“It was just such an unreal experience.”- Interview with Old Notes
Old Notes are an emo band that call Rancho Cucamonga- a small city about 40 miles east of Los Angeles- their home. Vocalist/ guitarist Devin Trott says that he, drummer Eli Martinez, and bassist Justin Marquezall grew up listening to bands like blink-182, but bonded over a shared love of bands like Tiny Moving Parts and Snowing that came up out of the Midwest emo revival.
It wasn’t just the style of music that Trott was inspired by; seeing artists coming from a small scale and getting big ignited a spark and he thought “Oh man, I could do that." While he’s been playing music for years, Old Notes is his first effort as a songwriter and lyricist, and their 2016 debut EP Former Self is crushingly honest.
Old Notes recently wrapped up a tour with fellow Californians Andy’s Room, and I spoke with Devin before the last show in Phoenix, Arizona. Read on for the interview, where we talked about the tour, the band’s new single “Rocco”, and what’s next!
C&S: For the record, can you state your name, what you play in Old Notes, and a fun fact about yourself please?
Devin Trott: My name's Devin Trott and I play guitar and sing in Old Notes and I have a maple leaf tattooed on my left calf, so I guess that's pretty interesting.
C&S: You put out an EP about a year ago, Former Self. From the very first song, "Urn", all the way through the EP, everything is so direct and honest about your feelings and whatever you're experiencing. Is this your first band, was that your first time writing songs, or had you been making music for a while already?
DT: I've been making music since I was 12 but this is the first time that I've actually written lyrics and concepts for an album. This is the first time that I've done it for real and actually wanted to put it out and share it with the world.
A lot of the songs are really self-reflective of my time in Flagstaff, Arizona when I went to Northern Arizona University. The whole idea of Former Self is that who I was when I turned 18 until I was about 20, and all the experiences that I had in Flagstaff Arizona- like that whole growing period of living on your own for the first time and intermingling with people with no safety net- college can be a mess for sure and that's where one of the songs came from.
C&S: So you've been making music to whatever degree for a while, but how did you know that it was time to do something for real and put it out in the world?
DT: I was playing in a lot of different bands as a guitar player and expressing myself in that way. When I was at NAU, there wasn't really any music going on- I wasn't in a band or anything. I knew that I really needed that, so I actually transferred schools to go back to California to my hometown. I got back with my old band from when I was in high school and that got old, doing the same thing over and over again.
I was really inspired by the Midwest emo revival and a lot of the bands that were coming out of that scene- that was really inspiring to watch. It was the first time I discovered DIY and what that meant. [Going to] DIY shows… triggered me to immediately go out and start making my own music. I bought recording software so that I could write demos in my bedroom.
That's where a lot of the first Old Notes songs came out of- sitting down by myself for the first time and really composing a song from scratch. I think because of that I grew a lot as a musician and I felt so confident in the songs that I was able to get people together and I wanted to play in a band. [Laughs.] Put it out to the world.
C&S: I saw another interview where you said that you really like Tiny Moving Parts- a couple years ago, Tiny Moving Parts was playing basement shows. It sounds like seeing bands that came from DIY culture made it feel accessible and real- that this is a thing you could actually do.
DT: Oh yeah, definitely. That is exactly what happened. I had been following Tiny Moving Parts for a little bit online and I saw that they were playing this warehouse in Pomona, which is really close to Rancho, with Modern Baseball. I had never heard of Modern Baseball before but obviously, now Modern Baseball's huge. People were going crazy and singing along to their songs and I was the only guy singing along to all the Tiny Moving Parts songs. It was crazy to see this all happening at such a small scale, now looking at how huge these bands are. It definitely became accessible to me- like "Oh man, I could do that."
Right now, we're on this tour with Andy's Room, and we did it. We were able to play houses and warehouses; we played a basement in Colorado that was super fun. It was just such an unreal experience. I remember when I saw that show at VLHS, which is that warehouse in Pomona, it was like- that was it. "I need to do that. I wanna be part of this."
C&S: Outside of the fact that you play these shows, do you feel pretty involved and connected with the "DIY Community"?
DT: I feel like I was more connected a year ago. You know, I think life got really busy- I just graduated college, I [was] doing my senior project, I was working a bunch, and I guess there was less time to go to shows. And also I started booking my own shows and we started playing a lot of shows. In that extent, we're playing a lot of shows that are DIY centric- warehouses in LA and all that stuff- but I wouldn't say I'm very involved or a key figure of the DIY scene, really.
C&S: How did the band actually form?
DT: Eli, the drummer, was in this program called Honor Jazz Band when we were in high school. They take players from each school in a district and put them together and I was chosen to play jazz guitar for that band. [Eli] and I bonded over playing, you know, blink-182 songs or "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.
After that we kept in touch. I had all these demos- I was trying out different musicians and him and I really clicked when it came to what style of music we wanted to go to. We both evolved musically. We both loved blink-182 but then we also started getting really in to all these Midwest emo bands like Snowing, Tiny Moving Parts, that whole scene.
Then Eli met Justin, our bass player, through drum corps- winter drum line- at RCC [Riverside Community College]- and it's a really renowned program over here. They really hit it off so we brought Justin in to play bass. We were gonna try to get another guitar player but it never really worked out so we stayed a three piece and have been writing music ever since then.
At the beginning of the band, we were taking demos that I was writing and working around them. We've been a band for a little bit over a year now, we've been able to write a lot of songs together, so I guess the writing style's changed completely which is really cool.
C&S: Why do you think that is? Do you feel like the way you express yourself in songs has that changed?
DT: Oh yeah, definitely. Topic-wise it's no longer really about issues of growing up, now it's more of like, "What the hell am I doing with my life?", "What is going on?- I'm not satisfied ever but I'm also scared." Then there's also serious topics about you know, abusive relationships that each of us have been in, or writing about suicide from a different perspective, you know- certain topics like that, and we've collaborated on lyrics a lot and a lot of music so it's really come together differently.
C&S: You guys just put out a song called "Rocco"; what can you tell me about the song and where that came from?
DT: Yeah. We'd been writing the music to that song for a couple weeks. Unfortunately my bird Rocco passed away and I think that's what made the lyrics flow naturally on that one. It was just a really terrible time- if you've ever lost a pet, you know exactly what that's like. It's a terrible experience. I had Rocco for thirteen years- I grew up with him, so it was really hard.
C&S: Right on. So you're currently on tour with Andy's Room; how has the tour been going?
DT: The tour has been going really good! We had a few blunders here and there- Andy's Room lost their guitarist like three days into the tour…. They had been playing as a three-piece and actually tonight I'm gonna be filling in for them on guitar. I've been able to hang out with them for the past few days and learn their songs. I felt bad for those guys- they worked really hard, they put out an EP and then it just kind of all fell apart quickly.
The tour other than that has been great. We've been meeting a lot of great people, people have been offering their houses to us and [we've had] really good networking opportunities. It's been hot as hell here in Phoenix- and really cool in other places.
C&S: When you have super long drives on tour, what do you do to pass time in the van? Are you always sleeping when you have a long drive?
DT: Everybody has a different way of coping with it. I don't sleep in cars that often. When I do, it's awful; I get really bad neck pain. Everybody seems to sleep really well in cars and I just don't. I'm usually on my phone or up front talking with the driver. We are fortunate enough to have a tour manager and photographer who's been doing all of our media for us- Lauren's been such a wonderful asset to this whole thing. She's really kept us together and kept us from, like, murdering each other, which has been really good.
C&S: Today is the last show of the tour- what are you guys gonna be up to after this? What's next?
DT: We really wanna record the songs that we have- but right now we're having a little issue cuz our main sound engineer that records all our stuff is moving to New York at the end of August. We were gonna do a ten song album but now it's looking like we might do a five song EP or something. We have a few shows lined up, not confirmed yet, and other than that, we're just trying to get new music out as soon as possible.
C&S: Something that I always like to ask when I interview bands- how do you respond to haters or any kind of negativity surrounding your band?
DT: I think it's kind of humbling to have people that don't like us, honestly.
C&S: How so?
DT: I think after a while when you hear people constantly saying, "You guys are so good" and then sometimes you hear people say, "I don't know, I really don't like that band"- I think it's kinda nice that there's some real people out there, you wanna get real opinions from people. We had someone call us mediocre before and in my head I'm just like, "Oh well I worked really hard, so whatever"- it's not for everyone.
We got some album reviews of Former Self that were like, "Oh the vocals are super whiny, but it's an emo record"- and I was just like, "Well, yeah. That kinda hits it on the money." I'm very whiney vocally and not everyone's gonna like it.
C&S: I mean... you're in an emo band- what do they expect?
DT: Yeah, exactly.
C&S: Well cool! So you talked about some possible recording, some other shows TBA; is there anything else that people should be on the lookout for or anything else you want people to know?
DT: I want them to listen to our new song "Rocco" and share it around and add it to their Spotify playlists. Look out for new music from us.
Thanks Devin! Keep up with Old Notes on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen to “Rocco” and Former Self on BandCamp.
I CANNOT get over the fact that Eli Martinez quit his rodeo career due to an injury and then took up scuba--he literally went from wrangling bulls to wrangling bull sharks
Eli is the first of the seven to accept his new life as a Cursed Child. He is rebellious and likes to live life to the fullest. He always wants to go on adventures no matter what the cause, and thrives when in the company of others. He hates loneliness/quiet and needs to be occupied to feel content.
Age: 15
Hair: dark brown
Eyes: Brown
He’s Hispanic with thick eyebrows and smooth olive skin. Wavy hair that is always messy.
He’s clever, witty, and very imaginative. Eli’s always up for new adventures, although he can sometimes be a bit impulsive. That only means he has loads of fun, though!
Eli loves and embraces change and simply cannot do without it. He’s very well-being depends highly on his freedom. Rarely does he let anyone tell him what to do or how to do it. This tends to give him an air of restlessness and a mischievous quality that tends to attract anyone who is willing to become acquainted.
Feels overwhelmed and temporarily goes blind when using curse.
