Breaking Free
Trapt Frontman Chris Brown on Overcoming Record Industry Pitfalls.
2002-09-12
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Trapt - featuring Simon Ormandy on guitar, Peter Charell on bass, Aaron Montgomery
on drums and Chris Brown on vocals and guitar - were born in the quiet San Jose
suburb of Los Gatos, California. On their forthcoming self-titled debut, produced
by Garth Richardson (Rage Against the Machine), the band blends grinding hard
rock with shifting melodies and dense, intricate rhythms that still maintain
a pop sensibility. Since their formation in high school in the mid-'90s, Trapt
found out that a major label contract would be a hard thing to come by - talent
and strong songwriting wouldn't be enough, they would need to be perseverant
as well.
For frontman Chris Brown, his impetus to start up a band didn't stem from an aspiration to land a lucrative contract, but out of a desire to be on stage and make a connection with an enthusiastic audience. "Watching Tool, Papa Roach and this local band Dredg play - they're on Interscope now - watching how they interacted with the crowd…it's the main reason why we play music, so we can interact with a huge crowd and feed off their energy," says Brown. "It's a natural high. It's awesome."
At first, being in a band for the experience was enough. Trapt's early rehearsals took place in guitarist Simon Ormandy's guesthouse and had a party-like atmosphere. By late 1997, the group's creativity began to flourish. They cut a CD that they started selling at local venues such as The Cactus Club, where they became fixtures for a rapidly growing audience early the following year. By the middle of 1998 they had graduated from high school, and Trapt found themselves opening for bands like the aforementioned Papa Roach and Dredg.
"I think we started getting really focused just when high school was ending. That summer, we just went out and did our thing and hung out. Toward the end of summer, we got together and started working more and writing songs," Brown remembers. As the four moved from high school into their freshman year of college, they also relocated to different cities. Brown and Ormandy enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, Peter took up studies in Santa Cruz and the band's original drummer settled at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Instead of scattering the band, the distance apart only tightened Trapt's resolve. "We were doing school, but the band was always there. It wasn't like it was gonna break apart. We played as many shows as we could." According to Chris, it was around this time that the group's attitude became more serious. "Toward the end of our freshman year of college, we had a few songs that we recorded - a five-song E.P. called Glimpse - and that's when we sent it out to [Internet] sites and those people had connections to major labels. Then we started getting interest and started working with this producer, Jim Wirt, who did the Hoobastank record and early Incubus stuff like S.C.I.E.N.C.E. That's when it got pretty serious - we hired a manager and all that good stuff."
It was Immortal Records, a subsidiary of Epic at the time, who hooked Trapt up with Wirt, but the relationship didn't last long. Disagreements over how the band should sound caused Immortal's interest to waiver. "We did two songs, and then the A&R guy from Immortal said that it didn't sound like Incubus enough," recounts Brown. "He wanted to give Immortal back their Incubus because once a group got to a certain level, [Epic] stepped in and took it over." But Trapt didn't fall out of favor for long. "Then we made that demo that had 'Headstrong,' 'Still Frame,' 'When All Is Said and Done' and 'Stories,' and he called our manager and asked if we'd be interested in signing to [Immortal]." Figuring they wouldn't want to sign to Immortal because they had passed on them in the beginning, Trapt's demo was passed on to another label instead, and the major label roller coaster ride continued.
Trapt later agreed to terms with another label, but this time it was the band who decided to back out of the deal before it was signed. As Brown tells it, it was a decision based on creative control, and he is quick to point out that despite the possible implications, it wasn't a tough decision to make. "If we hadn't gotten another deal, it would have been really bad, because we had quit school to really do this thing, but we were really confident that our music speaks for itself. We're not gonna take anything from any labels, even if they are major labels. We're not gonna sign an agreement like that." In the end, Trapt's faith in their own music paid off. In 2001, the band signed a deal with media giant, Warner Brothers Records. "With Warner Brothers, they didn't come in and say 'You should change this. You should change that.' They gave us the creative freedom to make whatever music we wanted to," Chris remarks of the band / label relationship. "They were confident in us - they signed us off the demo. We knew our songs were good, so we weren't gonna take anything from anybody."
Though Trapt is the band's major label debut, they had made independent releases in the past. The singer / songwriter admits that the stakes at Warner Brothers, as opposed to the indie scene, are much higher, at least financially. "It's much different. We made a CD called Amalgamation probably for a thousand bucks. It's just on a very small scale, because you're not getting them out to that many people, just a very small region where you sell CDs. This is nationwide - everything just goes up. The amount of money you spend on making and promoting a record goes up because there's a way bigger audience. I think that's the main difference."
Creatively, however, the process hasn't changed all that much. Brown believes recording in the independent market has prepared him and Trapt well for life at Warner Brothers. "We've always done the same thing. From Amalgamation to Glimpse to the self-titled CD, I think it's just that the songwriting got more focused. We became better songwriters by working with different producers and taking in what they had to say, and learning from them. If we'd gotten signed like two years ago and tried to make a record, it wouldn't have been as good, because we weren't ready. I think bands have to keep going as independents till they think that they're ready to release a record nationwide where there are millions of people that could be potential fans."
For frontman Chris Brown, his impetus to start up a band didn't stem from an aspiration to land a lucrative contract, but out of a desire to be on stage and make a connection with an enthusiastic audience. "Watching Tool, Papa Roach and this local band Dredg play - they're on Interscope now - watching how they interacted with the crowd…it's the main reason why we play music, so we can interact with a huge crowd and feed off their energy," says Brown. "It's a natural high. It's awesome."
At first, being in a band for the experience was enough. Trapt's early rehearsals took place in guitarist Simon Ormandy's guesthouse and had a party-like atmosphere. By late 1997, the group's creativity began to flourish. They cut a CD that they started selling at local venues such as The Cactus Club, where they became fixtures for a rapidly growing audience early the following year. By the middle of 1998 they had graduated from high school, and Trapt found themselves opening for bands like the aforementioned Papa Roach and Dredg.
"I think we started getting really focused just when high school was ending. That summer, we just went out and did our thing and hung out. Toward the end of summer, we got together and started working more and writing songs," Brown remembers. As the four moved from high school into their freshman year of college, they also relocated to different cities. Brown and Ormandy enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, Peter took up studies in Santa Cruz and the band's original drummer settled at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Instead of scattering the band, the distance apart only tightened Trapt's resolve. "We were doing school, but the band was always there. It wasn't like it was gonna break apart. We played as many shows as we could." According to Chris, it was around this time that the group's attitude became more serious. "Toward the end of our freshman year of college, we had a few songs that we recorded - a five-song E.P. called Glimpse - and that's when we sent it out to [Internet] sites and those people had connections to major labels. Then we started getting interest and started working with this producer, Jim Wirt, who did the Hoobastank record and early Incubus stuff like S.C.I.E.N.C.E. That's when it got pretty serious - we hired a manager and all that good stuff."
It was Immortal Records, a subsidiary of Epic at the time, who hooked Trapt up with Wirt, but the relationship didn't last long. Disagreements over how the band should sound caused Immortal's interest to waiver. "We did two songs, and then the A&R guy from Immortal said that it didn't sound like Incubus enough," recounts Brown. "He wanted to give Immortal back their Incubus because once a group got to a certain level, [Epic] stepped in and took it over." But Trapt didn't fall out of favor for long. "Then we made that demo that had 'Headstrong,' 'Still Frame,' 'When All Is Said and Done' and 'Stories,' and he called our manager and asked if we'd be interested in signing to [Immortal]." Figuring they wouldn't want to sign to Immortal because they had passed on them in the beginning, Trapt's demo was passed on to another label instead, and the major label roller coaster ride continued.
Trapt later agreed to terms with another label, but this time it was the band who decided to back out of the deal before it was signed. As Brown tells it, it was a decision based on creative control, and he is quick to point out that despite the possible implications, it wasn't a tough decision to make. "If we hadn't gotten another deal, it would have been really bad, because we had quit school to really do this thing, but we were really confident that our music speaks for itself. We're not gonna take anything from any labels, even if they are major labels. We're not gonna sign an agreement like that." In the end, Trapt's faith in their own music paid off. In 2001, the band signed a deal with media giant, Warner Brothers Records. "With Warner Brothers, they didn't come in and say 'You should change this. You should change that.' They gave us the creative freedom to make whatever music we wanted to," Chris remarks of the band / label relationship. "They were confident in us - they signed us off the demo. We knew our songs were good, so we weren't gonna take anything from anybody."
Though Trapt is the band's major label debut, they had made independent releases in the past. The singer / songwriter admits that the stakes at Warner Brothers, as opposed to the indie scene, are much higher, at least financially. "It's much different. We made a CD called Amalgamation probably for a thousand bucks. It's just on a very small scale, because you're not getting them out to that many people, just a very small region where you sell CDs. This is nationwide - everything just goes up. The amount of money you spend on making and promoting a record goes up because there's a way bigger audience. I think that's the main difference."
Creatively, however, the process hasn't changed all that much. Brown believes recording in the independent market has prepared him and Trapt well for life at Warner Brothers. "We've always done the same thing. From Amalgamation to Glimpse to the self-titled CD, I think it's just that the songwriting got more focused. We became better songwriters by working with different producers and taking in what they had to say, and learning from them. If we'd gotten signed like two years ago and tried to make a record, it wouldn't have been as good, because we weren't ready. I think bands have to keep going as independents till they think that they're ready to release a record nationwide where there are millions of people that could be potential fans."
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