Truck -Tracks That Shaped Our Sound

Truck have long been a mainstay on our studio playlist. They are a band that are defined by big hooks, a load of harmonies, and a bloody good time all round.

We caught up with them about the tracks that shaped their sound, we hope you enjoy their choices as much as we do:

Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer

Weezer were an obvious influence when we were writing ‘My Chair’. Their ability to pair a fun singalong chorus with gigantic-sounding distorted guitars is something we’ve always loved, and when this song was coming together it seemed like too good an opportunity not to make one of those moments for ourselves. The whole idea we were trying to capture with My Chair was a nostalgic feeling of someone looking back on their life, so making a soundtrack to match that with those old songs we grew up listening to (The Sweater Song, Champagne Supernova etc) felt appropriate. Plus - it’s really fun to play, and it was a good excuse to rip a huge guitar solo because why the bloody hell not?

Size Of The Moon - Pinegrove

I think if we had a collective favourite band in Truck, it would be Pinegrove. Cardinal got in all of our heads in a big way when it came out, and it’s stuck ever since (along with everything else they’ve released). The lyrics of their songs have really informed how we both approach writing and this song in particular is one we’ve always loved because it’s just a very real conversation you’d have or a story you’d tell someone about something that happened to you. These lyrics could be about something super specific, but I think all of us have taken something different away from it. In ‘My Chair’ we’ve tried to emulate that style of writing where you can kind of make your own definition of what we’re on about. 

Keep The Customer Satisfied - Simon & Garfunkel

Simon & Garfunkel were one of the first bands we bonded over when we met, and we’ve always seen their music as a masterclass in songwriting. While we don’t necessarily see them as a direct influence on the sound of Truck, we’ve taken a lot of cues from how they write their lyrics and what they tend to write about. They always used old-fashioned (even in their time) phrases and terms to talk about real-life situations and problems anyone could relate to - kind of making their lyrics have this timeless charm to them, but they did this in such a cool way compared to other bands around in that time - Art & Paul belting ‘…and I’m SO tired’ in this song feels like it belongs in a mid-90’s alt-rock band’s set, not an early 70’s folk-pop song.

Acquiesce - Oasis

We could have chosen any Oasis song basically. All this kind of music was on the radio relentlessly when we were growing up and it still sounds bloody huge. One of the maddest things about Oasis that stands out to us is that you have definitely seen a bloke in a pub covering literally all of their songs at some point or another just on an acoustic guitar, and that happens all over the UK (probably the world) every single day. Obviously, if you don’t like Oasis - not ideal (grow up), BUT if a huge chunk of your discography can get rooms full of people singing along every single time without fail whether its the corner of a pub or a stadium, they must be some fucking mint songs. Being able to play a song just on an acoustic and it still be good has been important to us from the get-go with Truck, so if the rest of the band isn’t around, we can still go and play a show with songs that work. Anyway, here’s Wonderwall…

I’ve Got A Feeling - The Beatles

We’ve both been big Beatles fans since we were kids, and we spent a lot of time watching the Peter Jackson ‘Get Back’ documentary when we were first coming up with ideas for what Truck would turn out to be. It really made us appreciate the idea of taking songwriting back to the basics and stopped us from overthinking. We’d spent so much time in previous projects trying to write songs that fit a certain ‘vibe’ or whatever, when we should have just been doing the obvious thing and writing a song! Watching the documentary really humanised The Beatles and kind of changed how we see their discography now - Let It Be Naked is a firm favourite to play in the car on the way to shows. It’s them just playing some nice, kind of scrappy rock and roll - it’s mint!