Tuesday, October 14, 2014

NEGATIVE TREND

  • Negative Trend were a hardcore/punk band from Truro, Nova Scotia in the late 1990's. Not to be confused with an early LA punk band of the same name. I got in touch with their guitar player Scott for this highly informative interview. So grab a cool glass of Dr. Pepper, sit back, read and relax to max.
  • Band Members: Martin (vocals), Scott (guitar), Josh (drums), and Richard (bass)
  • About the band's humble beginnings: We had been in other bands previously but in a small town like Truro it can be a bit difficult to really find like-minded people to play with. So we were all in a situation where we were in bands we didn't really like because the alternative was 'do nothing'. And when the weird small town phenomenon of in-congruent popularity began to take effect (i.e. becoming very popular locally because there are only like, 3 bands to choose from, it started to get a bit uncomfortable and/or embarrassing to be playing stuff we weren't interested in and thought was pretty lame in general. Anyway, before practices with the lame band began, three of us started playing stuff we actually liked just for fun. Then met Martin who said he was in a similar predicament so he joined as the singer and we formed NT shortly thereafter.
  • Band name: I had no idea about the LA band at the time, it was just a general phrase that sounded good for a band name. No grief about it outside of some website comments by confused altavista users.
  • Scott's take on their muzak and demo tape: Musically most of it was put together by myself and the drummer Josh, as we were both into similar stuff at the time, ie spazzy fast hardcore...like older stuff spanning from Void to euro or japanese stuff or whatever. The songs on the demo were our first batch of songs as a band and were put together quite quickly then the demo was recorded in like, less than 2 hours by J. Lapointe in his bedroom. It was actually recorded before we had a full time bass player so I had to do all that too, but then Richard joined despite having to play upside down as a lefty. The demo was really basic but I guess we were happy with it? the fact that it was mostly one-take helped the energy level I think. The guitar tone was actually mostly a DOD GRUNGE pedal of all things, played through a hefty Yamaha bass amp with the mids scooped. And a set of hot pickups. The pedal was surprisingly great tho.
  • Punk rock gigz: Memorable shows were many even though it was a relatively short lived band we were just out of high school and had a band VAN and everything so took shows anywhere. We played in Cape Breton a lot at a time when shows were drawing really big crowds of kids from all walks of life, and played some crazy shows in the Valley of all places. And of course punkfests and the usual Halifax shows. Our focus was generally Halifax though for obvious reasons. Condon (from Cafe Ole) really gave us some nice spots and I should also thank D.rock for being the first person to really take an interest when the band was brand new and doing a zine write-up. And of course that sexy Ian (*blush*) fellow who invited us to play in his room on his birthday ;( which was one of the most fun shows I've been to before or since.

  • The end: I think the band broke up just due to life moving on and members all moving away to different locations physically. As for what everyone is up to now I'm not sure. I am studying at Dalhousie after having lived in the US for several years. I know Josh/drummer is in Truro married with a bunch of kids. Richard and Martin I'm not sure about at all.
  • Final thoughts: With Negative Trend we just wanted to do something that wasn't too serious but wasn't outright lamesauce too, and it was a good experience that let me meet a lot of good folks as a result just the one demo, although a follow up was partially recorded but never finished. I hadn't thought about that band for a loooong time so thanks for the trip down memory lane~.
  • fin.


or Listen on the youtube:


 And if you are really adventurous, check out this archived Negative Trend Geocities page: http://web.archive.org/web/20021130195222/http://www.geocities.com/sunsetstrip/venue/5424/
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