HYPETRAK Sits Down with Trash Talk for a Conversation About Their Creative Process and Touring

A lot of folks may have just recently become familiar with Trash Talk following their deal with Odd Future Records, but the Sacramento-based outfit has been making a lot of noise — thanks to its signature hardcore punk sound and short yet unrelenting tracks — both at home and abroad for more than a decade. Fresh off this summer’s release of their second LP on Odd Future, No Peace, the quartet hit the road, touching down in China for the Converse Rubber Tracks Live China Tour. While grabbing some grub during a bit of down time, vocalist Lee Spielman and guitarist Garrett Stevenson sat down with our compadres over at HYPETRAK, touching on everything from their creative process and favorite touring stops to the relationship between artist and audience, their weirdest interactions with fans, and more.

You can check out an excerpt from their conversation below while the piece can be read in its entirety over at HYPETRAK. Trash Talk’s LP No Peace is now available via iTunes.

How are your impressions of China so far?
Garett: It’s been sick, it’s been pretty cool. I really didn’t know what you expect. It’s just mad far away. We came out and every things cool, like people are mad chill, from the shows and the reactions from the crowds. People’s been taking care of us, and everybody’s just been looking out for me. Real cool experience.

Can you outline the differences between Chinese and North American audiences?
L: In America, we kinda like know whats gonna happen in a sense, how people are going act in line with punk and the etiquette of how a punk show happens. Whereas in some of these places, like Chengdu, this is the first time some of these kids have been exposed to this type of show. So it’s refreshing to be in a packed room of fresh clean slates where you can mould and do whatever you want to make it. It’s been really tight just to see kids not really knowing and by the end just like letting full loose. It might be like a more reserved type of kid over here and just watching that kind of people wild out. It’s crazy seeing that.

G: It’s pretty fresh to play to people who don’t have a preconceived idea of what’s about to happen. They’re just showing up to have a good time or to see a show. Everywhere in the West, everything’s been done a thousand times over so everybody feel some way about it. So to just have an open mind and just being in the situation is cool.

So obviously connecting with a live audience is important. How do you do it? Do you have a special ritual, or is it just natural and organic?
G: Yeah it’s pretty organic like ever since the conception of the band our thing was to just leave it all out to the floor essentially and we just kinda go out and give 110%, whether that means climbing to the highest point of the room or smashing things, we just like to give them everything. There’s not a person that could come to our shows and say it was uninteresting or that they weren’t at least entertained. It really just comes natural once we start playing music, I only know how to jump up and down and kick sh*t and f*cking jump off the stage. I couldn’t do it just sitting there and standing still. So for 30 – 45 mins a day I’m able to be a f*cking full on (bad kid?) @3:30.

L: You can’t expect a crowd to give you 100% unless you give them 100% too. If you step on the stage and don’t go in, then how do you expect a kid to give you the same amount of intense
energy? You get what you give you know?