Fireside Chat

Trans Am

Thrill Jockey, USA

The members of Trans Am started jamming together after some mutual taste appreciation when they were all playing with hardcore collective Bomblast. They started out playing structured original material and covers of David Bowie and Stravinsky with Casio keyboards, loud guitars, drums and no vocals. Sounds like an odd combination, but it obviously worked as John McEntire of Tortoise soon pricked up his ears to their sound. The band agreed to record some tracks with McEntire which, combined with some home recordings make up the band's first release on Thrill Jockey Records. Moving away from the instrumental post rock they had pioneered, they started to use vocals in their music, but with vocoders so as not to be associated with humans. They also started burning things on stage, released a 7" not on Thrill Jockey, they went a bit folk, they got a bit ugly, then poppy, went down a psychedelic route and then a political one. Then they stopped being a band at all for a while. And that barely skims the surface, which leaves us quite a lot to cover in this special feature.