Trade Wind

14 July 2016 | 4:25 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

We'd hate to tell you how to think but seriously, Trade Wind are your new favourite band.

If you're reading this, there's a pretty high chance that you've listened to Stick To Your Guns, Structures, and/or Stray From The Path at some point or another. Now, if for some reason you haven't listened to either of those bands, then go sort your shit out! It's cool, we can wait.

Either way, something that you may not know is that certain members of those three bands make up the truly excellent Trade Wind. With singer/guitarist Jesse Barnett (Stick To Your Guns), guitarist Tom Williams (Stray From The Path), drummer Andrew McEnaney (Structures) and bassist Randy LaBeouf (not from a band, but still a damn good musician and engineer), the talent and passion from their respective works translates across genres to this band. But be rest assured, this isn't just another side-project or a short-lived, over-hyped supergroup, these dudes are the real fucking deal!

As their debut album, 'You Make Everything Disappear' comes out this Friday, July 15th, we had a chat with Barnett about the mood and vibe of the new, the lack of "rules" when writing for Trade Wind, and how they plan to create their own path.

Right now, it’s Winter over here in Australia and I find that the darker mood and vibe of this album is really fitting for the season. Do you ever associate certain albums or songs, Trade Wind, Stick To Your Guns or otherwise, with a particular season? I find that I listen to more post-rock bands during Winter.  

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Yeah, I definitely do that when I’m feeling nostalgic, and my favourite time of year is the Fall. I really love it, and I love the records that I would listen to when I was younger in those past seasons. There are a lot of records I connect seasons with so I can definitely relate to it. That’s a really good question because I really wanted this record to be released in the Fall and not in the dead of summer for us over here. Unfortunately for me, this was the best time that we could release with our all other schedules. As I think it has more of a sadder, autumn listening vibe to it.

Yeah, I can see that, but hey, at least the record's coming! Also, I am really glad to see the band continuing on from the ‘Suffer Just To Believe’ EP because I always wondered whether or not if Trade Wind would get tucked under the rug eventually.

The fact that it was so different from our other bands was what helped it get a lot of attention and immediate hype, that all eventually died down pretty quickly for that exact reason. Because you always hear about “super groups” starting and it can hard for people to invest their time in it, as only a demo or an EP comes from it and that’s usually it. When we released the first EP, we toured on it, took a break, and then got back in the studio and recorded this album. We’ve also gotten two new band members, this time around, and we’ll be touring the States soon and hopefully we’ll be over to Australia next year. 

Sounds good, dude. Very keen to see you guys live, as I’ve seen all of your other bands live. With the new members, you’ve got Andrew from Structures obviously, but what band did Randy come from?

He didn’t come from a band, actually. He works at the studio in New Jersey with Will Putney, and he’s been involved in a lot of bands in our music scene, like The Amity Affliction and Stray From The Path. He also engineered Suffer Just To Believe. He’s Berkeley-educated whereas Tom and I are just two assholes with guitars [laughs]. He’s for sure the best part of this band and an incredible musician and producer. There’s obviously a very big sound change from that EP and I think that’s because of Randy and Andrew.

Oh, cool! A good friend of mine is studying at Berkeley right now actually, and he loves his jazz and his progressive metal. Some of the pieces that guys like that play and learn, I just look at go, ‘Damn, I’ve never seen that kind of phrasing or time signature before!’  

[Laughs] oh, absolutely! The music that myself, Tom, and Andrew have played all our lives – hardcore and metal – isn’t taken seriously by the music world as a whole. I think that when we came out with Trade Wind a lot of people could see that there was more to us and I think it took some by surprise. I think that there’ll be an even bigger effect for this record, as it has more depth lyrically and musically. I’m very proud of it.

And rightfully so, as it’s a much more diverse record. I actually interviewed Tom last year regarding Stray’s last Australian tour and he mentioned that Coldplay is one of his favourite bands. I dig that band heavily and I get a massive Coldplay-vibe from a song like ‘Grey Light’ with the programmed drums and general atmospheric vibes of it.

Yeah, for sure! We all listen to so much music, and overall, we’re always talking about music. So I think it makes sense that we are able to experiment with Trade Wind. I don’t go into the studio and put myself in a box for Stick To Your Guns, but we are a hardcore/metalcore band, so there are certain…rules that should apply when approaching a Stick To Your Guns or Stray record. But with Trade Wind, we can pull out any instrument and experiment with it. That is so exciting for us.

I would definitely agree. But with this band, have you and the other guys sat down and discussed the end goal of this band? I think that this band has much more merit and value than your usual side-project, but will it forever be a second and more experimental musical outlet from your other bands for you? 

I never know what the future is with Stick To Your Guns, obviously, it gets better with each year, but anything can happen. Right now, the only struggle is what you mentioned, trying to jump over into a world of people who don’t know who Stick To Your Guns or Stray are and who know us only for Trade Wind. I’m not ashamed of heavy music, I love hardcore and I always will, but I think that in order for Trade Wind to be successful we’ll need to gain a new fan base. Not that fans of our other bands can’t enjoy it, we just want to add new faces and minds to a Trade Wind show.

I hope that you can too, because ‘You Make Everything Disappear’ is a fucking good record and hopefully, the usual STYG and Stray fans won’t be tough HxC poser's and can get behind it!

[Laughs] yeah, maybe!

Well, in any case, that was all the questions I had for you, Jesse. Thanks so much for your time today, it's been good!

Thanks so much bud, appreciate you making this work!

'You Make Everything Disappear' is out July 15th through UNFD. 

You Make Everything Disappear