In Sunderland, Home is where the noise is!
While there are plenty of young bands making a noise these days, Sunderland duo Trivia sound like they know exactly why they’re making it.
On paper, Hannah Hays (14, guitar and vocals) and Lydia Stubbs (15, drums) are impossibly young to be turning out a record this assured. In practice, ‘Home’ quickly makes their age irrelevant.
Five songs. No bass player. No unnecessary baggage.
The title track ‘Home’ arrives on a thick, buzzing guitar and a chorus with enough melody to lodge itself in the skull. ‘Schizophrenia’ is harder and darker, while ‘Where Do You Go’ gives Lydia’s drums room to muscle their way to the front of the mix.
Best of the lot is ‘Fade’ – a cracking, choppy rock song that drives from the opening guitar and never lets up. This is where Trivia sound least like their influences and most like themselves.
‘Tonight’ closes proceedings in a more melancholic mood, all towering guitar, shifting rhythms and a vocal somewhere between a wail and a melody. Not everything quite lands, but at least they’re reaching for something.
And that’s the rub.
Trivia are clearly still becoming Trivia. The ’90s grunge and noughties alt-rock influences occasionally sit too close to the surface, the lyrics can be frustratingly difficult to make out, and, for all the distortion, you sometimes wish they’d let the songs get a little messier and more dangerous.
But there’s plenty here to get excited about.
Hays fills the space with guitar without drowning in it. Stubbs is a powerful, instinctive drummer who gives these songs much of their momentum. Together, they make considerably more noise than two young people have any reasonable right to.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Trivia have already earned a strong reputation around Sunderland, sharing stages with established local bands and building an audience the traditional way – through live performance. That experience gives the band a discernible confidence and edge.
‘Home’ may not be your standard punk rock record by any narrow musical definition. But so, what? there’s plenty of attitude in evidence here.
Trivia already have tunes, confidence and something of their own beginning to emerge. Now perhaps they need to sharpen it, rough it up and see where the noise takes them.
‘Home’ isn’t merely of interest because the musicians are teenagers. It’s interesting because it’s a very competent rock record from a band who will undoubtedly only get better.
So, not trivial at all, just splendid rock and roll! Out now via Serial Bowl Records, get your copy of ‘Home’ on CD from HERE, or stream the EP HERE
- Home
- Schizophrenia
- Where Do You Go
- Fade
- Tonight
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Writer, lyricist, and guitarist with The Viral Breakdowns, radio presenter and passionate protagonist of Punk! From teenage rocker in the seventies, to playing my own original music in far flung parts of the world, I have a love for fast, loud, short sharp tunes with attitude and edge. Based in Chelmsford, you can find me out and about on the Essex and London music scene or rooting through the racks of record fairs, markets and car boot sales, looking for hidden punk rock treasures.
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