It's not often that four guys can grow up together in the same town and still go on to tour together for months on end. The Lost Trailers have managed to do just that. Vocalist and lead guitar Stokes Nielson claims that they have known each other since high school. While one might imagine this might lead to weird occurrences because the band members know each other a little too well, Nielson claims that exactly the opposite is true.
"I can come in with a raw nugget of a song, and [band members] Ryder and Jeff and Cam can help make it into a song" he said. "And if a song sucks, we say 'This song sucks'." The comfort to be completely honest is a big plus when they have to spend a good portion of their waking hours with each other.
The Trailers - composed of Cam McElroy on bass, Jeff Potter on drums, Ryder Lee on the piano and vocals, and Nielson - range in age from 23 to 26, and have all been playing since their teens. The Lost Trailers have been making music since July of 2000, though not always with the same membership. The current Trailers have been together since last spring and began touring in June. They released an album, Passport, in January and are currently touring to promote it.
The sound that The Lost Trailers produce defies easy categorization, as their style crosses into genres not normally treasured by college audiences. Their band tends to attracts fans of Dispatch and Virginia Coalition, both known for their college rock beats. But The Trailers add a bluegrass sound that differentiates it from the myriad of college rock wannabes flooding the marketplace.
Nielson's smooth southern drawl rings out clearly on "Horse," a story of lost love. He hides his true pain behind a veil of sarcastic humor with lyrics like: "You say he's short and handsome, with an alternative flair / He's got a tattoo of Limp Bizkit and Clorox in his hair." In the background, the banjo and the steel guitar strum along to complement this "sad country song."
The Lost Trailers repeatedly expressed excitement regarding their return to Boston. Oddly enough, their reason for wanting to come back is tied to one of the worst experiences of their careers. When playing one of their first shows in Boston, they returned to their trailer after the show to find that it no longer occupied the spot at which they had left it. Someone had made off with $40,000 worth of their equipment, effectively rendering it impossible to continue touring. But somehow they pulled through it, borrowing the instruments they needed, and playing what Nielson called "one of [their] most energetic sets" the very next night.
The band's song "Birds in Boston" details the circumstances surrounding this traumatic experience, and Nielson says that this piece strikes a particularly personal chord. He cited the lyric: "When you've lost everything / It's hard not to feel free" as the moral of the story. "A lot of our society is based on materialistic things," Nielson said. "[The theft] was terrible, but there is a sense of freedom, because even though all your stuff is gone, you still have your love of music."
The band managed to keep touring and raise enough money to buy back the things that they lost, but the experience has stayed with them. It drew the group closer together; almost as a test of their cohesiveness. Everyone agrees that the theft made them a stronger group, more capable of dealing with the hardships that life on the road provides.
"I'd have it no other way," Lee added. "It's pretty difficult not to be happy." All the band members repeatedly named their love of performing as the motivation for their existence as a group. "We love to play," Nielson raved, "It doesn't matter whether it's for six people or six hundred." The set they played at The House of Blues in Cambridge was absolute dynamite. They were energetic and intense, and had the packed house begging for more. Bands just can't fake intensity like that; it has to be the real thing, and The Lost Trailers certainly aren't poseurs.
"We're in it for the long haul," McCaul said.
The Lost Trailers will be performing at Oxfam Caf?© on Saturday, March 30 at 9 p.m.
