Trouble In The Desert
When I started on this music writing venture, I seemed to gravitate to the East Coast and all the, sometimes hidden, talent it has. Little did I know if I had just opened my ears and eyes I would find an amazing band in my own backyard. Okay, obviously not literally in my back yard, I'm talking about good ol' AZ. So for this one, let's take a trip into the desert and allow me to introduce you to a band called Troubled Minds.
To tell this behind the music story we have to venture back to 2013. This was the year it all started. Frontman Matt Aldawood began making music under the name "Troubled Minds". Since then the band, as many bands sometimes do, has gone through a few lineup changes over the years. But all in all, the band is compiled with gents who are all good friends and the music they make is rad as hell.
The first we hear from them is in 2015 and it's an LP called "Something Worth Saving". Here we are introduced to the bands extremely unique sound. And with influences like Balance and Composure and Drug Church, to name a few, Trouble Minds definitely can't be lumped into a specific genre and in my opinion, that's what makes their music so awesome.
Next up in their catalog is an EP they dropped 4 years later called "A Call to Anywhere at All".
2020 hits we get two more singles "Vacancy" and "Burn".
This brings us to the present tense and in March they released the song "like I used to be".
But wait, there's more. Last month they dropped their newest single "Get Well Soon". The track is a bit heavier, but so is the subject matter. They also gave us a rad new video to accompany the track.
To give us a little more history and insight to the band, I asked band member Matt Aldawood to answer a few questions so we can get to know these troubled minds a little better!
First off, can you give us a little history lesson on how Troubled Minds came to be? How do you all know one another, are you all from AZ, when did you start playing together etc..
So I (Matt) have been making music under the name Troubled Minds since Summer of 2013. We’ve had a lot of lineup changes since then, and we didn’t get our first release, Something Worth Saving, out until 2015. We all know each other from playing shows with other bands. I met our bass player Gabe from seeing his old band Adult Feelings play shows. I met John when he bought a pre sale ticket from me when we were opening for The World Is… and I knew Cody as the drummer for a few metal/post-hardcore bands from high school. I ran into him randomly when we needed a drummer and fortunately for us he hopped in the band!
Now I’ve been jamming out to your tunes quite a bit the past couple weeks and I think it’s safe to say you dudes have quite a unique sound. It’s a little pop punk-ish, with a splash of Emo and has a lot of fun melodic vibes and rad riffs. That being said, who would you say some of your biggest musical influences are?
It’s hard for me to chose influences when they’re always changing. For “Get Well Soon” I’d go with Movements, Title Fight, Balance and Composure. Outside of that song, I’ve been listening to a lot of Nada Surfs record, “High/Low” lately. Pavement is super sick. Drug Church is tight. Pinback is cool. I could go on and on.
Now you guys just released a new single last month called “Get Well Soon”. At first listen, this song has a heavier feel to it, both in sound and lyrics. Can you give us a little backstory to what the song is about?
Get Well Soon is about a shitty dude who justifies his shitty behavior by abusing alcohol. It’s kind of a darker song that needed a darker feel to it. Not a comfy topic matter, but I felt the need to write a song about this person to get over the situation.
Now in addition to the new song, you also just dropped a rad new video for it as well. What was your favorite part to shoot? And can you tell us who was behind the camera?
My favorite part of shooting the video was finding cool shots/angles with the mirrors. I had a vision of filming a video in a room full of mirrors and figured we could get some trippy looking shots like that. So I went to all my local Goodwills and bought a bunch of mirrors. We had no precise plans for angles/shots, so it took awhile to figure things out but once we got the ball rolling we had a lot of fun with it. Our video guy JP Silva shot the video. He did our last video for “like i used to be” and does a killer job every time. If you’re in the Phoenix area and need video work done, hit our boy up!
Now if you’ve read any of my past articles you’ll find that I like to end with a totally random, sometimes annoying question that almost seems unanswerable. So here goes… if you were only allowed to play at one venue for the rest of your band days, which venue would it be and why?
I’m gonna go with 924 Gilman in Berkeley, CA (Alternative Music Foundation). Every time we stop and play there it’s very apparent how passionate and supportive of DIY that scene is. We’ve always had great experiences with people coming back to see us there and we hope we can make it back soon.
Getting to know and support local bands and your local music community is so imperative when trying to support the scene. Troubled Minds is a band you should not sleep on and with their versatility and drive they are a band to keep an eye on. Please give these desert dudes a listen, follow them for all the mind troubling news and be sure to share their tunes with all the homies.
Link to their newest song/video below!
📸: @michael.friendo
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