Today we speak to Scottish band Tradmrkd about their pop punk music style inspired by their love of Green Day and their ambitions to tour the world and sell thousands of records.
Band Name: Tradmrkd
Members: Eddie Flinn (Vocals & guitar), Corey Finnie (lead guitar), Finlay Cardno (Bass) and James Riddoch (Drums)
Genre: Pop Punk
Founded: 2014
Originated From: Aberdeen, Scotland
Discography: Going Nowhere, Granite, Leanna, Cover Up & Brown Ale
How would you describe your music?
Whenever I get asked this question, I always tell them that, the best way to describe our music is the east bay punk scene. Especially, 90s Green Day.
What is your musical creative process like?
The majority of the songs I made came about with me messing about with chords in my bedroom, trying to find a good rift. I always find the rift first and let the melody find its way to me. Sometimes once I find the melody and then the rift changes a little to accommodate.
How did the band form?
Eddie and Finlay were the original members of the band with their mate. It was originally just an excuse for mates to play music and have fun. Until 2018, when both Eddie and Finlay wanted to take the band further and extended their line up to include Corey and James.
Corey was a year older than Eddie and Finlay at school and James went to college with Finlay.
How did you come up with your band name?
Our original name was Trademark, but we found out that there were a few artists called Trademark. So, we just added an ED at the end, so it was different.
We felt the name was too long, so we took away the unnecessary vowels. There is no significant story about the name, it just looked cool.
Who influenced you within the music industry?
It is clear to hear in our music that my biggest influence was Billie Joe and Green Day. Although, American Idiot was the first album I got of Green Day, Dookie was the album that made me fall in love with Green Day.
From the first day of listening to Green Day, they have been a massive influence on my song writing.
Have you performed live much and what was your favourite gig to play at?
We haven’t had as many gigs as we would like, that is due to covid unfortunately.
The favourite gig is always going to be our first ever gig. Finally getting our break and being able to play is still the best thing to happen to the band. It felt like a weight coming off our shoulders getting that gig, all be it if it was played in front of 10 people.
What is the best thing about being in a band?
Being able to play our songs in front of people and having them enjoy it, is a great feeling and one of the best parts about being in a band.
Also, the buzz you get while playing is an amazing feeling. One that cannot be replicated.
What’s the biggest problem you’ve had to overcome so far as a musician(s)?
For me, the biggest problem was, trying to get gigs. Everywhere I’d ask would either ignore us or be no help at all.
It took forever to get gigs to begin with but once I began asking the right people and having people notice that we are actually alright, we have a lot more gigs lined up and projects with other bands.
Covid has not helped the situation at all; putting a halt to a lot of our gigs.
What plans have you got coming up this year?
Our biggest goal is to release an EP by the end of the year. We have enough material to release an album. However, we do not have high enough production value to give the songs some justice.
What is your ultimate dream as a band/musician?
To play major festivals. To tour around the world. To sell 500,000 copies of one of our albums. One of my biggest dreams is, someone coming up to me and telling me that our songs helped them through rough times. That is one of the biggest dreams.
You can find out more about Tradmrkd by following them on Facebook and Instagram and check out their music on SoundCloud and YouTube.
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