any easier.”
Which brings us to one of the album’s catchiest songs, “When
The Dead Start Rising,” which contains lines like “When the
dead start rising / we’ll need all the friends that we can get.”
Staples is fine with different interpretations—for instance, Sanger
took the lyrics literally when she shot the album’s artwork, which
features machete-wielding band members with their friends in a haunted
mansion—but a point that shouldn’t be missed is the band’s
acknowledgment that when you’re working on the ground level, it’s
important to keep your friends as close as your enemies.
Dark Is The Path Which Lies Before Us—recorded near the band’s
hometown in Rohnert Park with Dan Kelly—finds the band in confidently
fine form, bashing out quick slices of goth-tinged, punk-infused rock,
with a dash of the dramatic supplied by Staples’ Craig Wedren-esque
(Shudder To Think) vocals. The songs may be a smidge longer than they
were on the band’s debut EP, We Are Fast-Moving Motherfuckers. We
Are Women And Men Of Action., but with 13 songs clocking in under 38 minutes,
The New Trust is still cutting the fat.
“Our band started in the time when Josh was writing and recording
Elysium,” explains Sanger, referring to The Velvet Teen’s
ambitious second album, which started out as an EP and ended up with a
track that was nearly 13 minutes long. “Short songs basically saved
his life.”
“On that first Minor Threat record, those songs are like a minute
long, and that’s such a great, powerful record,” says Staples.
“Every song has a cool part that doesn’t happen again—if
I want to hear that part again, I have to back the song up or just wait
for it to come around again. That’s kind of what I think about when
I’m putting a song together.”
It all seems so straightforward, right? Sure, but The New Trust can’t
completely avoid life’s complexities, whether that means scheduling
tours around The Velvet Teen’s commitments or planning practice
around day jobs. All four members recently moved into the same house,
which should make things easier for the band. Or not.
“The dynamic, personality-wise, is like mom and dad and two kids,”
says Sanger with a laugh. “They’re younger than us—Matthew
is the weird computer-nerd kid who’s vegan and straight-edge, and
we don’t have a clue what the hell he does with his time. He and
Julia are both very different people, but they’re the same age and
know each other so well. They’re great about ignoring us—when
mom and dad are fighting.”
-Marc Hawthorne, San Francisco 2006
