InsidePulse's Exclusive Interview with Trigger Point

Recently, I had the chance to get into contact with Taylor Wallace, front man of the up and coming band Trigger Point. Here’s what Taylor had to say about the new album, mainstream music today, and Trigger Point’s bright future.

Tremendous work on this disc guys, as it may be one of the best albums I’ve heard in quite sometime. Was there a general direction or feel that you wanted to emote with this album?
First off thank you very much, that is one of the best compliments that I could ever hope to receive. There was no direction or feel to this record, actually we didn’t even consider it a record. We were just tired of making demos and figured if no one was going to sign us we needed to make something that we could sell at shows so we could start making a little bit of cash. So we went into the studio and recorded the best 11 songs we had. Some of the songs are four years old, the first song we ever wrote is on there, it was Away. We were like 19 when we wrote it. To us the record is not an album but pretty much a best of what we had at the time, we did not re work any of the songs or sit with our producer and try to make them better we just took them straight from the stage and into the studio and pressed record. It seems to have worked even though we all wish we had not done that seeing that it got picked up, if we knew it was going to be distributed and out there for all the world to see we would have taken more time with it and really crafted our idea of the perfect record. But luckily we are going to get to do that on the next, which I might add the songs we are writing for that are going to blow these out of the water.

What are some of Trigger Point’s influences, musically or otherwise?
Well we all come from different musical back grounds and listen to a lot of weird stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with our genre. But at the same time we listen to a lot of stuff in our genre. Giving a list would take way too long seeing that all we do is listen to music but we are really into classic rock, old school vibe stuff like the Beatles and Zeppelin and Hendrix. Then there is the weirder stuff like Bjork, Tori Amos, Kenna. We also listen to a lot of extremely complicated metal like, Candiria, Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan. I mean the lists go on and on. But there are a few.

I’ve definitely got to ask. How did Dave (drummer Dave Gentry) become so good on drums? The drums on this album kick copious amounts of ass!
To tell you the truth he claims one of his greatest teaching tools was playing the air drums to his favorite records, which he still does not stop in the van when we are on tour.

The vocals on this album are also amazing. Was there a certain mind set for Taylor going into recording?
I didn’t really have a mind set at all for this record, like I said earlier there was not one sound or theme or underlining tone on this record because it was suck a scattered mix of songs. I just tried to make every song sounds as genuine as possible, which was hard with some of the songs. It was difficult to tap into the emotion of a song that I had written 3 years before and express it properly but all in all I got pretty close.

What did Trigger Point as a band want to accomplish on this record?
We just wanted to raise awareness. I’m not saying we wouldn’t be happy if it went platinum tomorrow but we would rather that not happen. We don’t feel this record is quite at the level that we want to be widely known for. We have grown so much musically since most of these songs were written that we want to be known for Trigger Point now, not Trigger Point 4 years ago. And I think everyone will see what I’m talking about when we release the next disc.

Is becoming mainstream a good thing or a bad thing for Trigger Point?
It’s always a good thing I think. Unless you let it change you, which a lot of bands do. But I don’t see that happening to us. We have so many different things going on with the members of this band musically that the need to experiment is very strong for all of us, but un like most bands I don’t think we will want to bring that change into Trigger Point. I think you will see all of us participating in a lot of different side projects and little EP’s as we grow so we have a place to put all the things that we write that doesn’t fit with Trigger Point.

While we’re on the topic, what are your guy’s thoughts on mainstream rock or metal today? Is it a good thing, bad thing, over saturated thing?
I think there is a lot of over saturation, most of the popular bands all sound exactly the same and I really hate the emphasis of Fashion that is being put on music right now. That and most radio stations and MTV are afraid to play heavier stuff now, so it makes it harder for bands like us to fit in and make our niche. But we are slowly making our way up the mountain. It’s not easy for us but it’s going to be our attitude of “hey we are not f*cking going anywhere” that I think will pay off for us in the end.

Any big tours coming up in the near future so all the new and future Trigger Point fans can check you guys out?
Touring has been a problem for us, it’s very hard for us to go out ’cause we are still so unknown and it gets expensive. And for some reason we have not had any bigger bands want to take us out on the road yet. But we are planning on hitting up the as much of the U.S. as possible before summer time. And then we will see where things are at.

What would Trigger Point’s dream tour consist of?
Deftones, Thrice, The Bled, Messuage, 36 Crazy Fists, Tool, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Alexsisonfire. Oh, and us of course. That would be the best f*cking bill ever!!!

Anything that you guys would like to add?
Just wait this is only the beginning. We have things up our sleeve that will level the playing field. And we can’t wait to unleash it.

For my review of Trigger Point’s debut album A Silent Protest, click here

To visit Trigger Point’s official website, click here