Trust - Onion

For a few months in 2001/2002, I was in a band with Håvard Kløften, who I had played with in Softcocks, and Dag Freider Fløan from Monsterblomster. This was their band, and they were the songwriters, so the intention was that I should only be a guitarist. After having rehearsed (albeit only infrequently) with VEP, I had rediscovered the fun in playing together with people - a quite different way of making music from the studiobased project that Fastened Bulbous had turned into. Espen, who I also knew from the latter project, stepped in on drums for a few rehearsals, but mostly we rehearsed as a drummerless trio.

After a fairly short while, plans emerged for the band to record the handful of songs that was ready (Håvard and Dag had made songs and played together long before I joined). This turned out to be a long and winding road, starting in december 2001 and not ending until 2005, at a time when I had long since left the band. The basic tracks, i.e. drums, were recorded early on, but the tinkering with guitars, vocals and other tracks were done, redone and probably redone again over the years. The last thing done, to my knowledge, was to overdub the vocals at a proper studio, Trondheim Lydstudio, in 2005. At this point, the plan was to release the songs on CD. At an earlier point, a 10" vinyledition was the plan. None of these plans came to fruition and I'm not really sure why... (Håvard, Dag, can you shed a little light on the mystery?)

My stint with Trust (at one point called Besides, or was that just the working title of the recordings?) was relatively short. Sometime in late 2002 a concert was scheduled, and presenting the music to other people in a concert is a different kettle altogether from merely goofing around at rehearsals. Consequently, I had to rethink my role within the band. I think it was obvious quite early that my limited guitarskills did not align well with the musical direction of the band. Not being versatile enough, my style of playing might suit the "postrock" of Fastened Bulbous and the strumming of VEP, but not the country-tinged pop of Trust, which demanded fills and "licks" quite foreign to me. The other guys probably realised this at the same time as myself, and having an upcoming concert was a good opportunity to take this realisation seriously. Therefore, my leaving the band was amicable.

Over the next years, the band only gave a couple of concerts, and is now, I believe, on a permanent hiatus. In my opinion, it's a shame that these songs haven't been more widely heard. I will do my best to rectify that by offering at least one song here. Onion, made and sung by Dag, is the only song left from those recordings where I still can be heard (and then only on the chorus). Initially, I had put down guitar on several of the songs, but over the years my lines were gradually replaced. Unless I dig out some early-early mixes, that still features my guitar, this song will be the only one I can post here, if I'm to stick to the ego-focus of this blog.

Although I had quit the band, I still designed the sleeves for the various unreleased records, both for the 2004 10" and the 2005 CD. The sharp-eyed will probably recognize both picures and design-touches from some unreleased Fastened Bulbous items (which I will talk about later).