Gabby Kenny chats with the lovely Ollie Taylor and Brad Mullins from Trudy and the Romance before their show at Hyde Park Book Club two weeks ago.
Along with Lewis Rollinson, the band met in Chesterfield and after attending LIPA University and Leeds College of Music, the three decided to take residence in Liverpool, releasing their first track ‘All My Love’ in 2015.
The band initially named themselves ‘Trudy’, but were soon approached by an 80s band called ‘The Trudy’ 
who threatened to sue them. Funnily enough, this band had not produced music for 30 years until the emergence of ‘Trudy’, who, in my opinion were definitely the inspiration for their (slightly random) new album! The band then contemplated between the names ‘Trudy Baby’ and ‘Trudy and the Bang Bang sharks,’ but decided their final name through the idea that the band are ‘Trudy’, and ‘the Romance’ represents the rest of the world.
Describing themselves as a fusion between ‘50s mutant pop’ and ‘junkyard jazz’, they portray themselves as an unsophisticated jazz mishmash. Their passion for music began young when their parents played them the likes of Nirvana, Elvis, The Beach Boys and, of course, The Beatles. Notably, Jonathan Richmond, the godfather of punk, had a heavily influence upon the boys.
The band are set to release their new album in mid-2019, with the first single coming out in January. From their classic tunes, ‘Sandman’ portrays a fairy-tale concept, with the album cover picturing the trio holding glow up ice creams. The band have just been set up with B3Sci Records and are particularly excited about for the release of the new album to HMV stores.
Until recently, the band made their own music videos using a small Japanese camera to create a vintage look. Ollie used footage of him on the beach at the age of five to create the video for ‘Baby, I’m Blue’. A few days ago, however, the company Coneys Loft back in Liverpool curated the video for ‘Wild’. Although creating videos served as another creative outlet for the boys, ‘it is better now that somebody else is doing it’.
Trudy’s favourite place to gig is, of course, the Brudenell, because, well ‘no venue is as good as that’. When they first played here, the boys treated it like a playground, running around ‘finding as many beers as we could’. Seeing as Ollie and Lewis attended university in Leeds, the pair visited the venue frequently, and love to go back and gig there, meeting old friends and creating new memories.
I asked the band if they could date any musician, who it would be. After a moment of hesitation, debating whether or not to actually answer the question considering they both have girlfriends, they both gave rather quiet responses. Brad massively fancies the lead singer of Tops, and Ollie ‘really fancies old pictures of Blondie’, also considering Jane Birkin, wondering ‘could she sing me to sleep?’
Finally, I asked Brad and Ollie the weirdest thing they could think of to have for breakfast. Ollie’s questionable response was ‘you know when you sometimes just pile on everything?’…Brad and I were a little unsure of what to respond to this. After further questioning, Ollie claimed ‘I know what mine is, but I don’t wanna say it; can we pause the recording?’ After my polite shut down, he eventually told us that he sometimes conjures up scrambled eggs with a tin of mackerel if he has nothing else in. I was definitely expecting worse. Brad answered simply that he would never have curry for breakfast, rather his ideal choice would be child like: fun cereals, pancakes or jam on toast.
These boys will be performing in Texas at South by Southwest and are definitely ones to watch for the future.
Gabby Kenny
Photo From Facebook
Header Image Credit: Mike Massaro