INTERVIEW: Trousdale Channel Nashville to LA in Their Three-Part Harmonies

For Trousdale—the trio of Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones—the ache of growing through change, of facing down existential anxiety, and matters of the heart are all intimately familiar. Their upcoming album Growing Pains (out April 11) leans in to the band's luscious three-part harmonies and their dedication to song craft. Their latest single, "Want Me Back," is an impassioned love song straight from Nashville and channeled through LA.

“I went into our recording session thinking the song would end up straight country, and Quinn and Georgia thought it would be straight pop,” Lauren Jones explains. “Our bassist worked some doo-wop into the mix, and we found something really special to lean into.”

Quinn and Georgia spoke with us about their approach to writing and life on the road.

Name a perfect song and tell us why you feel that way.

Georgia: My go to example of a perfect song is "A Case of You" by Joni Mitchell. With just eight words, “Just before our love got lost you said…” she manages to tell the audience she was in love, it was lost, and in the difficult times leading up to the end, something was said to her that was memorable. From the second she starts singing, I feel like I’ve heard this story before and I feel like I belong when I listen to it. She manages to depict the complexities of love and needing someone that might not be good for you with very few words and familiar, yet nuanced melodies.

Do you have any songwriting tips you can share?

Georgia: Don’t compare yourself to anyone! There are so many different types of writers, singers and songs — there is room for everyone and everything. Make art that feels authentic to you. For lyrics, something that I’ve found helpful recently is trying to figure out the simplest way to say something complex and true.

What is your vision for a more just music industry?

Quinn: I think I speak for all of us when I say our vision for a more just music industry begins with ensuring all artists — regardless of gender, race, or background — have equal opportunities, fair compensation, and the freedom to create without being exploited.

I think transparency among artists and industry would be an invaluable asset for independent musicians. Artists deserve to have a clear understanding of where their money is going, what type of deals they are signing, and how revenues in all different parts of their career actually work (like streaming, touring, publishing etc.) There’s such a huge gap between how much money the music makes and how little ends up reaching the artists who created it. Women and marginalized artists still face bias in the studio and live, and we hope that this will continue to change over time. We can’t count the number of times we, as three young women, have walked into spaces where the initial reaction to us is condescending, there is an assumption that we don’t know what we’re doing or don’t produce our own music, etc. We could go on and on about the hopes we have for the music industry to respect and represent the people breathing life into it!

Where are some places you’ve found joy within the country/Americana world?

Georgia: We have found so much inspiration from the country/Americana world. We love “dipping our toe” in the country world, and while we didn’t all grow up immersed in country or Americana, we all fell in love with it at school and it’s no surprise those genres have become an integral part of our sound. We are a “song first” band, and some of our favorite songs are from the country/Americana scene. Many songs off our first record, Out Of My Mind were written in Nashville with some of our favorite writers (Natalie Hemby, Nathan Chapman, Ian Fitchuck, Madi Diaz, and more) and we found a lot of joy thinking of songwriting through the frame of honesty, cleverness, catchiness, and often pain. We have studied all of these aspects in artists like Dolly Parton, Jason Isbell, Bob Dylan, Kacey Musgraves, Brothers Osborne, Gillian Welch and many more. I think these genres are at the heart of all the songs we write, no matter how the song ends up sounding.

How do you manage having a good time at shows, but also trying to stay mentally and physically fit?

Quinn: Being on the road is absolutely a balancing act. It’s a mixture of long and late nights, little sleep, long drives and exhausting shows. And all of that can sometimes be on top of feeling under the weather, or having a difficult day in terms of mental health. Every time we go on tour I think we learn a little bit more about what works and what doesn’t, and what we need from ourselves and from others. We make a very intentional effort to check in with ourselves and each other while on the road, and respect each other's boundaries.

We all have different routines that help us stay healthy, both physically and mentally. Some of us try to work out at least a few times a week (not me), or make sure to do a vocal warmup before every show (not me), and some of us find any physical position possible in the sprinter van to get themselves horizontal to get an extra few hours of sleep on the way to the venue (definitely me). We always bring it back to the amazing people that are in the audience at our shows — we do it for that connection we get with them every night, and no matter what happened that day leading up to showtime, when we step on that stage I think all three of us find so much joy and energy and support to share that with the audience. Even on the hardest days.

Growing Pains will be out on April 11 via Independent Co. You can Pre-Save it now. 

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