Interview: Benny Trokan
Benny Trokan was a busy guy even before stepping up from sideman to frontman last year to release his first full-length solo record. The New York City-based musician wears a handful of hats in the studio and on stage, toggling between bass duties with indie rock heavyweights Spoon and soul music living legend Lee Fields. But for at least the next few weeks, leading his own group will get his full attention.
Trokan, whose résumé also includes rhythm section stints with Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, and Reigning Sound, swapped his four-string bass for a jangly, 12-string electric to pen the songs that ultimately became Do You Still Think Of Me. Daptone Records co-founder and Dap-Kings bandleader Gabe Roth (a.k.a. Bosco Mann) stewarded the sessions at his Riverside, Calif. studio, Penrose Recorders, capturing Trokan’s raw, growly vocals live to two-inch tape. The approach imbues the ’60s-influenced album — which fuses British Invasion, garage soul, teen-beat bop, psych rock, and even spaghetti western — with a crackly, analog veneer.
Asheville Stages caught up with Trokan during a rare week off before he hit the road with The Budos Band for a short East Coast run that includes the first-ever ticketed show at the new Grey Eagle-operated Hatch Amphitheater on Saturday, June 19.
Jay Moye: Did Do You Still Think of Me come together over time, with a 45 and EP released ahead of the full-length on [Daptone imprint] Wick Records?
Benny Trokan: Yeah. We made a single [in 2018], then went and recorded maybe 11 more songs with Gabe [Roth]. But then the [COVID-19] pandemic happened, so I was working on it on my own and piecing it together with friends. It didn't really get mixed until 2023.
JM: And you initially wrote some of these songs with other singers in mind?
BT: I wrote one for Lee Fields, then totally changed it around and kept it for myself. When you think it would be cool for someone else to sing your song, it makes it easier to write, in a way.
JM: What was your vision for the record, and how did Roth and others help shape the sound you were after?
BT: When we went into his studio, we were interested in the [British soul singer/guitarist] James Hunter records he’d done there. So I was like, “Let’s start with those kinds of drum sounds and go from there.” By the second or third day, he was doing his thing and it was sounding great. We both like the process of trying to cut takes live and editing them. He's a pretty masterful tape editor.
I was singing live, and we’d do tape edits based on the vocals, kind of Frankenstein-ing together vocal takes from different verses — things like that. And that’s good because when you're recording and wait so long to put the vocals down, sometimes you wind up doing all these overdubs that aren't necessary.
We were just trying to cut as much as we could live with a three-piece band. It was so much fun. We stayed at [Roth’s] house. And we also worked with Wayne Gordon, long-time Daptone engineer. It was like making a record with my friends and musicians I’ve admired for a while.
JM: Jim Eno [Spoon drummer/producer] was part of the process as well?
BT: He mixed two of the songs. He’d just moved his studio up to Providence [R.I.] and was trying to get the lay of the land in his control room, so he offered.
JM: You were with Spoon at that point?
BT: Yeah, that was at the end of 2023 or the beginning of last year. I started playing with Spoon in 2019.
JM: It seems like you’ve gradually stair-stepped into more of a soul realm with many of the bands you’ve been a part of over the years. And, speaking of Asheville, you were part of Reigning Sound for nearly a decade?
BT: Yeah, a band I was in called The Jay Vons, which I consider to be more of a rock band, but kind of soul-inflected. Greg [Cartwright] took us on as his backing band. But yeah, I guess a lot of those influences are in Reigning Sound and Charles [Bradley’s] and Lee’s music.
JM: How has playing with Daptone artists informed not only your songwriting and playing, but also your presence as a performer?
BT: I was already a fan of those bands before I joined them. And we all listen to the same kind of music: soul and R&B 45s. I never thought I could play that stuff until I started to. I learned guitar listening to much more rock and punk, so I had to learn a bunch of new tricks. But it came pretty easily because I was thrown into it and was like, “Alright, I'm doing this.”
Just the energy on stage with Sharon [Jones] and Charles and Lee is something I hadn't really experienced. I've been lucky to play with really amazing singers, including Greg. He gets in this almost possessed place where l’m like, “I don't know where he's at right now, but this is awesome.”
JM: Totally, his voice is visceral. Speaking of songwriting and singing, although Do You Still Think of Me is your first record under your name, you got your start fronting Robbers on High Street in the early-aughts. How would you compare and contrast the energies and investment required for your different projects?
BT: I love being at the back or on the side playing bass, being able to focus on the singer and what I'm doing in the band. I’m playing great songs night after night, but I didn't always have such a creative role in writing them. So, I need an outlet for myself because I'm always working on something. It’s definitely a little tricky to switch back and forth.
JM: I imagine it takes a bit of recentering as you shift gears between such a diverse mix of bands.
BT: Yeah, it does. I’m glad I have this week at home to just kind of chill and get into my own space. I just did a week of recording with Spoon, then some shows with Lee. And now I’m about to go out with my band. So, I have to get back in the zone and, honestly, remember stuff. [laughs] Then right after this run with Budos, I'm meeting back up with Lee [for a string of shows opening for the newly reunited Alabama Shakes].
JM: And then out with Spoon for the Pixies tour [which hits Asheville Yards on Wednesday, Sept. 10].
BT: Yeah, that'll be really cool. Even the Spoon basslines and guitar playing are totally different. But it's all music I love.
JM: So, Spoon’s making a new album?
BT: We’ve been pecking away at it. We just finished two more songs and have almost half a record done. We've been doing quite well recording up at Jim’s new Public Hi-Fi Studio in Providence. His studio in Austin had been Spoon’s home base for decades, so it took a little bit of time to figure out the shift. But it's been going great.
JM: Does Spoon approach shorter opening sets like the ones you’ll play this fall differently than a headlining show?
BT: Definitely. Normally, when we play our own hour-and-a-half headlining show, we stretch out and play some deeper cuts. But when you’re the opener and have maybe 50 minutes or an hour at the most, it’s just hit city. Instead of having four wild cards, we’ll maybe have one. We always change up the set, but we play a lot of the same tunes people want to hear every night.
JM: What are the unique challenges of doing a tour with your band compared to the others you're a part of?
BT: It takes a second to realize I’m the guy who has to tell my band to be at soundcheck at 4 p.m., as opposed to just having to show up in the hotel lobby at 10 a.m. Something that's important to me is to make sure we're opening for the right band. I think the record is very accessible, but I want to make sure we’re spending our time and money in the right places and getting in front of the right audiences.
But yeah, it's completely different from being on a tour bus with Spoon, or riding in a pretty van and taking lots of flights with Lee. It’s definitely a little more grungy. But it’s gonna be a lot of fun. I’ve played with my band for years, and we’re all friends with Budos. It’ll be like a weird little rock-and-roll vacation.
IF YOU GO
Who: The Budos Band with Benny Trokan
When: Saturday, July 19, 7 p.m.
Where: Hatch Amphitheater, 45 S. French Broad Ave., thegreyeagle.com
Tickets: $41.05
(Photo by Andreina Restrepo)
