Sing & Tell :: The Trusted

The Trusted are an alt-indie four-piece from Essex, formed in 2016. After playing The Alternative Escape in Brighton in May, and supporting fellow Southenders Asylums at their recent local album launch show, the band release new single, 'No Real Control', today (July 13).


Who are you?

I’m Tom Cunningham. I’m the frontman for the The Trusted. I sing and play guitar. We’ve also got Dale Holt (guitar), Finlay Cunningham (bass) and Dave Batchelor (drums).

Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today?

We are a four-piece band from Southend-on-Sea in Essex trying to reach out to people and bring them with us. Our music is all about feeling and soul, everything we write, means something to us! We just want people to ‘feel’ our songs, it all about emotion, energy and soul!

We formed in mid 2016. Dale and I met when I was 12 and had been writing music for a few years prior. Along the way we picked up my brother Fin on bass and in 2016 we met Dave (drums). When the four of us got in a room together for the first time, it felt special; it felt like we had found something. We named our new special thing ‘The Trusted’ and we’ve been building it ever since!

Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.

In terms of style, I guess we are wedged somewhere in-between indie and alternative rock. We try not to think about style too much, we just go where the music takes us! As a band, we all have our own individual influences and they all find their way into ‘The Trusted sound'. Fin has got a taste for older rock such as The Who, The Beatles, The Police. Dave is really into stuff like The Strokes and The 1975. Dale takes a lot from hip-hop and I guess I like a bit of everything!

Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.

We write everything as a band. There isn’t a leading songwriter; all the tunes are built when our four heads are in the same room. Normally someone will have a rough idea for a chord sequence, melody or a riff and we all build on it. We’ve always believed good tunes are the most important part of being in a band! If you don’t have good songs, with memorable choruses and a decent hook it’s hard for your audience to engage with you. We spend a lot of time jamming, recording, listening and refining songs, making sure they are the best they can be. It can be bloody annoying but there is no better feeling than finding a sound/new song that just lifts everything off the ground.

Tell us a little about your new single.

Well, we wrote it a couple of years ago! At the time bands like Catfish And The Bottlemen and The 1975 were really tearing into the public consciousness and so I guess 'No Real Control' was a reaction to that. We were inspired by that ‘anthemic’ sound, present in songs like ‘Kathleen’ and ’Sex.’ Those kinds of tunes acted as the starting point for the chord progression, but the song developed naturally in its own direction. We are inspired by music from all over the place so like all our songs, No Real Control goes everywhere in terms of influence. I was going through an ‘Elvis Costello’ phase at the time so lyrically; it takes a lot of cues from him. Over the last three years it has really grown and evolved into a little monster.



Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?

We’ve got a single launch gig at The World’s End in Finsbury Park, London on the 27th July, and we can’t wait for that! We are also playing This Feeling’s first Southend show on 10th August at Chinnerys. After that, we play a show at one of our favourite London venues, The Dublin Castle on 17th August. We will also be playing a Musicians Against Homelessness benefit at Camden Assembly on 8th September - should be a belter! - and the following day we are buzzing to play the Go Organic Festival in Battersea Park.

How's the rest of the year looking, plans-wise?

We’ve got a lot more music coming out so we can’t wait to share that. There’s a load more tracks that we’ve recorded and are having mastered now by Pete Gleadall, the Pet Shop Boys' musical director and mega producer. We are looking forward to playing Italy for the first time in November! We recently hooked up with an Italian music site called Brexhip, who came over to film and interview us and see one of our Dublin Castle shows. They liked what they heard and have organised a short tour for us in Italy, which is pretty exciting for us.

Where can we hear more of your music?

You can check out all our stuff on Spotify, Itunes, Deezer, Amazon Music, Google Play, Soundcloud and YouTube. We are the only band called The Trusted so we are pretty easy to find amongst all the noise.

What social media platforms can we find you on?

Website // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter