Switched on Pop - The Power of the Trio (ft. Trousdale live at USC)

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

There's no lead singer in Trousdale. The trio of Quinn D'Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones, has shared vocal duties equally since they started singing together as students at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Since then, they've touring the world and released a sophomore album, Growing Pains, that features the trio's impeccable harmonies over 70s-inflected country-rock grooves. In this episode, Trousdale returns to their alma mater to play acoustic versions of "Growing Pains" and "Secondhand Smoke" and then speak to Professor Nate (plus an audience of music students) about how they forged their indivisible sound. Songs Discussed Trousdale - Growing Pains, Over and Over, Lonely Nights, Movie Star Jackson Browne - Doctor My Eyes MIKA - Grace Kelly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-Doo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made.

made the switch. So why not you? Try Odu for free at Odu.com. That's ODOO.com. Welcome to Switched On Pop. I'm musicologist Nate Sloan. And recently, my colleague friend, co-host, heterosexual life partner, Charlie Harding, did a live podcast in front of his students at NYU Steinhart, interviewing the great singer, band leader, Joe Kiri, aka Joe DJO. It was such a cool conversation. And I'm here in Los Angeles, a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music, thinking, I'm feeling a little jealous. I want to do an amazing event for my students and release it as a podcast.

And lo and behold, dear listener, I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams because I was able to invite the incredible trio Truesdale, multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriters, and alumni of the USC Thorn School of Music where I teach back to campus to not only regale students with tales from the recording studio, from the tour bus, breaking down the inner minutia of songs off their most recent album growing pains, but they also performed two songs live. It was such an incredible experience and a huge win in my ongoing friendship slash competition with Charlie that I had to share it with you all. This is such a fun conversation and such a dose of beautiful music.

Let's not waste any time except for me to tell you, go vote for us in the Signal Podcast Awards. There's a link in the show notes. We're nominated for Best Music Podcast and Best Sounders. And besides that, there's nothing for me to say except let's give it up for Truesdale. I'm talking about Georgia, Quinn, and Lauren. Here's my conversation and their live performance. Catching up to me each morning.

But there's a long, like the extra mile where the smile no problem. But it's all work and it's no play and there's too many growing. Barely any laugh or save Closer to when it only Much sand Muscles, but it's all work and it's no play And there's too many problems Yes

Give it up for Truesdale Making their triumphant return To the Carson Television Center stage Triumphant, hell yeah What a treat, thank you all for Not only sharing your experience and insights with us but also your voices and your instruments it's really special thank you for having us so that song is

Growing Pains which is the title track of your most recent album as well let's talk a little bit about this song which is such a banger thank you it's been stuck in my head for weeks as I've been preparing for this interview no it's okay it's nice it's nice to have in your head let's talk about like the the origin the genesis of this track do you remember what the first inkling of this song was where it came from and how you developed it into the performance that we just heard? Well, we tend to talk a lot about our physical ailments.

Yeah. Just as friends, we're just talking about like our backs hurting or our knees, this, or like there's this weird thing on our skin or something, you know, I feel like it's just like a bonding thing that people do. Yeah. Or maybe just us, I'm not sure. And we're like, oh, yeah, it's just growing pains, like getting older or whatever. And then we're like, oh, that could be a cool idea for a song.

We also were, you know, complaining about how, how hard it is to be an artist, which is also growing pains. And it just kind of came about through that conversation. Yeah. In the past, we've done a lot of writing, like a lot of blocked out time for writing, and we've been touring so much these past two years. And at that time, I'm pretty sure we were, like, coming off of a pretty long tour, and we had like a couple days to write carved out.

And we tend to write about what we're going through, like Lorne was saying, and part of, I think, what we were going through at that time, other than the physical ailments was just adjusting to a life that we were really dreaming of and all the work that we've been doing was to go tour. And so kind of balancing how happy we were about the progress, but also growing into the change and being like, wow, okay, this is such an accomplishment, but also this is an adjustment and leaning into all the things that made it hard and, yeah, holding both of those two things. Yeah.

Right, because it's the song with lyrically, there's some heavy stuff going on. Yeah. But melodically, harmonically, rhythmically, it's really upbeat. So it's almost like the music of the song helps you overcome the difficulty of the lyrics as a listener. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like there's still like a celebration of the growing pains in it, like in our conversations about it. And trying to make that shine through in the song of like these things are hard.

but there are new problems that we're having. They're good problems because there's growth, because we're doing more and trying to, even if we're not quite saying it lyrically, like there is something really beautiful and exciting about that, you know. And I think it's like a song that none of us would write alone. It's a very Truesdale song to me. So we thought it would be a good title for the album too

because it's so representative of what happens when we come together. It's so different than what any of us would write alone. And I think that ties into the upbeat nature of it because it's just something that comes out when we're talking. together and writing together, you know? So you collaboratively create the song, its theme, and its lyrics. I'd love to hear about the next step, the arrangement, because I think one of the things that's so enjoyable about your dynamic is how creative your approach to vocal harmonies

is. And it's a little atypical, too, because I think frequently you'll find. And maybe in a group there will be kind of one main singer and then the other singers support them. But with you all, it's very equal and everyone shares the load equally. So how do you get from when you have the song in place, how do you decide, okay, this is who's going to sing what part? This is where we're going to do the background vocals.

Like I'd love to you to take us through that process a little bit. Yeah, I feel like it's different every time. But since the beginning, we've been really intentional about keeping things even between the three of us. sometimes to the point where it feels like overkill sometimes, especially to like other people that are not the three of us, even with like interviews, or like things that are going into our bio,

if like there are quotes where like all three of us need to be quoted. I think it's just because the outside sometimes tries to put one person at the forefront of like a lot of groups. And I think that's why you see that happening. So with the vocals, sometimes if there's like a certain part of the song that one of us feels even like emotionally attached to or vocally, one of us wants to sing it or the others will be like you would sound really good doing that

then like we go from there and we'll build the arrangement around it and just try to I mean on the last album we really went in with like printed out lyrics highlighting like our colors because we all wear like the same color I mean different colors but the same whatever you know what I mean and we were like color coding the lyrics me like okay so that we have this many choruses and verses and just but still try to make it feel organic and like if something doesn't feel right to sing then we won't sing it and then we build on the harmonies I think just intuitive like we'll just throw stuff in and then go in deeper. Yes, I think something that we all feel very lucky to have is that all three of us

really have a very similar taste. So like anything in a song that one of us really loves, the other one will be like, oh, yeah, that is the best part of the song. We all kind of feel like excited by the same kind of musical choices most of the time. I think that shows up in arranging as well as like we're all just trying to serve the song. like the song comes first. And so in an essence, our voices are kind of secondary to that because ultimately we're just trying to make the song the best it can be.

And sometimes that just comes in the form of like arrangement. Like I know specifically for growing pains, we're all like, this needs to be like, this section needs to be like crazy harmony. None of us even really knew what it looked like, yeah, but we're like it needs to sound like queen and needs to also be like Bruce Bruchin or like whatever. You know, we're kind of just forming this like acoustic picture. in our minds and then after that we kind of do the diplomatic thing we're like okay who wants to sing one and let's split it up and that part's kind of secondary I feel like the arrangement too is like

the great equalizer because we can be super creative with the arrangement I think the fact that none of us is the lead the arrangement is a way to really show all of our creative ideas in the song even if it doesn't make it into the like main melody of the verse like having a cool arrangement part come in can be like, oh, like, I love that part of the song, you know? Like, what, it's just a way to get excited about all the different pieces. With growing pains, I think one of the most exciting parts is the breakdown that we heard, or maybe the bridge is what I should call it. Oh, working, it's no play and there's too many.

Growing pains. All working, it's no play, and there's too many. Growing pain. How did that come about? Because it's a moment where, lyrically, it's like kind of the same thing. and I think harmonically we're still in the same place, but the energy really shifts a lot, and then it brings you back into the final chorus

in this really exciting way. So do you remember how you alighted on that particular breakdown? I think we got some vague version of it when we were writing it. You were playing the keys. Yeah, I had been listening to Dr. My Eyes. Jackson Brown.

Doctor My Eyes have seen the year. And there's like this. pedal point like low keys part that I just thought was sick and then I also was listening to Grace Kelly and it has the like junk doing that whatever and so that I think was like also a part of it and we were imagining like jokingly being like that oh then it's gonna be and then yeah we wanted to be some sort of like operatic kind of thing the demo is weird of it is we were like we can just try that and then we're like go actually kind of sounds like what we just did acoustically, if I'm gonna be honest.

Because full band with more voices sounds really sick. So much of it is just confidence. If you do it with confidence, then it sounds okay. You guys can decide that. Yeah, hopefully. That section really came into full shape just when we were recording vocals. We took like two full days to do the vocal,

just the vocals for that song. And we were sort of piecing together. Quinn did a lot of the, like, Quinn is our like in-house vocal arranger, extraordinary. Yeah. So she has a lot of a heavy hand in the focal arranging for sure. See, I think I used to for sure, like especially when we were in college here. And then it became more of, but that one, yeah,

I just like recorded a bad demo of it the night before. And then we executed it far better. My favorite thing is to just have these big ideas that I just throw at Quinn. I'm like, okay, it needs to be like this and then blah blah, blah, blah. And then I'm like, okay, can you do that now? Hell yeah. I like that. Well, that's why you're a good trio because, you know, it's compliment.

Yes. And that's what we liked here. But then we had to do a live version of it too. So the version that you just heard too is like as a boiled down version of what's on the record as well. That's an interesting thing in being a part of this band is like, especially with this record is like

we recorded the whole thing first and we had never played any of the songs live before. So there was definitely a big moment of then rearranging the songs to fit in a live setting. Which I think this pop class definitely helped with doing that for sure. So much. You want to say that again?

Pop class. That's the stuff. Sponsored by. Our name is Trusdale, which is kind of embarrassing coming back here and being like our name is Trusdale. But we just did name it after the street.

We did. Because we didn't think that we were going to be like continuing, like this was really going to be what we did. And here we are. And I noticed in your bio it says, in parentheses, pronounced Trusdale. T-R-O-O-Z. Yeah, we get Trousdale a lot.

All the time. We get Trousdaleed. Was there some memory you have associated with Truesdale Parkway that led to it being the name of your group? Yeah, we were, it was our freshman year and we were just sitting at the park that it was like around park side. And there's like the sculpture garden. It doesn't exist anymore. It's so sad. It's by the, yeah, by nectar.

Yeah. And like we were sitting by Truesdale Parkway. And we really just at least we've maybe we've told the story so much that actually this is not true. And we were imagining it. But I think we really were sitting by it and we're like, that would be fun. We were deciding between that. We also thought about the Sorrow Sisters, which is our sad folk alter ego now,

and Carolina Blue, which is our country, alter ego. So. Good to have some alter egos for sure. Yeah, it's great options. But I think Truesdale is the winner. Thank you. I did a little research about Truesdale. Apparently, he was a real estate developer.

Yeah, that really makes sense. Yeah. In Beverly Hills. Yeah, people really think, like, that don't know that we just went to USC, think that we come from a lot of money. I wish we did. No, the most financial association I have is the $150,000 of student debt.

I still owe to this school. But I'm so glad I went. I would do it all over again. A couple more world tours, I think, and maybe. Yeah. And I don't make it down to that. We're so grateful that we went here and met each other. And it was just the best.

So you mentioned creating a live arrangement, from a studio arrangement. We just heard a live arrangement here. Let's listen to the studio version of a song now. Let's go to the next track on Growing Pains over and over. That slapsed. Thank you. It's a big testament to our bass player

that played on that song, Gio. He really slaps the bass. You know what I'm saying? I think for those who maybe only just heard Trusdale live, this is important to hear the full. band experience. There's a lot. There's a very lush orchestration.

I feel like there's a lot happening here. Let's use the song to talk about what happens when you have the song and then you go into the studio with folks like Geo and the other musicians. How does it go from the song to what we just heard, which is so complex and multi-layered? Yeah, this was the first time we did it this way with this album. Our first album, we went in very piece by piece, and we had the songs. We had played them live a lot. with a live band, but also just the three of us.

And then we, I think like also for financial reasons, but the three of us produced it ourselves pretty much like in its entirety. And we would just have like one instrument at a time coming in and recording. And we do a million takes and have little pieces of things and overdubs. And then we'd go in and we would comp each thing

and kind of put it together with the next instrument. And I think we learned a lot from that. And I think we're really proud of those songs. And for this album, we went in with the big band and rehearsed with a band like we would have when we were in school. That's very much where we're comfortable already. And we'd really leaned on the musicians that we were playing with as well and our co-producer who we brought on to the project, John Mark Nelson, who's amazing. I think that was a way to get everything really feeling organic and serving the song, like Lauren said,

we always talk about that and not overdoing anything and not being like too specific and really just letting the band come together. And then we went in and we tracked drums, electric guitar, and bass at the same time in the studio, which I'm sure some of you guys are familiar with doing, being here where you will be. And then we went in with like overdubs and acoustic guitar and keys and all of that later. And so I think we just built upon it, but only what was needed, not like going too much and then pulling it back, which I think that was like a really big difference for us this time. And from our previous album from Out of My Mind, there's a song on it called Movie Star, and that was the first time we had worked with John Mark Nelson.

He was such an amazing writer, which is just, I guess, like a fun example of an unexpected collaborator that we stumbled upon in that album, and then because that experience was so positive, and he was such a great collaborator, such an amazing communicator, made us all feel heard. We knew we wanted to keep working with him, and so he ended up co-producing all of growing pains, and over and over was his song start,

and he sent it to us, and we absolutely just fell in love with it. And so I just think it's really important, maybe, to always know that you'll know when you have an incredible collaborator, because you'll be like, wow, that was a special experience, and it's not always like that, But when it is, like for us, he's just added so much to our musical journey.

And I think this song, part of the reason it sounds the way it does, is because he just added so much of his taste that aligned with so much of ours. And it was just a really cool collaboration that I think, you know, we're all super grateful for. One thing I really like about this song is I feel like there's a lot of creative rhythmic choices in it. Like things kind of land in weird, unexpected places, a lot of offbeats and syncopations and anticipations, which is cool in itself, but then if you think about the lyrical message of the song, this idea of like something happening to you over and over again, this kind of Groundhog Day effect,

I feel like the rhythmic instability is the musical corollary to that feeling. Can we listen to the chorus? It's all in 4-4, I think. these places where you'll do like three measures of four, four, and then go to the next phrase. So it kind of happens a little earlier than you expect. Was that a conscious choice or was that just something you intuitive? Yeah, yeah, that was. And I think even some of the anticipations, like they change throughout the choruses of like the second chorus, we anticipate the entrance and halfway through, we anticipate it again. But the like vocal rhythm doesn't change. And that was also

So, like, even just the three of us playing it live was, like, pretty tough, even though, and, like, there is the repetitive nature of the chords. Like, they're staying the same the entire time. And I feel like that is correlating with the over and over. But the rhythm on top of it and, like, doing that type of syncopation, like, that was definitely majorly influenced by John Mark Nelson, who is, he's also a percussionist. So, like, he really set us up there to have to play something. Honestly, it sounds like the repetitive part of it sounds simple, but it was really difficult. for us to know it's so crazy to learn to sing and play it at the same time it was definitely a yeah like patting the head rummed the belly kind of vibe and trying to keep that syncopation

and like the unexpected nature of the second verse too and changing that up i think yeah that was all intentional Lauren and Quinn really had to take on the whole rhythm section when we were we were just in europe and the UK and they were doing like obviously piano and guitar doing what we just did but that song in particular was so tough and it's especially hard because we want to be like He'll and taking time, like, moving with the fans and, like, shouting out the big moments. But if you do that, you just fuck up big time. You have to concentrate. You can, we can curse.

Yeah, this is a safe space for fan. That's amazing. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough. So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated,

platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-O-F-Frey at O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com. Let's do another one. Yeah. Let's go.

We're just going down the track list right now, folks. We're going to hear Lonely Night. Yeah, that deserves a round of a pause. Not the fade out, to be clear. But I'll take it. This feels like a good time to talk about some of the influences on your music. Like you mentioned Jackson Brown earlier. I would love to hear, like, what are some of the other musicians or albums that are in your ears when you're making growing pains?

Yeah, and how you channel those into your own songwriting process. And maybe we can take this song as an example of that. Oh my gosh, there's so many. We have such a wide range of influences between the three of us. But for this record, I was thinking a lot about Queen, Bruce Brinkstein, Journey, Joni Mitchell. Oh, he said Journey. Yeah.

Always thinking about Johnny Mitchell. One and the same, really. Journey and Jenny Mitchell, same artist. Synonymous. Georgia. No, this is a very off topic, but I have a tattoo. We were thinking about Bonnie Ray. I feel like the Beatles.

Yeah, a lot of queen. I agree with you. But I was getting my blood drawn the other day and I have a tattoo of this Joni Mitchell song, All I want. I got my blood drawn twice in the past two days and both times I went I was like looking away blah blah blah.

And the person both times said, what do you want? And I was like, oh my God, this is such a philosophical question you're asking right now. And then I realized it was my tattoo. We are, yeah, inspired by Joni Mitchell. Yeah, Joni Mitchell. I feel like the 1975 a little bit.

Paul Simon. Yep. Boni Vair. Casey Musgraves. Like Sabrina Carpenter. I feel like we were listening to like pop music when we were making this album in terms of overall production elements that we were adding. But we were really starting with like roots band like when we were doing it all with the whole band the whole time.

Civil wars. Civil wars. Yeah. Trying to think about like each individual song. Yeah. This one is more like straight down like closer to straight down. straight down rock and roll than I think what we normally do yeah John Mayer what connects some of those bands you mentioned especially the bands from like the 70s is that I feel like there was

um flewood Mac Eagles okay okay there was a uh forgive me a syncretism like if you listen to like flea mac is a good example like fleaumac is a rock band but they're also kind of a country band they're also kind of a pop band and I feel like Truesdale and this album in particular it's like when you listen to these songs, you're like, is it country? Is it rock? Is it pop? You know, you can't really like put your finger on it in a good way. Yeah.

Oh, thank you. And so that's a cool thing. I like drawing on that, some of those 70s influences, to find that sort of expansiveness as well. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, I think that just the nature of three-part harmony,

I think people tend to associate that a lot with country music and Americana. So even just on its own completely with no instrumentation, like a three-part harmony, people would say like, oh, that's country. And I mean, we all love country music too, certain elements of it. And it's interesting to hear what people compare us to. I think I just let other people decide for themselves at this point

because it is influences are such a momentary thing. You know, it's like all the music I've ever heard in my life is probably an influence to like this album and any music that we make. There are definitely some songs where, because we all come from such different musical influence, I grew up listening to a lot of funk and R&B, and it's just fun in this band to be like, okay, this is definitely like a Lauren starter, a quintarter, Jordan, like you can hear that, I think, on this album, but then when we come together, especially now having been in a band

together for almost a little over 11 years now, right? We really lean into each of our sounds and like we see through those ideas to the fullest, which I think we did, I'm really proud of how we did that on this album. And the song is like definitely more country. I feel like, oh, I was going to say, Lauren, your voice, even just the way you sing, you have like a country flare. So I think that's also a through line in the music,

which is cool, even if we're doing like a funk song. Yeah. You're going to have a little country twang going on. Do you ever have to tone certain elements down so it doesn't sound like too much in one of those lanes? Yeah, we had a joking thing with Ben, who, Ben Bram, he vocally, he helped vocal produce the album for us. He also went to USC years before us, but there was something where we had like a,

there was some country thing that you were doing on something that wasn't country, but I can't remember what it was. Do you know what it was? Oh, like there's like a name or something? No, yeah, like we had a name for it, but then you were like, you were pronouncing something very country. I remember what you're talking about. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I think that's always my vocal note is like sing it how Lauren would sing it, not how, yeah, like the record that I'm trying to sound like. That's how I imagine someone singing it is usually like the way I try to sing it. But It always sounds better when you just kind of like find your own voice of music. Totally.

And you guys, you guys always give me that now, which is I really appreciate. Because you're so good. It's just you, girl. I feel like I'm always just trying to sing like the rascal flags. It was the word can't.

You just, can't. Kate. Oh, so you had to like de-twang it a little bit. Detwine the king. Yeah. Let's do another.

Let's track four, want me back. Tell me that you want me back. Let's talk more about harmonies. And not just the notes that are in the harmonies, but the blend. What to you makes a successful harmony getting your voices to come together and sound so full? Like, what does that process look like when you're rehearsing or writing or like? I want to know a little bit about what it's like to bring your voices together like that,

because it seems very, very unique. I feel like the biggest thing is repetition, just in general. I think the same thing with rehearsing with a band, anything, repetition, I feel like is the most important thing, because we all just intuitively start to figure out what's going on and kind of come together in just like a more unanimous way without even talking about it. You can just feel that, especially with the years

that we've spent singing together. I think that also adds to it. And then, yeah, I think we talk about just listening to the other people more than to yourself is so important and, like, really trying to figure out whose part is the most important in following them. And I think often will be like, how are you singing that vowel? Like, how are you doing this? Okay, like, let's match it that way and, like, putting it in this placement and really trying to figure that out. Honestly, I think repetition is the most important thing.

When you trust the people that you're in the room with and you all know what you're doing to a certain extent, if you just do it over and over again, it's naturally going to get really good. honestly yeah I was just gonna add I feel like we've always been our worst critics and like from the beginning when we started singing together I feel like even after we would practice a bunch we would perform and then we'd be like that was really bad and then other people would be like that was great I feel like so many of our like early maybe like the first five years of us singing together we're we would always be shown me like that was terrible so bad so we're like our hardest critics or worst critics but I think it's changed so much

because now when we first started we were just singing together in a room and there was so much natural just delicious organic timbers and you know emotion and it was so natural and so delicious and now it's like so reliant on a sound engineer and you're in your monitor mix and like getting that right so and and the repetition I would say of being able to sing in harmony and blend through different mediums because I think obviously when you have a great sound engineer like that makes the things a lot easier. But even when you do have a great sound engineer and you're just learning how to sing and blend in microphones for the first time versus like being just in a room together or being in ears and trying to get your mix right and then blending when you're just in your

in ears that you can't hear the room anymore either. So it's like all those things like you just have to do a million times to really get it right. And I think we've also like performed in enough like really, really bad sound situations that, like, at a certain point, it just becomes muscle memory. And you just kind of have to, like, rely on that. Yeah. I feel like, well, also, like, not for me, if I'm singing, like, the lower part, if you were to isolate it, I'm not fully pronouncing the words in a way that I would if I was singing a part on my own. It's, like, some weird kind of combination, but it's more to, like, fill the space than to be, like, this is my part, Quinn, who's singing here.

And then even recording on your own, then it kind of changes because you're really listening to yourself more. So it's really helpful to have like the harmonies in there because, yeah, it's not always about like you singing your voice. It's about you being like an instrument as well and like filling that space. However it needs to be filled even if it doesn't sound normal. Well, I think there's something about being in a band. And in fact, just on the Switch on Pop podcast on Tuesday, we had Phineas and

and Ash who have made this band called The Favors. And all they wanted to talk about was like, because they're both solo artists, and Phineas obviously works with Billy Eilish, but they both have their solo careers, but they were talking about like how much more fun it is to be in a band and how you have someone both to hold you accountable and also to like help you finish a song

or like come up with the word that you can't think of in a lyric and keep you company on the road. and I hadn't really thought about that in that way, but we are at a moment historically where the solo artist has kind of ascended and bands have become a little more at the margins, at least of like the pop music world, I guess. Totally.

And I feel like everything you're saying is such a testament to like the power of being in a group together. Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's so easy to get in your own way as a solo artist and take yourself so seriously to a point where it's not helpful to get, ideas that you have out there because or it's just so overwhelming there's so much pressure you put too much pressure on yourself you want to wait till it's perfect like all that stuff and I think when

we first met in college I remember for me it was like it was the fun thing in my day and everything else was so stressful never thought that it would be my career like truly never thought that at all yeah and then I think now we all like kind of did our own little things after college like we didn't just leave school and do this we like took some time I did a solo project. Lauren did a solo project. I worked on a cruise ship. We worked on a cruise ship. And we came back together kind of like, oh shit, this is really special. Yeah. After kind of seeing how special it was by not doing it for a little bit. So to what you're saying, there's something so, so grounding about having other people around you that care about the project just as much

as you do. And that has its difficulties as well, because everybody cares so much. But I think the amount that we all care is a part of the joy and the safety. what keeps us going because we have each other to lean on. And like you're saying, on the road, so helpful to have each other. And I think also historically, like, harmony is so important and, like, listening to people and connecting with people around you. I just think that that's, like, spiritually, like, all of that is so important for the human experience.

And with music and in this program, it can feel, like, really, I felt like it was super competitive when we were here and it felt a lot of pressure. And this has always been a, a. A reminder that like music is fun and all of it is like up to you. And like Quinn said, it's, if you like it, that's cool. And it's all just a journey. But having people in your corner that like the things that you like and that you can talk to about personal things, I think is how we've kept going all these years.

I feel like it also helps to like to separate yourself from what you're making a little bit too, like to be able to lean on each other in that way. It takes the ego out of it a little bit just automatically. because it's not all you, it's not representative of who you are. And I feel like it's easier to do that, even with your own stuff, while you're working in this space. And like, if somebody hates our album, like, great, I don't care at all.

And maybe if it was just my album, maybe I'd care a little bit more. But I'm like, well, it's not all me. It's probably Georgia and Lauren's edition that they didn't like. And then when they love it, I'm like, it was definitely what I added. I'm just kidding. But you can really, you don't feel like,

It all falls on you. Yeah. But you can still celebrate in all of it. And I think that's beautiful. And also between the three of us, we can do so much. And we are very self-sufficient, which has been very helpful as like women in the music industry, being able to lean on each other of like, we can do all of those things, not needing people right away.

And I think that helped us build a foundation by ourselves. I've thought about that a lot too, wow, how there's so many solo artists, not as many bands or or even like sometimes if the bands that are are out there they're like formulated you know somebody put them together and I think the combination of people in a band is just as important as the entity of the band itself because it is challenging it can be hard we've become like master communicators at this point we're really good at having really hard conversations with each other and just being honest with how everybody's feeling and and also letting time fix some of those things as well.

There's definitely a reason why addiction is such a common affliction among musicians is because I think it's just such, especially touring musicians, it's such a unrealistic lifestyle. Like I think it's really just crazy. Like I think maybe the last year or so, we've now just started to get a glimpse

of like what it really feels like to be full-time touring artists. And it's so difficult. Like it physically, mentally, in all those ways. And having your friends around you when those things really hit the fan I think is just so invaluable.

Beautifully said. Let's do another tune. And maybe we'll do it a little backwards this time. While Tray sets up the mic stands, you can tell us about the song we're about to hear, which is secondhand smoke. What's the origin story for this one?

We wrote it with two other people. One who went to USC as well, Adam Your Own. and Mags Duval and we had gone in I don't think we had like exactly an idea we were just kind of throwing around some melodic and

lyrical things and I misheard Lauren and Georgia they were singing some part of like the beginning of the chorus and they said the word fighter but I thought they said fire and then I was like oh I have like a title idea that I was thinking about that could go well with it and like about fire

and we kind of just went from there and we were talking about, you know, not just our own experiences and being in relationships that are unhealthy and taking more from you and kind of trying to relate that more just like universally of like it doesn't have to be a romantic thing. Maybe it is for some people, but maybe it's about family. You know, maybe it's about addiction and just knowing when to like step away from something and how difficult that can be when you love that person.

And try and like the question of if I'm staying in this right now, does that make me really strong or does that make me the weak one or the stupid one or the fool for staying in it? And like there's not really right answer to that, but kind of just going off of that question really. All right. Shall we hit it? Yeah, we shall. Let's do it.

I know you're too stubborn to change. You know I'm too stubborn to walk away. You know how to take. I know how to give you my own. It's how you keep finning the fling. It's how you make. sure that I feel your pain and no one else knows what's between me and these walls. If I stand, doesn't make me a fighter, doesn't make me a fool.

Is it a matter of time till I burn it? Is your second and smoke on it? Should be running as fast as I can. It's to give a damn, but I'm still here trying to save what. We have that. Is your secondhand smoke gonna kill me soon? Doesn't make me fine till I burn. Switched on Pop is a production of Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network. This episode was edited, engineered, and mixed by the great Bill Lance. Rihanna Cruz is our producer.

Brandon McFarland is a regular engineer. Charlie Harding provides eye candy and Lissa Soap is our wonderful editor. editor. We'll have a brand new episode out on Tuesday, or should I say Tuesday. I'm sorry. And until then, all that remains for me to say is go for us in the Signal Words, link of the show notes, and thanks for listening. Attention, Spotify. Has arrived on the new Good Girl Jasmine Absolute of Carolina Herrera, a fragrance intense with character curman and addicive. Imagine a jasmine emvolventy, tofu caramelized, and tonka-tosted.

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