INTERVIEW: Trending Now

Words by: Summer Hartley

Trending Now is a 4 piece rock band straight out of Lexington, KY, where they've been with each other for quite some time. The pop-punk band bases their music off the ideals of good times and good feelings, as well as being a good person. If you like complex beats and 5 Seconds of Summer, you obviously already love Trending Now.

These four best friends, who can pump out some sweet tunes, are also some majorly nice guys, as I sat down with all four to do an interview.

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Give me your name, your role in the band, and 1 interesting fact about yourself.

Knox; Bass “...and I sing occasionally when Ryan can't be bothered.”; “My favorite animal is a cat. I like cats a lot.”

Ryan; singer “...when Knox isn't singing.”; “I'm the baby of the band. I'm like 3 years younger than some of these guys; I'm 19. [Colin: An actually interesting fact, Ryan.] Fair. I'm the only one not from Lexington. I'm from Cincinnati.”

Miller; Percussion/Drums; “I study archeology in college.”

Colin; guitar; “Contrary to Knox, I love dogs and cats suck. [Me: Are you guys going to duel or something?] Yea, we're going to war.”

[Then Miller says I have to say something as well. *sigh*]

Summer; I don't do anything in this band.; “I was in marching band, and I played marimba.”

Where did the band name come from? Who came up with it?

Knox came up with it through listening to a Relient K song one day. “They had this song on one of their first albums called, 'This Week the Trend', and the main name came from what they talk about in the song and that's what we write songs about. Alot of what our songs are focused around is how there is a norm in society that is not necessarily what it should be and not focused on helping others or interacting with each other, having civil manners or just being friends. There's a culture out there that we're trying to move away from,” Knox says, as Colin adds in, “We want to make being good cool again. Hence Trending Now, like we set the trends now of being good and awesome to each other.”

How long have you been together? Give me a brief history of how Trending Now became Trending Now.

“The three of us (Knox, Miller, and Colin) grew up in the same neighbor. Miller and I have been playing since he was 10 and I was 11, and I went to Knox and we started writing songs together when we were 13,” Colin states. The boys have been playing together for almost 10 years, but then added Ryan to the lineup around a year and a half ago, and the current Trending Now lineup has been the same since.

All of the three original boys had a common interest, which led them to play music together: Green Day. Colin says, “It was common interest, so we would all get together in Miller's basement and jam to Green Day.  Knox and I both played guitar and Miller had a drumset.”

“It just kinda worked out that we all took lessons as kids and met up to play music in the summer...” Knox adds on. “Colin forced me to play bass, though. [Me: So he took a knife to your neck and said, 'You're gonna play bass, Knox'?] Nah, haha, it wasn't that bad, but we knew someone had to and I ended up enjoying it so it worked out in the end.”

The three found Ryan after he joined University of Kentucky his second semester and he rushed for one of the fraternities. Ryan tells the story of how he came across the band. “I was talking to Colin, and he was showing me some of his band's stuff on Youtube and such, and I liked it and we all hit it off well ['Yeah, Ryan's our bro.'] and that became that.” And thus, Trending Now was born and has been ever since.

Sum up Trending Now's sound in just 3 words.

“Energy is one,” Miller says. “I'd say fresh,” Colin adds in, followed by Miller adding in “complex”. “Relatable?” Knox adds, along with a long line of other options (including “revolutionary” and “a driving force”).

In the end, though, they agreed with Energy, Relatable, and Aesthetics.

What is the common writing process for a song?

“It's a definite process, but it's not a set in stone process,” Colin says. “Usually how it goes, though, is that Knox and Ryan brings a bag of lyrics and I write out some riffs or bring one I'm really hooked on, and then I'll get with Miller and we'll all figure out something and just bring it all together.”

“It's a lot of experimentation, in the end,” Miller adds. “We like to make musically technical songs while also having lyrics that are relatable and catchy to everyone.”

How do you pay for things like travelling to shows, studio time (if needed), etc.?

Trending Now plays a lot of cover bar shows and frat parties, playing 90's and early 2000's punk rock style music to make money and cover costs. Miller says they play, “... stuff that people our age were listening to when they were younger like us and they're drunk and like, 'Oh my God, I love this song'.”

“They're 4 hours long though, so they're a pain in the ass, but we do them to make money and be a sustainable band in this area and make money to do our own music,” says Colin.

Favorite show you've done as a band?

“Eastern,” agrees all the guys, referring to Eastern Kentucky University, where many bands go to play at the Ravine. “We played move-in weekend on this huge stage with lights and awesome sound, and it was so awesome to be on a huge stage,” Miller says. “There have been times we've rocked out to like, 5 people though, and we still love it all the same because it's a performance,” Ryan adds on. “You never know who you're gonna be playing for, and we're all playing music with our best friends.”

Since Trending Now does cover shows as well as their own, give me your favorite songs to perform live, one cover and one original.

Colin: Cover – Say It Ain't So – Weezer; Original – To The Weekend

Miller: Cover – “We do this awesome Bulls on Parade intro into All The Small Things”; Original - Conclusion

Ryan: Cover – “I love the Bulls on Parade/All The Small Things transition, too, it's so sick”; Original - Wishful Thinking

Knox: -  Cover - “I think Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind because it has an awesome bass line and everyone loves it”; Original - Conclusions, “It's the heaviest song and it's so well written, I love it.”

Why should someone who may be new to this genre or new to your band check out Trending Now?

“We put on a hell of a show,” Miller says. “I've never seen someone bored at one of our shows.” “The energy is pretty big when we hit the stage,” Knox adds in. “We try to make the show as fun as possible, and that makes us memorable.”

What are some of the pros and cons of being where you are in the local KY scene?

Mainly the complaint of the boys is the genre that is popular in this area. “We've had to play metalcore shows, like open for metal bands, because that was the only show we could get around here,” Miller says. “But now people are starting to play the type of music we do around here, which is a bit ironic.”

“It's hard to be in the local scene, too, because there's not a lot of local shows,” Knox adds. “There's also not really a place to hold all age shows. You have the small venue on Red Mile, but that place has the worst acoustics ever, it's hard to find, and just hard to get people to come out. If we had a good all-ages venue around here, the scene would be so much better,” Colin says.

Favorite local venue?

Miller says the Black Box Theater, which is located in the downtown area. “It's great and has great sound and a sick drum riser for me, but they charge a ton and you have to presell tickets, which isn't ideal for this scene.” Knox, Colin, and Ryan on the other hand choose the most often liked Cosmic Charlie's. “It has the best acoustics in town for a venue currently, and it's like the only real venue around now that Buster's [a previous venue in Lexington that recently closed] is gone,” Knox says.

Anything you wished you had learned about being in a band before actually joining a band?

“I wish I would've been warned about how many girls would like me,” Miller says, followed by Colin's laughter.

“No, but one thing I would've liked to know is the importance of being ego-less with the people you play with in terms of other bands and how friendly you need to be. People need to know that you need to play music with people you love, not people you think you're better than,” Colin adds on.

Any bands you would love to collaborate or tour with?

Bands named off are Bayside, Green Day (“The dream!”), and Sum 41. “I would like to tour with, uhm, August Burns Red. That'd be an interesting show,” Knox says.

If you could have one piece of unorthodox Trending Now merch to sell, what would it be?

Miller: Trending Now Lingerie (“Hey, you might get girls who actually buy it, but then guys buying for their girls, eh?”)

Colin: Trending Now swimcaps

Knox: Trending Now Towels

Ryan: 3-ring binders with Trending Now on it.

What's coming up for Trending Now in the future?

“We're working on our debut album, as we're ready to make our masterpiece. Previously, we haven't had anything like this, just our little 4 song EP. We don't have any of the proper shit that proper bands have because I feel dishonest pushing our band on people when we don't have something great for our band to show,” Colin says. “This album is gonna be our masterpiece, our baby.”

“Our live shows have really been what speak for us, right now. We have a 4 song EP, so how many fans can we pick up from that before we even have an album?” Miller says.

Any final words?

“Be yourself. Be you, kids,” Colin says. “You all do you, imma do me. [Knox: Please don't end it with that.]”

“I mean, Trending Now is doing what we wanna do because we love doing it and wanna make people feel good,” Miller ends on, which all the boys agree to.

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Check out Trending Now's 4 song EP, titled Prologue, on Spotify now!

Make sure to go check them out on all social media, and tell them Summer sent you:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrendingNowBand

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TrendingNowBand