Weird Pop: Trust Fund's Basement Experiments And 'We Have Always Lived In The Harolds'

Ninety seconds after it starts, the Beach Boys’ Wake The World simply stops. There's no crescendo and it could only loosely be described as fading out. One moment it's there, the next it’s not. It's an anomaly among anomalies on the band’s 1968 album, ‘Friends’, and a reminder that pop music often has no designs on doing what we expect it to.

Ellis Jones was taken by this strange collection of songs while putting together the surprise new Trust Fund record, ‘We Have Always Lived In The Harolds’. “The first three or four songs are about a minute long,” he says. “They’re all really beautiful and they all come in for a verse and a chorus and then just fade out. It’s like, what have you done with the rest of that song? What are you doing to us by doing that?”

Together, the first song Jones released from ‘...Harolds’, also evaporates just as it’s about to get going. It's gone before the two minute mark, condensing the usual rich melodies and tumbling words into a smaller space than he’s used to working in.

"Some musical ideas are really catchy but not worth repeating."

Having released an immaculate, full-band power-pop album, ‘Seems Unfair’, only last autumn, this time around Jones has gone it pretty much alone. Recorded solo in the basement of his house in Leeds, bar backing vocals and clarinet from friends and cello from his girlfriend, Grace, ‘...Harolds’ is a record where his fondness for compositional quirks takes hold.

“I tried to do some weirder production and arrangement choices,” he says. “I don’t think there’s two songs on that album that are quite the same. I was trying to do a similar thing of not overstaying your welcome or repeating parts too much. All the songs are about two minutes long or less and try to introduce and idea and as soon as that’s been seen through, then not hanging around. That’s the thing that excites me.

“Some people seem to write songs where they feel comfortable putting a chorus in three or four times and have an understanding that the audience will enjoy that every time. That works. There’s loads of songs that stick around and it’s great. But there’s a fear that people will get bored. Some musical ideas are really catchy but not worth repeating.

“Big Asda, on the last record, I’m proud of it because there’s four verses and one chorus. I like to think that, listening to it, that’s not what people feel the song is. They feel it’s got a big chorus and from playing it live it seems that people do remember the chorus. I like the idea that you can write a song where the chorus is in it once but people feel like it’s in it loads. I wouldn’t say that’s something I’m always successful at, but it’s something I’m getting more conscious of.”

Another thing worth noting is that, at the time of writing, ‘...Harolds’ isn’t strictly finished. Having recorded ‘Seems Unfair’ with MJ of Hookworms at his Suburban Home studio, the process here has been a little more freeform. If Jones felt the inclination to spend a day trying something out, he did.

Sometimes those ideas ended up “sounding stupid”, but they were enjoyable detours. Having put out the last two Trust Fund records through Turnstile, the Cardiff indie label, this one is entirely DIY from recording to release. As a result, Jones felt less pressure to adhere to any specific sound or production method. According to the Trust Fund Bandcamp page, we can expect ‘...Harolds’ on June 20.

"If it’s a day early, I’ll put it up a day early or whatever."

“I’ve still not finished it yet,” Jones says. “I’ve done all the recording, I just need to do a bit of mixing and, I’d say mastering, but that’s a strong word to describe what I do, which is just try and make it a bit louder. Mastering is a bit of a mysterious art.

“I believe in it and I believe that some people are good at it, but I don’t for one second think I know what I’m doing when I just put compression on everything. I hope no-one is annoyed by how that sounds. If it’s a day early, I’ll put it up a day early or whatever. It prevents me from mucking around with it forever if I know that there’s a date when I said I’d finish it.”

The title is a play on Shirley Jackson’s 1962 novel We Have Always Lived In The Castle and refers to a group of streets in Leeds, collectively known as the Harolds, where Jones lived last year. They are close to the Brudenell Social Club, a hub for the city’s vibrant music scene, and a quick Google search will churn out the fact that a post-Black Flag Henry Rollins briefly lived on one of them, Harold Mount. But Jones’ attachment stems from seeing the Harolds as a transitory place, knitted from collected stories as much as bricks and mortar.

“It’s a street where it feels like everyone in Leeds has lived at some point, but also everyone seems to live there for not that long,” he says. “There’s a history of people. I like the thought of other people having lived in the house before. It’s weird to have an album about living in a house. It’s not that interesting...but it’s relatable.”

This isn’t the first time Jones’ lyrics have navigated particular places. ‘Seems Unfair’ was home to musings on public and private spaces, sometimes through the medium of supermarkets, amid droll asides, hyper-specific everyday observations and looming anxiety: “You leave from your house, I’ll leave from mine. I’ll meet you in Big Asda in one hour’s time, safe and dry, not wanting to die.” Jones says ‘...Harolds’ is broadly domestic in its focus, but having divulged that he quickly moves on to discuss the arrangements that have occupied his time and provided much of the creative excitement. “Lyrically, it’s got good bits and bad bits,” he laughs. “It’s along the same lines: feelings.”

Jones has a scholarly approach to songwriting and isn’t afraid to discuss the artists who’ve shaped his own work, from the Beach Boys to the Muffs, to Radiator Hospital and the Detroit Spinners, whose ‘Happiness Is Being With...’ album sleeve inspired a recent merch design.

"​I don’t necessarily trust the response to an album as being the determining factor in whether it’s good or not."

Discussing pop songs with him is a great way to spend half an hour, and his almost forensic attitude extends to Trust Fund’s back catalogue. Jones would like each of the records to stand alone once they are filed for posterity. ‘Seems Unfair’ might do that thanks to its studio setting, while he hopes ‘...Harolds’ will due to its adventurous streak. His feelings towards them are, for better or worse, malleable over time.

“I’m still not sure if it’s any good,” he says. “I guess we’ll never find out. I don’t necessarily trust the response to an album as being the determining factor in whether it’s any good or not. I’m a bit unsure about these songs because they’re a bit quiet. The last album was pretty rocky, actually, and I hadn’t really realised that until I started recording these ones. There’s not much to them in terms of instrumentation.

“The slightly frustrating thing is that the response to it starts to shape the way you feel about it. The first album from last year ['No One's Coming For Us'] got quite good reviews and I started thinking ‘this is the best thing we’ve done'. Actually, when I finish anything I’m equally proud and it’s only afterwards, when it’s released, that it shapes your perception of it. I’d rather that didn’t happen. I’d rather it was being proud of having done this thing. The fact that it didn’t get heard by as many people, or didn’t connect with as many people in the same way, is not the main factor in me having a relationship with the record.”

'We Have Always Lived In The Harolds' is out on June 20. Trust Fund will open for Mitski this summer.

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