Trading in trust

What a difference a year makes. In August 2001 Trust Company were a hard-working, dedicated but largely unknown power-pop band based in Montgomery, Alabama, touring their asses off with precious little to show for it. In September 2002 they’re signed to Geffen, about to release a single from their debut album The Lonely Position Of Neutral and wrapping up a pan-European tour with Korn and Puddle of Mudd.

Singer/guitarist Kevin Palmer and drummer Jason Singleton are still too new to success to be even vaguely cynical. “We are really grateful for where we are,” says Palmer with characteristic humility. “We’re doing what we love, all the time!” Singleton agrees. “Sure, we work hard – we haven’t had any days off on this tour so far – but in a lot of ways it’s like a giant holiday.”

Before Geffen honcho Jordan Schur – whose other protégés include Limp Bizkit and Staind – ‘discovered’ them at an LA gig, Trust Company were signed to Washington, D.C. indie imprint DCide. The cash-strapped label could only offer the band $1,000 per month as a retainer. That meant $250 per member to live on for a month.

“Yeah, that was really, really tough,” remembers Palmer. “We were touring a lot, simply because we had to if we wanted to eat! We’d bring CDs and merchandise to gigs and cross our fingers that someone would buy it. Those days make you appreciate it when things get better. We spent many nights sleeping on top of our equipment, sharing cheeseburgers...”

Then came Schur, a marked increase in the band’s standard of living, and major acceleration. “Let’s see, we played for Geffen, then a week later we were playing for producers, and a couple of weeks after that we were in the studio, recording the album. Things happened really quick, but we never felt that we lost control of what we were doing.”

Since then it’s been a hell of a ride: touring around the US with Puddle of Mudd, doing their own headline gigs and now the massive Korn tour, with its own list of challenges. “Korn’s fans can be pretty hardcore,” explains Singleton. “99% of the crowd doesn’t know who we are. So our goal is to win over as many as we can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. It can be intimidating, but we all like the challenge.”

Another challenge is writing on the road which, given their intensive touring schedule, is a necessity if they want to work on a follow up to Neutral. They’ve already recorded a Christmas song (!) in Amsterdam for a Los Angeles radio station, and are planning to invest in a portable studio to demo new material as they travel. Palmer concludes: “We’re new to this and we love it.” The simplest and most honest band policy there is.