Last month LA-based, country-tinged folk-pop trio Trousdale stole the show with a 45-minute set opening The Met for Aussie blues-rockers The Teskey Brothers. Trousdale’s musical journey began when the three University of Southern California students (now alum) — Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones – went viral on TikTok with covers of their favorite classic pop songs. However, they’ve been releasing their own music since 2020, churning out a couple of EPs before dropping their first full-length, Out Of My Mind, last September. This Friday, July 12th, sees the release of Out Of My Mind Deluxe, a reissue of the album that features a couple collaborations, a cover of One Direction’s “Night Changes,” and a handful of album tracks recorded live from the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Yesterday I got a chance to chat with Quinn, Georgia, and Lauren about the deluxe edition of their debut album (which features our buddies BAILEN and Australian folk musician Ben Abraham), playing live (They’ve got an upcoming headlining date in NYC with our friend Rett Madison, followed by an appearance at Guster’s festival, before opening a number of dates for Irish singer/songwriter and frontman for The Frames, Glen Hansard.), and the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, where they’ve already played four times… including three shows in the same building…
Izzy Cihak: Considering that this is a Philadelphia publication, I have to ask your thoughts on the city. Despite being a relatively new band, you’ve already played here a handful of times. I saw you last month at The Met with The Teskey Brothers and last year you headlined The Foundry, in addition to playing The Fillmore with Cory Wong, and I know you played Brooklyn Bowl in 2022. Any thoughts or favorite memories?
Lauren Jones: Oh my gosh! I remember my first time going to Philly! I had never been there before – and not really expecting much, like, “Oh, we’re just going to some random city.” — and now Philly’s one of my favorite cities to go back to on tour. I didn’t realize that there’s so much history there. The city itself feels very old, and almost borderline European, because the streets are so small and it’s so walkable in such a lovely way. I love going back to Philadelphia. It’s one of my favorite cities!
Georgia Greene: Me, too!
Lauren: One good memory from Philly is from one of the first times we played there. We were traveling, just the three of us, and we were really stretching the dollar, and we decided to stay with a friend of mine in her studio apartment [laughs]. Honestly, it would probably be like the equivalent of a 12×12 room. And we all just, somehow, really slammed in there like sardines [laughs]. And she had a very cute cat named Nimbus that we loved, and it was really just such a fond memory of being like, “Oh my god! I can’t believe we’re actually really doing this right now.”
Georgia: Yeah! I feel like every memory of Philly I have is when we have a couple extra hours before we have to perform, and being like, “Alright, guys! See you later! I’m gonna go for a walk!” And then just walking around; it’s very walkable with a lot of cute places to stumble into.
Izzy: Yeah! Well, until your show last month, I think everywhere you played was literally in the same building.
Georgia: I know!
Izzy: Which is funny, because some bands don’t realize that! Like, they’ll be playing The Foundry, and they’ll be like, “The last time we played The Fillmore.” And It’s like, “[The Foundry] is actually just upstairs…” and then Brooklyn Bowl is attached.
Quinn D’Andrea: Yeah, you pull into that same little arc, that same corner every time we’re there.
Izzy: On that note, you just spent the second half of June on the Still Out Of My Mind Tour, playing a mix of festivals, opening slots, and headlining shows. How was that trek?
Georgia: It was so fun! We started it off with Bonnaroo, which was a quick dive right into the groove of tour, just immediately thrown into the vibe. We spent a lot of weeks before this tour working on new music in the studio, which is totally different. And to dive in straight with Bonnaroo was a good way for us to just be like, “Alright! Here we are! We’re back on the road! This is that other half!” It was fun to see the growth. I feel like we’re really starting to have fans and energies at our shows that feels like an elevation, even in the vibe. It feels like we’re on to something. It’s exciting, to say the least!
Izzy: Do you approach performances at all differently depending on the setting? Whether it be a barroom or nightclub on a headlining date or a huge theatre or club as a support act, or one of these massive, open-air festivals?
Quinn: Yeah! I feel like every show is different, even if we’re doing a headlining run in similar type rooms. When we arrive, when we’re loading in, before we soundcheck and stuff, I like getting a lay of the land, and I think it’s helpful to inform what the vibe is gonna be. I think the size totally makes a difference.
I think when it’s a smaller show and it’s a headlining show, we’re way more intimate and, often times, more casual, even with the way that we banter onstage. We know that the people are there specifically to see us. And I think it makes it a little bit easier to like shamelessly be ourselves casually, and people are really there for that.
When we’re opening, I think we’re a little less like that, and really there to give them a great set. Definitely, I would say with festivals, we’re really coming out and trying to give a really clean, but still fun and interesting and personal, set. I also think, even if it’s a headlining show, once we get onstage, the audience vibe totally changes how we go about our set for the rest of the night. We feed off of the audience so much and we reflect back what the audience is giving us. So, if it’s a really serious audience, I feel like we’re more serious. And then if they’re crazy, we’re crazy as well [laughs].
Izzy: On a related note, do you happen to have a particular favorite type of setting to play? Or, are there things that you think make a venue or setting especially enjoyable to play, or especially fit your type of performance?
Lauren: That’s a great question! I think I prefer playing inside [laughs]. I think I’ve decided that after this tour [laughs]. I feel like there’s something about a room. I feel like you can capture the energy of a room, versus like an outdoor festival. Even though you can have a beautiful, amazing time at a festival, there’s just so much energy and so much going on that it’s kind of hard to get a feel for what’s going on, as a performer. Honestly, the theatres we were playing with The Teskey Brothers I really enjoyed, because the stages were very spacious, clean, and nice. And the lighting is really good, you can see everybody really well. I feel like those 2,000-cap rooms were really feeling special to me.
Quinn: I feel like a standing room, where people can come right up to the edge and kind of just scream, that feels really fun. But I think there are so many things that go into a great show. The venue can be one piece, but it’s also where you’re at, individually, that night. And if you’re feeling like, “Man, the last thing I feel like I can really accomplish right now is to put on a great show,” sometimes those nights are my favorite, because I end up surprising myself. Like, “I was expecting this to be a mediocre performance on my part, but the crowd and the energy really helped me get to a place of feeling comfortable and excited.” Yeah, there’s so many different elements!
Izzy: This Friday you’re releasing Out Of My Mind Deluxe, a special edition of your debut LP, which came out less than a year ago, so it’s pretty quickly. How did this idea for a deluxe edition come about?
Quinn: We loved the album so much, and we’re so proud of all of the work that we put into it and how it turned out. I think in-between the stuff that we’ve already done and new music, we really felt like it could have another life to live. And one of our favorite things is performing live; it’s how we started. That inspired the idea of adding live recordings to the deluxe album. We felt like it was a nice reimagination of some of our favorite songs off of the album and a way to show people what coming to a live show might be. I think it was this combination of, “We want this album to see a little more of the light right now, in-between our releases, and we really want people at home to experience what being at a live show of ours might be like.”
And then, on top of that, we have two features that we’re so excited about with artists that we just love. We’ve never done anything like that, and this felt like such a fun album that was already collaborative in the way that it was created, so having collaborations on the deluxe felt right. It’s a combination of all these things that we hadn’t really shown yet in our recorded music that we were really, really excited to show our listeners.
Izzy: I was excited about these live recordings, because, growing up, live albums were definitely my favorite way to experience music, because it sounds more… I hate the word “authentic,” but it sounds more true to life and also it’s, by nature, kind of the songs that the band likes the most, or feels best represent them. It’s like, this is what they want to do, outside of the idea of, ya know, the album, and being on a label, and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I was really excited to see a number of live tracks on it.
Quinn: Yeah! That’s how we started, just playing out live, with real instruments, in front of people. And we tour so often and feel like our live show is something that, if anyone likes the music, they should experience. I was super psyched putting the live stuff on there.
Izzy: And you just dropped your new version of “Sometimes” with Ben Abraham. How did you connect with him?
Quinn: Oh my gosh! He’s amazing! I’ve loved Ben Abraham for a long time. We did a show at The Troubadour, a while ago now, and we’d been maybe mutuals on Instagram… I don’t even think we were, or I didn’t know he was following us, but he DMed us and was like, “I’m gonna be at the show at The Troubadour, I’m so excited!” And I was like, “Are you kidding me?” From there, we just started messaging each other, back-and-forth, like, “We should do something.” And then he asked us to perform at his Christmas show, that he normally does in Australia, and he just started doing it in LA, and it’s amazing. That’s how we started working together. We’ve done a few little fun things together since then, and this is the first recorded collab that we’ve done with him. We love him!
Izzy: This is a super similar question, but with an added personal connection. You also did a rerecording of “Movie Star” with BAILEN, who are friends-ish of mine, I’d like to say, or I’ve covered them a bunch of times and I love them…. So yeah, how did that one come about and how was it working with the sibling trio? They’re so great and have a pretty rich history in this city because of WXPN…
Lauren: BAILEN are so amazing. I think I was the first person that met the trio, because I met them randomly at a house show here in LA and we connected. They were just such lovely people. Then we ended up all meeting up at Golden Road Brewing here in LA, and one of the members of JOSEPH came, too! We were all joking that it was The Meeting of the Trios [laughs].
Being a trio, especially a vocal trio in a band, is such a specific and unique experience. It’s fun to talk to other people that go through the same things and hear about their process. We became fast friends and really big fans of theirs and it just worked out. They were on the top of our mind when we were thinking about collabs. We are really intrigued by the idea of having a trio feature on another trio’s song, ‘cause it’s a little bit of an odd thing [laughs]. But I think both of our bands share the feeling that the sound of our three voices together, respectively, creates the one vocal of the band.
And I think, in a lot of ways, it’s just so cool to see and hear what they’ve done with their verse and their additions to “Movie Star.” We didn’t even give them much instruction. We just sent them the music and they sent us back these incredible stems that were just so lovely, so thought out. That’s like my favorite version of the song right now. Even when we play it live, some of their melodic choices, like in the second verse… the line after that that they sing is one of my favorite lines off of the album: “You’re famous to me / I’m trying to see / I’m famous to you.” The way that they sing it, I was just like, “Oh! That’s the way that this line was supposed to be sung!” Because it just makes you feel what that line really means.
Quinn: We should do that at a live show! We should steal their vocal arrangement!
Lauren: I’d be so down…
Izzy: Yeah! That’s like how ever since Hendrix did “All Along the Watchtower,” Dylan has played it as Hendrix did, because he’s like, “I think that one’s like a little bit better.”
Quinn: Yeah!
Lauren: Yeah!
Izzy: That’s so cool that JOSEPH was a part of that, too, because I also love them. The three of you should do a triple-headlining thing! That would be so amazing!
Georgia: That’d be a dream!
Quinn: We’ve been joking about someday doing a festival of trios, but it has to be March 3rd, 2033, unfortunately, so it’s gonna be a while out [laughs]. But it will be The Festival of Threes, so look out for that!
Izzy: Not to detract from your own music, but I’m curious if you have any favorite deluxe editions of albums in your own personal music libraries? You all seem to have pretty vast and diverse taste in music, based on your Spotify playlists.
Georgia: So many! Definitely the first one that comes to mind is Remi Wolf. When she put out the deluxe edition, I was like, “What a treat!” I mean, she put out all new songs, so that was like, “Damn! Somebody’s cookin’ away in that studio!” They just rocked all these new singles! That’s definitely my favorite!
Quinn: She kills a deluxe. Noah Kahan did that deluxe album with all those features. I love that. Musically, it was so cool, but also just watching his career taking off so quickly and all of these huge artists tuning in at the same time, like, “Oh! I want to be a part of that!” That was just a cool thing to watch, too, aside from the music itself.
Lauren: I’ve been listening to Poses by Rufus Wainwright. He has an alt version of “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” on that record that I just think is so good. I feel like maybe it’s my favorite, like the alt version is my preferred version. That one is on the top of my mind right now.
Izzy: You have two pretty big upcoming shows, playing New York City with Rett Madison, who I met earlier this year and I just fucking love, both as a person and a musician, and then you’re playing Guster’s festival, which seems like such a cool experience. And you just announced a handful of dates supporting Glen Hansard. How excited are you for these shows? Were you previously fans of these acts that you’re gonna be playing alongside?
Quinn: Oh my god, we’ve been like massive Glen Hansard fans for years, all of us. We saw him for one second at a festival that we did last year, and we were so scared to go up to him and say, “Hi,” [laughs]. So, the three of us, very meekly, went up and were like, “Hello, we’re such big fans of yours.”
Georgia: But we handed him a note!
Quinn: He was like, “Write down your information and I’ll give you a listen!” And then he said, “[in his Irish accent] Tanks a million.” It was the most amazing thing ever [laughs]. I feel like that’s such a dream-come-true of someone who’s always been on our top priority list of people that we’d love to open for. So, that one’s super exciting. And we’ve been hearing so many good things about the Guster festival. And Rett, we’re just obsessed with and in love with!
Izzy: Yeah, she’s so amazing… and was here at like a really good moment, like I was teasing her when she played MilkBoy here, I’m like, “I definitely cried it out hard a few times.” She’s so amazing.
Quinn: When she just opened for us – she opened Chicago – and I was like sobbing upstairs watching her, and I could see other people just wiping their eyes next to me! She just really is so captivating and incredible.
Izzy: And what would you tell people to expect of the Trousdale live show for those who are yet to see you, or even those at some of these dates who may not yet be familiar with you? How would you characterize your approach to performing live?
Georgia: I think we put on a dynamic show. We all really, really value the songs in our set that are more emotional and intimate and vulnerable, and then we also like to have party songs. So, we’re gonna take people on a journey. We hit ‘em with some fun! We hit ‘em with some somber feelings and support. I think there’re a lot of moments in our set where we try to offer people space to feel whatever it is that they’re feeling and to empower women and anyone that’s a minority that feels like they’re not seeing a lot of themselves, and they don’t feel empowered to do what it is that they’re passionate about. Quinn makes a whole speech at the end of our set that we hope leaves people feeling empowered to take strides in whatever it is that they want to do.
Izzy: Finally, what’s next for you? What are you hoping and planning for more-or-less the second half of the year, in addition to these dates? You mentioned there’s new music in the works at some stage…
Lauren: Like we said, we have a couple of those festivals, we’re playing in New York City in a couple of weeks at Hudson Yards, and then we have the Guster and Glen dates, so we’ll be busy doing those. And then, in-between, working on some new music and may or may not…
Quinn: Your sister’s getting married!
Lauren: My sister’s getting married, yes! So, I’m gonna be going back to Michigan a lot for stuff for my sister’s wedding…
Quinn: Alright, Lauren [laughs], what did you have to say? May or may not what?
Lauren: Oh! I was gonna say that we may or may not have some new music out by the end of the year… Ya know… We’ll see… But I think that’s the priority right now.
