Style and Substance

Growing is a lifelong process - each new experience leaves an indelible mark on the tapestry of a lifetime. Such is the case for Trans Am. After over a decade together, this indie rock trio - featuring Philip Manley on guitars, keys and vocals; Nathan Means on bass, keys and vocals; and Sebastian Thomson on drums, keys and vocals - still continues to expand their horizons with their latest effort, TA, released in 2002. Combining heavy synthesizers and electronic beats with the traditional power trio set up, Trans Am's sound is a potent blend of style and substance that invokes the decadent spirit of the 1970s and '80s. Over the course of their career, the band has managed to borrow from the past while keeping their sound fresh and not simply nostalgic, by pulling from a variety of likely and unlikely sources.
Trans Am has been releasing albums since 1996, but their history dates back a little further. "We met in high school in an English class," Nathan Means says from the band's home base, National Recording Studios in Washington DC. "Sebastian, our drummer, didn't go to school with us - I think he'd graduated by that point - he was just wandering the hallways, and he had this denim jacket that he'd written 'Bauhaus' on in magic marker. So we started talking to him, and we kicked out our old drummer after we played with [Sebastian] a few times - Phil and I were already playing together. That would have been 1990."
Looking back at that time, Means mentions that he and the other members of Trans Am, who had all played in bands prior, were still building their musical vocabulary derived from the bands and the sounds that inspired them.
"When you're younger, you hear something you think it sounds cool, you want to imitate that sound. At least that's how it was for us," Means says, listing Living Colour and Sonic Youth as some of the bands he and his bandmates tried to emulate. "I think eventually, once we were in our early 20s, we started to stabilize a little bit and started to develop our own sound. It just takes time I think."
However, Means notes that the band also finds inspiration in unlikely places. A variety of sounds filter their way into Trans Am's music. For example, the bleeps, blips and chirps of classic arcade games can be heard woven into the fabric of the band's self-titled, full-length studio debut.
"Everyone's lives have become more and more dominated by computers, and it's kind of cool to look back at when consumers first started using computers," answers Means when asked what it was about those games that inspired the band to incorporate those sounds into their music. "A lot of the sounds that [old Atari games make] are sounds that we made ourselves through manipulating keyboards and stuff like that. When we first started using keyboards, which is when we first started developing our own sound, we used really crappy Casio keyboards…those keyboards probably have the same sound chips as Ataris do. You know what I mean? They make the same crappy, degraded sounds. That probably has a lot to do with it."
On the band's latest release, TA, Trans Am continues to incorporate new things into their music. A recent trip to Brazil has added an international flavor to their sound with the song "Basta," which takes cues from a style of underground Brazilian hip-hop known as Funk Carioca.
"When we went to Brazil a couple of years ago, a couple of friends of ours played Funk Carioca for us," says drummer Sebastian Thomson, who penned "Basta." "[Funk Carioca] has an aggressive and raunchy rhythm and sound to it. The two American styles that are kind of similar to it are Miami- and Atlanta-based hip-hop. The rhythm is totally different, but go-go music in [Washington] DC is really similar too - really stripped down, just drums and vocals. I think that's great for getting a party started."
"I've used Brazilian stuff on more than one Trans Am song, because I lived there as a kid, and I really liked that music," Thomson continues. "'Lunar Landing' on Red Line has a samba feel to it and even 'Party Station,' some of the drum fills I do and hitting the high hat on the off beat, that's a really Brazilian thing to do. I grew up listening to that more than rock music, because my parents weren't really into that when I was a kid."
Another notable feature of TA is that a majority of the songs on the album contain vocal parts, a departure from the band's predominantly instrumental past. Though Thomson is quick to say that he isn't sure if this is the direction the band is heading in, he admits that the band's recent concentration on vocals is a nice change of pace.
"We realized that there were other bands that didn't focus on the vocals too much, so we didn't think it was too much of a weird thing - it was natural for us. In the early '90s, that sort of became a new style, the instrumental post-rock thing. We didn't really know about it, but it was happening coincidentally at the same time. I think that's why people got into our music; it happened at the right time," Thomson says. "After a few years, we felt like we got pigeonholed as an instrumental band with other groups that didn't sound anything like us. I think we just got bored of that, so Philip and Nathan started singing. This record probably has the most vocals on it, because TA has the most songs that were written by individuals in the band that were originally presented complete with vocals."
While the many aspects of their music may continue to change, one aspect of Trans Am's career has remained constant. Since the release of their first album, the band has had a home with the Chicago-based independent label, Thrill Jockey.
"They're really fair with the way the money's split, they're supportive and we get along well with them," Means says of Trans Am's relationship with their record label. "Unless you're gonna try to do something entirely different with your career and try to get signed to a major label, I think that you'd be foolish not to stay with Thrill Jockey."
As for major label aspirations, Means answers frankly. While he admits that life at a major label has some appealing aspects, for now, Trans Am is happy to be where they're at.
"I think a lot of bands get to a point where [getting signed to a major label] is sort of like an endgame," Means says, then adds with a laugh. "They know that their band is kind of flaming out to begin with, so they're like, 'let's try to make some money. Let's see if we can get some kind of ridiculous advance, because we really don't care about what happens to the music anymore.' I think sometimes the idea of an endgame is exciting for us, but it's not something that we've pursued seriously. I wouldn't mind someone buying us hotels or meals or something, but I'm not really anticipating that too soon either."
Though Trans Am appears comfortably settled at their record label, the band's craft seems to be in flux, constantly growing and changing. While sounds from the past may permeate their music, the infusion of a variety of offbeat and newer elements has created something more than just nostalgia. According to Thomson, Trans Am isn't so much paying tribute to the music of the '70s and '80s, but picking up where those bands left off.
"I think that there were elements of music in the '70s and '80s that were very modern and futuristic at the time, and people didn't really catch on to it, or thought it was a gimmick," Thomson says. "In the last 10 years, we've sort of regressed into a more primitive type of music. I think we're just trying to continue with that ['70s and '80s] feel. It's different, because it's obviously 20 to 30 years later, but I think we've taken some of those modern elements into a new context, and in that new context, it's something different."

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