Part 1

Name: Trousdale
Members: Quinn D'Andrea, Georgia Greene, Lauren Jones.
Nationality: American
Current release: Trousdale's Growing Pains is out via Independent Co. They are currently touring the new songs in North America and Europe - to catch them live, check out their tour dates here.
Global Recommendations:
Lauren: If you happen to find yourself in Bay City, Michigan - check out Electric Kitsch! It’s an awesome vintage and vinyl store with some wacky and unique finds to peruse :) Get a sandwich at Wanigan’s on the way out!     
Georgia: Lowboy in echo park for affordable drinks, food and vibe :) perfect place to chill and catch up with friends.
Quinn: If you’re ever in Saratoga Springs, NY (my hometown originally), go visit Humpty Dumpty Ice Cream shop in the summer and get a vanilla cone dipped in cherry. If you’re there any other time of year, stop by Uncommon Grounds for the best bagels and coffee. Also go see a show at SPAC!
Topics we are passionate about but rarely get to talk about:
Lauren: I LOVE to cook. It’s kind of become my secondary creative outlet, now that I do music full time. I think food is such a massive part of culture, and I find learning about different cuisines and dishes super interesting.
Georgia: Passionate about the climate crisis and urging our government to treat it like the emergency it is!  
Quinn: I think we’re all super passionate about being vocal and outspoken against the current administration, and the dangerous rhetoric and actions that are heavily impacting marginalized communities in this country. As independent artists we’re trying to find more and more ways for us to speak to people about this, and are so grateful for a growing platform that hopefully will give us further reach to speak about these issues and make more of an impact as we grow!
On a totally lighter and separate note, I got really really into making paper silhouette cut-outs and made an entire stop-motion music video in 2023 for our song "Smart Iowa." It was honestly one of the most creatively fulfilling things I’ve done and took me MONTHS to finish. I’m not much of an artist but it was so cool getting to discover that skill and work that creative muscle in a completely different visual way.

If you enjoyed this Trousdale interview and would like to know more, visit the band's official homepage. They are also on Instagram, Facebook, and tiktok. 
 


Where does the impulse to create something come from for you? What role do often-quoted sources of inspiration like dreams, other forms of art, personal relationships, politics etc play?

The impulse to create comes from so many different things for all three of us.

Often it’s some feeling or concept that’s just out of reach, and we’re finding a way to connect with it by bringing it to the group. It might be an idea or experience we don’t have the language for yet, or a voice memo from the middle of the night or midway through a traffic-heavy drive. Often it’s a moment or thought we’re trying to freeze in time, or a question we’re trying to answer - or maybe a question we know there’s no right answer to, and we’re trying to validate that for ourselves and our listeners.

All the often-quoted sources of inspiration definitely play a big role in our creative process. They’re classics for a reason - there’s nothing that helps you tap into a heartbreak song like real heartbreak. When you’re in the depths of the experience yourself, your ability to connect it to direct feelings, observations, and analysis becomes somewhat of a superpower. Sometimes it feels like there’s a well that hasn’t been opened, until suddenly something happens and you’re looking down at this never-ending source of inspiration.

Direct connection and lived experience - whether that’s other artists’ work, the consequences of a dangerous political climate, or waking up from a dream that magically managed to stick - those are the moments that leave us wanting to create.

For you to get started, do there need to be concrete ideas – or what some have called a 'visualisation' of the finished work? What does the balance between planning and chance look like for you?

It really depends on what we’re creating. And sometimes, all three of us will have different amounts of the finished product visualized at different times.

Sometimes there’s just a small nugget of an idea that feels really true and special, and keeping an open mind about where it goes helps it actually lead us, instead of the other way around. But other times, we might have a vision of the final impact and have to work our way backward to get there.

Depending on the project, having it all planned out can help push it across the finish line, or it can really cage us in creatively.

Is there a preparation phase for your process? Do you require your tools to be laid out in a particular way, for example, do you need to do 'research' or create 'early versions'?    

There isn’t really any consistent preparation phase, it’s very dependent on the song or project and what it’s asking of us. Sometimes we go through many versions of a song (writing, production, arrangement) before it feels “right,” and other times we lay down a demo and basically make a carbon copy of it because it felt so good from the beginning.

That said, we do have a general system: write most or all of the song, make a rough voice memo that day, return to finish if needed, make a demo, sometimes add harmonies if the song is already begging for them, and then head into the studio for the final version of the instrumental, ending with vocals.

(We realize we just said we don’t have a consistent process ... and then laid one out.)

Do you have certain rituals to get you into the right mindset for creating? What role do certain foods or stimulants like coffee, lighting, scents, exercise or reading poetry play?

We all have different things that help us stay in the right mindset, but the main thing is: many beverages. Many. Caffeine for Georgia and Quinn, but usually not for Lauren.

Having a nice visual space helps, and having physical space to move around is key too. For Quinn, it’s important to be able to get up and pace and then stare at the wall for ten minutes.

For your latest release, what did you start with? If there were conceptual considerations, what were they?

With this album, we knew we wanted to release a full-length project. We blocked out a month dedicated to writing: some co-writes, but mostly just the three of us. We really wanted to tap back into the magic that happens when it’s just us writing together, and build from there.

One of the first songs we wrote during that time was “Growing Pains.” It was totally random, but the song felt so timely for us, and musically, so true to our roots.



It accidentally became a bit of a north star as we continued shaping the album.

We found ourselves connecting the other songs to that central experience of growth and everything we’ve learned over the past few years. We weren’t trying to build a strict concept album, we’re very song-based writers and care most about building a collection of songs we love, but the throughline kind of carved its own path, and we followed it.

What makes lyrics good in your opinion? What are your own ambitions and challenges in this regard?

We all love different kinds of lyrics for different reasons, but we’ve had so many moments where all three of us said “YES!” to a lyric at the same time, whether it was ours or someone else’s.

We really value honesty. We LOVE vulnerability, and taking a universal human experience and expressing it in a way that’s either beautifully simple or something we’ve never heard before but immediately understand. Because our writing styles differ, we really strive to find lyrics that hit all those points for all three of us.

Sometimes that takes workshopping and editing, but we’re so proud of how this album turned out lyrically because of that collaborative tension.

What are areas/themes/topics that you keep returning to in your lyrics?

Growth (obvi). Since we’re walking this journey together, a lot of our writing reflects this phase of our career: the hard work, the obstacles, and the gratitude we have for doing it with each other. A lot of our themes revolve around growing up in this particular context and naming day-to-day challenges that might feel small but build up over time.

And of course, there are songs about love, heartbreak, and relationships - not just romantic ones, but also friendships, family, and our relationships with ourselves or our mental health.

Mental health is a huge thread, it probably shows up in 90% of our songs. It's important to us to normalize struggle and make sure people feel less alone in it.

Many writers have claimed that as soon as they enter into the process, certain aspects of the narrative are out of their hands. Do you like to keep strict control or is there a sense of following things where they lead you?

We definitely bounce back and forth between following the song’s lead and staying focused on a concept or endpoint. Since there are three of us, we’re used to ideas evolving halfway through. The song might change direction completely, and that’s okay.

But we keep talking through concepts as we go, and if something still feels important to say, we try to keep those bumpers on the lane to stay on course.