Troi Irons – Strangers

By starrymag | April 12, 2019

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) How would you describe your sound?

 

A) I think my sound is hard but pretty. I guess like a thorned rose (even though I don’t like flowers); it’s consistent with my personality.

 

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

 

A) When I was learning to write my own songs with structure and lyrics, I was listening to a lot of 80’s music – Poison, Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne. To me, that era is some of the best pop-writing that music has ever seen. But on the side, of course, I had KROQ and they would play Hoobastank and System. Then, I also had a love for classical music, especially Rachmaninoff and Americana. So, really you have the whole pot there – the gritty, the authentic and the beautiful.

 

Q) Talk about the story behind your new song “Strangers.”

 

A) “Strangers” is a twofold story. On the one half, I’ve always lived in this existential space in my head. For a long time it concerned me that certain things didn’t seem to hold as much meaning for me as they did for others. But as I got older, I got into philosophy and I happened upon Albert Camus’ “The Stranger” and then, of course, Dostoevsky and the others. While I do believe in an immortal spirit, I also subscribe to freedom of choice and truth. You don’t have to “fall in line” if you don’t want to, but being outside the line is considered strange and it makes people uncomfortable. The second half of the “Strangers” story pertains to racial identity. I was homeschooled until I went to college. Then, suddenly, I was thirteen years old and in college around primarily white and Asian people. All we knew about other races/cultures was what we saw on “Saturday Night Live” and MTV. It was a very bubble-like experience.  When I was fifteen years old, I took a Sociology class as a bullshit elective and it got me thinking. But I really didn’t start to develop a complex relationship with race until I was eighteen years old and out on my own. I started to see things and see the way people talked to me and there are a couple experiences that I just couldn’t unsee. It started to make me feel like I was on the outside and I hate that feeling because not everyone is looking at me skin-color-first. I think most people are looking at me soul-first. But I do sometimes get that feeling and I hate it because then I become reactionary and reactionary behavior is rarely truthful.

 

Q) What do you think it is about the song that fans connect to?

 

A) In simplest form, the song is about alienation. Even the all-American teen queen has felt alienated at some point. There are pressures and rules and social norms and we can’t all meet those all of the time. With this song, people get to say “yes I am here in your space and you can’t change me.”

 

Q) How will the video for the track play into the message behind it?

 

A) We actually just shot a live video for “Strangers” – just me and a backing band in a rehearsal space. I’m big into film and symbolism, but this is the first video I’m doing independently. I wanted people to see me bare before I coat myself with all the layers.

 

Q) What is your song writing process? Do you need music before you can create lyrics? 

 

A) I write however it comes. Sometimes a melody comes, sometimes a poem comes. With this song a feeling came. I was frustrated. So, I wrote an aggressive bassline and I went through 2-3 versions of lyrics before I found the right hook. The rest of the song stemmed from that.

 

Q) How much of hand do you have in the production of your music? 

 

A) Ah, it depends on how old the song is. Most newer songs I’ve produced entirely on my own. This song was in the middle of me making that transition so I did start the production at my friend Dev’s studio. I tracked the bass, then he added a piano in the verse and then I said it should be Mellotron, we basically ping-ponged on this one.

 

Q) What can fans expect from a live Troi Irons performance?

 

A) Lots of hair in my face.

 

Q) Will there be a full EP or album coming in the near future?

 

A) “Strangers” is the lead single off the debut album Lost Angels that I’ve been working on for like five years. Lost Angels will be out this year.

 

Q) Where are some of your favorite places to perform and what makes those locations so significant to you? 

 

A) Anywhere people actually like music. I don’t really attach significance to venues, it’s more a crowd. I played to the tiniest crowd last month in random Santa Barbara and we had a blast. It was intimate enough that I could actually talk to people. That’s fun. My least favorite performances are when I’m not able to connect with anyone in the audience.

 

Q) Who would you most like to collaborate with on a song in the future?

 

A) Not sure.

 

Q) What album/band are you currently listening to and why do you dig them? 

 

A) I really like Chastity right now. It’s the pretty but hard thing – gets me every time.

 

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

 

A) This era of musicianship is one of the most beneficial for artists. In the past you were heavily “represented” and there was a big wall around you. Sometimes that wall had your best interests at heart, sometimes it didn’t. Today, me and my creative peers get to represent ourselves and tell our stories the way we want them to be told. A PR person writes a bio that is totally not you? That’s fine, your Instagram layout and your retweets fill in the blanks for the real fans and the snoopers. It’s better for the fans too because they get to know the artist (to a certain degree) behind the mask/representatives.

 

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

 

A) Dear Dave, thanks for the support, asshole.