When you think of Victoria’s Trophy Dad, you think of party anthems, late night house parties, Smirnoff Ice, and an all-around good time. With the band’s long overdue debut EP release, Rock ‘N’ Roll Love Songs, we decided to go back to basics.
Trophy Dad frontman and Duke of Langford, Nevil Meyer, met up with Tyson Elder to chat about the “new” album, while frolicking though sunflower fields, drinking pumpkin spice lattes, and buying artisan strawberry jam.
Tyson Elder: So, Nevil… you finally put out your long awaited Trophy Dad EP, Rock ‘n’ Roll Love Songs.
Nevil Meyer: I like to think that a pandemic is the ideal time to put out our music. It’s been a trip, you know.
Nevil: The album is called Rock ‘N’ Roll Loves Songs because in their own special way, they’re all love songs. It’s kind of funny; we’re the middle of a pandemic and I’m releasing it this way. Nothing I’ve ever done has gone according to plan.
I wrote most of the songs in 2016 and one in 2011. It’s just kind of funny to look back at those songs and relive them. It was a completely different time and I probably should’ve put them out then. [laughs] I recorded them back in 2017 and sat on them for almost three years. I had a big plan for releasing them, and the pandemic had a different one.
TE: I think everybody had a different plan and the pandemic changed that. Can you tell me about the four songs that made the EP?
Nevil: Well, actually there’s actually five. The fifth song, All Work No Play, you can only get on Bancamp because of some technical and user issues with Spotify. That means there’s already a deep cut already in our catalog.
Rock ‘N’ Roll Love Songs has our Zone Band of the Month single, Pretty Girls (Cause Car Accidents), which always a crowd favourite. I wrote that song in five minutes and I hated it. And wouldn’t you know it, that was the first song I got on the radio, and it’s finally on Spotify. I will say that I do love the song now, and I’m very happy people can finally listen to it at on demand as opposed to just tuning into The Zone.
Fall Down I Love You is a tune I used to play house parties. I guess it’s kind of what got me started in music. There’s always that guy in the corner with the guitar singing Wonderwall or Blink-182 or whatever, and I was never that guy, but people be like “Give the guitar to Nevil – y’know the guy who can barely play and definitely can’t sing. He’s gonna sing that song.” [laughs] I would always end up singing it and people would always sing along with me. To finally hear that song recorded it makes me very happy. When it came out on Spotify it made me feel feelings. It’s pretty sweet.
Reindeer is a tribute to our original guitar player Sean Reinders who had passed away. I could talk about forever about Sean and how the tune is a loving tribute to him.
Fuddle Duddle – [Nevil takes a cautious pause and looks around like he is tempting fate] is probably one of the better songs I’ve ever written and I truly love it. It’s just kind of funny because I had this big plan to make this epic fifteen minute long music video for it… and maybe I’ll still do that. I haven’t really pushed it as a single yet, but it’s definitely the front-runner. I’ve been getting a lot of feedback about Fuddle Duddle and people are saying it’s their favourite song on the album. To hear people are loving it is really cool.
TE: That’s awesome. Fuddle Duddle is great. With this Trophy Dad music finally out is there other music coming down the pike?
Nevil: I have a lot. The plan was like to make videos that weren’t music videos and I could associate them with my songs. Just approach music in a different way and reach out on different platforms. I want to see if that would work to expand our releases and if it doesn’t work, then maybe I’ll just release everything next year. Obviously I like being creative and express my creativity in different ways but part of me hopes it doesn’t work so I can just say fuck it; here you go.
There are a couple music videos in the works for Trophy Dad’s next release I have for the song called Matthew McConaughey and Goodbye. There’s these two video ideas for it and no matter what, I’m going to make them. I’m not going to elaborate, but those two songs are going to come out next year, no matter what.
TE: I hope one video has Matthew McConaughey in it.
Nevil: If I can get him to be in my music video, I’ll cry. He is my favourite person alive. I have a terribly weird obsession Matthew McConaughey.
Nevil: To promote the record I made this video with my friend, Ian Locke, and it’s based on a true story… sort of. I’ve known Ian for a couple years now and he has always been a big supporter of mine. We support each other. Unlike me, Ian has released a lot of music and is always telling me the release my music. I’d blow him off and refuse to release it because I had this “idea.”
During the lockdown we would FaceTime all the time to talk. We were both going through a little bit of a hard time right before the lockdown and we would always call each other to joke about releasing the music. We’d joke about how I’d finally release my music during the pandemic so we based the video on those conversations. I was call him in a moment of sadness and he’s like, “I know how to cheer you up…” It’s something he actually did for years. So we turned it into a joke. [Laughs]
There are a lot of heartfelt lyrics in my songs and, people kind of click with my self-deprecating humour in the music and the videos.
TE: Any sage wisdom to pass on to fellow musicians in the midst of the pandemic?
Nevil: If I could give anyone advice at the moment it is to just release your fucking record. Don’t sit on it. Get it out into the world. I regret waiting so long to get it out there. I’m so happy my music is finally being listened to and hearing from fans.
Trophy Dad’s debut record, Rock ‘N’ Roll Love Songs is now available to stream on Spotify as well as purchase on Bandcamp with the bonus song All Work No Play.