WHEN the Trashcan Sinatras resurfac-ed with their new album Weightlifting late last year there could not have been more surprise had they announced that aliens had given it to them. With eight years under the bridge since they released their previous album, A Happy Pocket, most had assumed that the Kilmarnock five-piece had split up.
Record company wrangles, bankruptcy and the subsequent loss of their beloved Shabby Road studios in Kilmarnock meant that the second half of the 90s were a bleak time for the Trashcans. There were a lot of bad days. "For a while there was a whole crowd of them," according to rhythm guitarist and vocalist John Douglas.
At the start of the 90s, things had looked pretty breezy for the then fresh-faced chums. Reaction to Cake, their first album, demonstrated that there was a market for melody-driven, literate songs, and though the band were never in danger of becoming globe-straddling rock juggernauts they had a pretty firm base on which to build. Then grunge came along.
"Everyone at the record company loved our second record [I’ve Seen Everything] but it was released at the time when Nirvana and Pearl Jam were coming out," recalls Douglas. "Especially in America, we just couldn’t get played. When sales don’t go well that’s when record companies start looking at you in a different light."
By 1995 the Trashcans were looking at an ugly amount of debt and a record company that was turning frosty. A Happy Pocket did little to save their bacon.
"The third record was made under those circumstances and it showed," says Douglas. "There are some good songs on it but it is not the finest example of our work. Everything went downhill for a while after that."
Dropped from their label, skint and chased by creditors, the band were almost fatally wounded when they lost their studio. Most bands record in studios. The Trashcans lived in Shabby Road and its repossession meant the loss of their home as well as their HQ.
"It became more difficult to write when we lost our studio," says Douglas. "It was a big tool in our writing because we could play music at any time of day or night and at any volume. Without it we moved to separate bedsits and flats. Some of us were in relationships by then so our time together became more precious and rarer."
Two factors stopped the Trashcans jacking it all in. One was their website. It helped pull them out of a financial hole and a possibly more dangerous emotional abyss. Compilation CDs of demos and live tracks sold through the website slowly began to build a new recording fund, and since they could only play rare gigs when it was economically wise to do so, their internet site became a valuable link to their remarkably loyal fanbase.
"People would write to us on the message board, which kept our spirits up," says Douglas. "On the bad days when we were losing all perspective about what we were doing we could go on this website.
"Every now and again a song would arrive which would stake a claim in our lives. It would have to be acknowledged. We knew at some point we were going to have to try and put it out. Over the period of four to five years while the bankruptcy was going on we built up quite a collection of these songs. We had such treasure in our pockets."
In 2000, the band flew to the States to record the new album. They didn’t release it as many of the songs were too dark to be on their first album in years.
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Douglas reckons that ageing a few years and weathering the bankruptcy storm has taught them all to care less. If the band were laidback before going through the mill, they seem even more so now.
Has lack of ambition ever stopped the Trashcans from making more of their early success? Someone like Travis’ Fran Healy seems to have craved rock star status from his early teens.
"Fran Healy is a Beatles fan, and if you are a Beatles fan than you are going to want to be top of the world," he muses. "Fair play to him. But we are punks. We are all from ’77, ’78, ’79. There is a healthy disdain for the marketplace that goes with that. We just want to make great music, put it out and have the temerity to think that there are enough people out there who are like-minded and have as high standards as we do. We like to think that you will be all right without spending six months and a million dollars making a video."
Such bloody-mindedness is usually the fast track to obscurity, but with Weightlifting it finally seems to be paying off for the Trashcans. After seeing too many cynical eyes peering at them across the table in meetings with major record labels, they decided to set up their own record company to release the album. The reviews have been almost universally glowing, sales are pretty healthy, and they also seem to be gaining new audience members.
"Weightlifting came out slightly earlier in America than it did here. We did a couple of tours out there and you could tell that a good percentage of the people there had come because of the new record. They weren’t so familiar with our older stuff. That was a nice feeling. We have been away for so long that to many people it seems as though it is our first record."
Usefully, the Trashcans’ way with melody and melancholy also chimes with a wider shifting taste in music. "Even four or five years ago it was hard to find melody on the radio but these days it is a much healthier environment for us," says Douglas. "People are looking for a bit of cheering up. Something you can whistle is wonderful. This is the first record where we have got a bit of airplay in Britain."
Weightlifting looks set to finally give the Trashcans their greatest success. It has already given them back their confidence. On the day Douglas came back from mixing Weightlifting in New York, the Trashcans didn’t have a record deal, an agent or management. He still felt on top of the world. "I was walking around town knowing that if anyone asked me what I did I wouldn’t have to shamefacedly look at the ground anymore. I would give them the CD and say, ‘Go and listen to this. That’s what I do.’ That was a nice day."
Weightlifting is out now on Picnic Records. The Trashcan Sinatras play the Garage, Glasgow, January 21, as part of Celtic Connections.
Originally appeared in Scotland on Sunday |
