Courtesy of Kathryn Fulp
Raleigh’s Truth Club invites listeners to join its club of introspective and truthful punky alt-rock tunes.
The four-person band consists of vocalist/guitarist Travis Harrington, drummer Elise Jaffe, guitarist/bassist Kameron Vann and vocalist/guitarist Yvonne Chazal, with Harrington and Jaffe starting the band at NC State.
“We had our first show as a three piece, it was me, Travis and then someone else who played bass for a minute in early 2017,” Jaffe said. “That’s really, kind of the inception of everything. Then Kam came that summer and Yvonne started playing with us that following fall.”
The naming of Truth Club has no deep, conceptual origin, Jaffe said.
“It’s kind of fun to be like, okay, well, Travis is definitely speaking his truth,” Jaffe said. “When our friends are coming to shows and stuff it’s fun to be like ‘Okay, you’re in the club.”
Subjective as to what genre they’d like to fit under, the general consensus from the members seems to be alternative rock.
“Whenever people ask me, I literally just say alternative rock, like with some punk mix,” Vann said. “We got distorted guitars, we got some squealing guitars, got Travis singing, screaming sometimes. It’s rock that’s a little bit … alternative.”
Truth Club doesn’t take influence from certain artists in particular — it tends to pull inspiration from its all-encompassing music taste.
“Travis listens to a pretty wide range of different rock music … I’ve been listening to a little bit heavier stuff and also ambient stuff. So it’s, I feel like it’s really kind of a dig in the hat and pull out a little influence moment to moment across things,” Jaffe said.
The band decided to hone into its free-flowing, experimental pandemic jam sessions when crafting its newest album “Running From the Chase,” differing from its typical systematic music production practice.
“Something that helped us get through the tumultuousness of 2020 would be to sometimes get together at the end of the evening and just like, jam,” Chazal said. “That was something that as a band we do sometimes, but we very often have much more focus when we’re writing music together.”
Time spent apart allowed each band member to focus on their independent music study, building upon their already well-versed musical aptitudes.
“We sort of took some time to dig into the craft of our instruments,” Chazal said. “That was super, super beneficial. When we came back together, we just had a little bit more in our toolkits.”
Currently touring, the band was appreciative of fans who were enthusiastic to see it perform.
“It was cool to have people who specifically were like, I wanted to see you and I came to see you … it was sick,” Jaffe said. “It was just really kind of incredible to hear that and really nice to get to interact with those people.”
Humble about its accomplishments, the band expressed its gratitude to have performed at the City Plaza stage at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival.
“Just coming [to Hopscotch] and seeing a bunch of inspiring artists on the stage over the years and never really thinking that, like not necessarily self-deprecating, but just like not thinking like ‘We can play here,’” Harrington said. “It was really gratifying to be offered that and have that experience. It was really cool.”
Truth Club’s advice to budding performers? Stay authentic, and just have fun.
“I think connecting with people in a true, genuine way is just so important,” Chazal said. “We always joke about joining the club, but music is so community based. Without creating connections, it’s so much less personable.”
The band will perform its newest album “Running From the Chase” for a record release show at Kings on Friday, Nov. 3.
“We’re really excited,” Chazal said. “We’re going to try to play the album, I think front to back, which, and to be frank, might be the only time that this happens.”