A VARIETY OF INFLUENCES: All the band members in this hard rock group grew up in the Cleveland area listening to different types of music. “[Bassist] Thomas [Rastatter] is into the classic thrash metal bands like Metallica and Slayer, [drummer] Holden [Szalek] grew up listening to blues rock like Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and [guitarist] Eric [Kennedy] listened to everything under the sun,” says Crandall via phone. “He listened to classic grunge stuff growing up — bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden. I did not grow up knowing or listening to rock music in any capacity. I grew up on Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson and Prince and all the big pop acts at the time.” Crandall got into the rock scene when she was in high school and formed Velocity with Szalek. The group disbanded after members graduated high school. But when it was asked to perform as an alumni band at a High School Rock Off competition, Velocity reformed. That’s when guitarist Eric Kennedy, who now plays in TRUSS, came into the picture.
STRAIGHT OUTTA COLUMBUS: The band officially formed in 2018 while they were students at the Ohio State University. The group played various college clubs, events, and parties in the region. In May of 2019, the band released the single “Mayhem,” which it recorded with friend Cooper Towns at the studio in Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts. “[Towns] was taking a music production class at Ohio State, and he needed a final project,” says Crandall. “He asked us to come in and record on a whim. When we went into the studio, we didn’t even have a bassist and we didn’t discuss what song we were going to record. We just walked into the studio and laid down some tracks and did ‘Mayhem,’ and it blew up from there. It was a cool opportunity.” To date, “Mayhem” has amassed nearly 700,000 streams across various platforms. After graduating from college, the band relocated back to Cleveland. It performed its first major show after returning to town in June of 2021, opening for the ’90s alternative rock band Sponge. Later that same year, TRUSS supported national acts Puddle of Mudd, Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss and all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band Lez Zeppelin. In July of last year, the group released its self-produced debut album, Reset My Head. “The really cool thing about Reset My Head is that we self-produced the album from the scratch tracks to the final mixes,” Crandall says. “We recorded it at our apartment. Holden and Eric are really into sound engineering and taught themselves to self-produce. Eric did all of the mixing work. We did the entire album by ourselves. We’re all really proud of it. There was a lot of love put into it. There’s a different level of pride we take on.”
WHY YOU SHOULD HEAR THEM: A proggy, TOOL-like sensibility drives “Mayhem” and the band delivers an evocative cover of the Soundgarden track “Fell on Black Days” that shows off Crandall’s vocal power (no easy task since Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell could belt with the best of them). “Soundgarden is a shared favorite band. We are heavily influenced by Soundgarden and Black Sabbath. Chris Cornell is one of my favorite vocalists of all time,” Crandall. “We wanted to pay tribute when Chris Cornell passed away so many years ago. We thought it would be good to pay tribute to a mutual favorite artist amongst the four of us.” “All the Bugs,” another highlight from the band’s catalog, starts with stripped down electric guitar and builds slowly. “That was one of the first songs we wrote when Thomas came into the band,” says Crandall when asked about the track. “With that song, the [Soundgarden] song ‘Outshined’ is a big influence. The melody for the vocals follows the guitar riff. The idea was to keep that same concept. We could build the music and I would come in with the melody and follow the guitar. It’s one of my favorite songs to play. It has a really good groove to it.”
WHERE YOU CAN HEAR THEM: trussband.com.
WHERE YOU CAN SEE THEM: TRUSS performs with the Yellow Elevators, Hello Luna and Quick Mystery at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights.
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This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 7, 2023.
