Trinket

“We like to refer to ourselves as classic rock for the 21st century,” states Brian Youmans, Trinket’s flamboyant lead singer.

While Trinket formed in Athens, Georgia, three of their members are from New Jersey (Tommy Salmon, J. Christopher Arrison and Jeffrey Fisher). Their development in the city known as a hot bed for college bands was no accident. Tommy and Chris went to Athens with their former band because of its rich musical reputation. Later, Tommy’s longtime friend Jeffrey was added to complete Trinket’s lineup.

“I’ve never down played my rock star ambitions,” smirks bassist Tommy. “Before Brian and I met, people kept telling me I had to meet this guy.”

“I heard about this Yankee in town and how we were the perfect musical match,” says Brian. “When he joined the band our mutual friends said it’s about time y’all got together.”

Hometown hero Michael Stipe offered some crafty production work on Trinket’s independent debut, “Your Head Is A Shimmer” (Rimshot), which brought the band instant local notoriety. They immediately went on the road. Ever since, the band has become a rock’n’roll staple on the Southeast circuit.

“On tour we started to figure out what worked. After a couple of personnel changes, we became more focused — and in the process a little more ‘rock’n’roll,’” reflects Tommy.

But Trinket’s punk energy and dynamic stage presence is much more than North meets South. It’s a combination of distinct personalities and unique influences where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This interplay is most evident in their live performances. Guitarists Chris and Jeffrey go in seemingly different directions only to turn the corner and meet up again. While Tommy and drummer Derry De Lamar keep the foundation, Brian’s in-your-face stage persona is mesmerizing.

On their self-titled RCA debut, Trinket successfully captures the energy of their live performance on eleven direct messages. Everywhere are unabashedly big guitars, steady rhythms and interesting lyrics delivered with startling clarity. The opening track, “Unbehaved,” crams urgency, patience and unforgettable hooks into one place, while “Pure” is pretty and poignant before it expands to a fully charged level. “Haunt Pallenberg” has nimble gritty chords coming out of the dark, and “Deceiver” churns toward a steady build.

Our songs are very personal, but it seems a lot of people can relate to our perspective,” says Tommy, who shares the lyric writing duties with Brian. “I consider song writing as my diary,” adds Brian. “Everything I see around me is a little piece of a song.”

Trinket confront life in a modern age with classic song writing. Their topics run the gamut — in a love song they refer to the Brian Jones/Anita Pallenberg saga (“Haunt Pallenberg”), ambition (“to Be A Star”), and life in the age of consumerism (“Throwaway Culture”). On “Pure,” a song about feeling overwhelmed, Brian sings, “What do you say we sleep ’til Thursday And push away the rest of the world.”

This year the band traveled all over the country on the entire ESPN X-Games Xperience Tour. Between shows they filled their schedule with dates at local clubs along the way. “The whole X-Games tour was best compared to a circus. There were so many things going on at the same time,” says Chris. “It was very emotional for us. It gave us the opportunity to play in front of 20,000 people and we played our hearts out.” After the X-Games ended Trinket continued to convert curious onlookers into fans on the road, including a noteworthy gig at this year’s A Day in the Garden show at the original site of Woodstock. As you read this the band is probably getting ready to play somewhere later tonight.

Trinket will continue to articulate their passion through rock’n’roll creating their own niche in this world song by song, one show at a time.