Derek Trotson was a Progressive Punk-Dirge band consisting of Nick Linnik, Danny Rico and Marek Bero. The band was founded by Nick, Bill Ando and Bob Koto in London in 2006.
Koto and Ando came to fame in the stadium rock band UnderKlass but after having split up formed Sweet as Brown, another project with guitarist Spam Coney from the Kadigga led band Big Dippers.
Sweet as Brown split up shortly after their self titled debut album and suddenly started collaborating with session musician Nick Linnik occasionally writing songs. Soon the group began to gel and the rest, is history. Derek Trotson was born.
Derek Trotson supported Pregnant Grandad on their 06’/07’ Citizenship Field Tour to wide acclaim and earning them a larger fan base. Dean Harbis of Pregnant Grandad and Doubtsicles would join the band later.
Linnik and Jonge have also collaborated with Wendo Cungouda in the prog death band C*NT, most notable for their magnum opus ‘Shit’.
Koto and Jonge also collaborated as the acoustic duo “Pony and the Membrane” to write such songs as ‘The Chamber’ and ‘Little Joe and Nancy’.
William Solero (Dino Thunder/Galacticus/The Bill Solero Expediency) joined the band in 2009 and was a key figure in the direction the band would take next. The influence of Solero can be heard in songs such as ‘Sink’, ‘Without Legs’ and ‘Hound Mind Thought’ to name but a few.
By the summer of 2010 tensions were growing high within the band and the sudden departure of Koto left an irreparable dent. The success of the double album ‘Jesus and Qu’ahon’ had opened new doors for the band but to no avail. The remaining members began work on a follow-up album with Linnik taking over vocal duties. In November of the same year the band decided to call it a day, not being able to rekindle the magic of the Koto years.
After suffering a blackout, Linnik decided to go on a pilgrimage to Josef Fritzl’s Austrian mansion. There he met Danny Rico who was being detained for lewd behaviour by Interpol Officer and bassist Marek Bero (MB). The rest, they say, is history.
The band returned to the studio in the summer of 2012 to record their first album as the new incarnation of Derek Trotson. Production duties were taken over primarily by Artur Gefang. In a recent interview with Corsican rock magazine "Geyser" Rico, MB and Gefang reflected on the group's latest effort:
Rico: "I wrote a lot of letters to my dearest friends and imagined what their lives would be like if they were all contained within one book, something I could pick up and just read you know?"
Gefang: "Yeah, actually what's really interesting is that whilst most bands or solo artists come to you with a set of influences and specific sounds from various albums in mind, the guys actually had like a comprehensive reading list. We sat down together prior to the start of recording and just read these books and we discussed how they related to sound. At one point *laughs* it got a bit heated, when Nick brought in an audiobook, it kind of went against the whole philosophy of the procedure. At the end of the day though it was refreshing to see so many ideas come on the table."
Rico: "The hardest part of any creative endeavor is to try and unify all the elements that may or may not influence you into a single cohesive entity. You always have to keep the exchange of ideas in mind, even if you're not dealing from out of your strongest suit."
MB: "Exactly, the music is as always, a vehicle and you really have to plummet this vehicle into the audience. Even if not everyone is caught up, other people will hear this loud bang. They will simply have to turn around and say "Holy cow, what the hell was that loud bang?"
© Hedor Mashe 2013
Finally after much deliberation and internal struggles 'Threads' was released in July 2013.
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