Arizona Band Troubled Minds Releases "Vacancy"

AUTHOR: Elias Ramirez-Croman

The Phoenix, AZ pop-punk band, Troubled Minds, brings a blend of nostalgic styles to the forefront in their new single "Vacancy", which is due out on February 14th. However "Vacancy" isn't a love song-- far from it. Its lyrics focus on the struggle to get past the messy aftermath of a breakup, and instead focus on yourself. It's delivered with a level of sincere vulnerability aided by glassy guitars, punky drums, and a groovy bassline reminiscent of classic midwest emo bands, like American Football, and pop-punk underdogs Man Overboard. Recently I got the chance to ask the band about their new release, and here's what they said.

First off, this song has this level of raw, chaotic creativity that's both cohesive, yet surprising. I was wondering who's responsible for that songwriting style, or if it's a collaborative effort.

So I, Matt, generally bring the song to the table and everyone writes their own parts on top of what I have to bring. I'm usually the one that writes the chords, lyrics, melodies and some lead guitar parts, but the band writes their own parts to really make it a Troubled Minds song. This song feels very fresh for you all, and is a clear step forward from your last EP "A Call to Anywhere at All"-- what do you do to keep progressing your sound forward?

I try to keep finding new music and draw inspiration from anything that speaks to me. I also record our own music so Troubled Minds has been a constant test of "how good of a song can I write." meeting "how good of a recording can I make." Honing in on both skills is a little stressful, but it feels good to hear a positive progression happening. I'm sure your fans are very excited to hear new music from you, so this begs the question: Is this song going to be part of a larger project, or is it a standalone release?

For right now, consider it a standalone release. Our goal for the near future is to keep releasing singles regularly. I like the idea of grouping those singles into an album in the later future, but we haven't made any commitments to that yet. Are there any other artists, either in the mainstream or in your local scene, that have inspired you or pushed you to be better musicians? Who are they?

A lot of bands we open for really inspire us. We opened for Heart Attack Man last year and not only are they a great band, they're really cool guys off stage too and that really inspires me. Our last show was with Dogleg and it's been really inspiring to see them grow so much in such a short amount of time. Watching humble bands grow really inspires me to keep going. I hear elements of Indie, Emo, Punk, and even Hardcore in your music-- how do you self describe your sound?

I think that's a great list of genres to describe what we listen to as a group. I've been using pop punk/emo as a quick genre description of us. I think that gives new listeners a general idea of what to expect when they hear us. When did you write "Vacancy" and how long did it take from its conception to release?

I wrote the music and vocal melody for "Vacancy" first and I remember listening back to those demos as early as October of last year. The actual lyrics came a little later. So I guess it's safe to say it's taken about 5 months from writing to recording to releasing the song. What inspired "Vacancy"? Was it about one singular event, or was it more of about multiple life experiences?

I wrote "Vacancy" about closing one chapter of my life and starting a new one. I hit a point where I wasn't satisfied with Troubled Minds being a local band, but a few members of the band just didn't want to put forth the effort to making things happen. Which is fine, they're just a bit more grounded than I am and we all respect that. I was just hanging around a lot of people who weren't on the same page as me so I needed to break away from that and surround myself with like-minded people. I saw you did a west coast tour last summer, when are you hoping to be back on the road?

Working on booking tour dates for later this year, stay tuned :-) How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?

It's hard to just choose one genre or give a simple explanation about our sound. Emo/pop punk works just fine, or alternative/punk. If I just used one of those genres, I don't think it would accurately describe our sound. Is there any last thing you want to say to our readers?

Keep in touch with us by following our socials! The first week "Vacancy" drops (2/14) we'll be doing a big merch giveaway on our socials, you'll definitely want to be apart of that. We're planning on releasing music regularly this year so keep an eye out for more music as well!

IG: @troubledmindsaz

Twitter: @troubledmindsaz