Here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today, we’ve been listening to The Trusted’s latest single, Terrible Fight, out today (6 January 2023)
Southend (UK) band, The Trusted are Dave Batchelor, Dale Holt-Mead, Fin Cunningham and Tom Cunningham.
Of Terrible Fight, Tom Cunningham says, “It’s a song about being metaphorically beaten up. Part of growing up is realising ‘life’ is basically an emotional/psychological boxing ring. Whether it’s heartbreak, politics or loss, it kind of feels like we are all being hit from all sides. I wanted ‘Terrible Fight,’ to be a song about being knocked over by all these heavy punches as well as our ability to just keep moving forward.”
Terrible Fight fades in with some glorious 80s-feeling synth sounds and the vocals join the mix fairly quickly after this. We love the synth bass line and the definite nod to The Who’s Baba O’ Riley in the style of the synth patterns. This song gripped us immediately with its superb use of synths and guitars to fill out the sound.
The vocals are driven and have a kind of Mister Mister/Johnny Hates Jazz 80s feel to them. The whole song feels positively anthemic and uplifting.
We love the use of a subtle 16-beat tambourine in the choruses to add some extra energy and the swirling synth/guitar breakdown that builds and builds with spectacular enthusiasm back into the chorus. This truly is a song that you’ll want to hit replay on immediately.
Ideas from our ears
A small cut around 500Hz would reduce some slightly ‘honky’ tones in the vocal track and elsewhere. Another small cut centred around 2.5kHz would reduce a little harshness in some of the guitar tracks. A small boost in the top 2 octaves would increase the brightness and presence in the overall track too. Another great way to achieve extra brightness is to use a single band compressor in the top 2 octaves with a little make-up gain. Finally, some extra stereo could be achieved with a simple stereo plug-in (most DAWs have one of some kind) focusing on the upper end of the EQ spectrum. As always, these are just some ideas from our ears.
Final thoughts
The Trusted are clearly an extremely ambitious band who are pro-actively progressing their career. We applaud their tenacity, their songwriting skills and their musicianship. This band have all the elements needed to take their career wherever they so desire.