Quietdrive brandishes their unique pop-punk at the Pontiac

By: John Seman

Posted: 1/13/06

Quietdrive is a five-piece rock band from Minneapolis that pulls musical elements from all genres of rock music. Although their three-song EP, Fall From the Ceiling, contains music that fits right in the current punkish pop-rock scene, the material that hasn't been released yet paints a broader picture. If you've had the pleasure of seeing their energetic live show, you know what I mean.

I recently checked out Quietdrive for the first time at The Pontiac Grille on South Street and was converted into a fan. The guys bounced around on stage, kicking out their melodically catchy tunes. My favorite song from the night was the last one they played. It started off with an intricate chord progression and built up to an explosion at the end that incorporated a violin, played by singer Kevin Truckenmiller. After the show I hung out with the guys for a bit and had a long conversation about music with Droo, Quietdrive's bass player. Droo and I must have talked at least an hour about music in general. Before the show, I sat down with Kevin Truckenmiller to ask him a few questions.

?: How did Quietdrive get its record deal with Epic Records?

Kevin: They heard our stuff online. On MP3.com - remember that? Then they heard more of our stuff on Purevolume.com. After that, they decided to put an EP out.

?: How old are you guys?

Kevin: 20 through 24.

?: So did this all happen right out of high school?

Kevin: For some of us, yeah. For me it happened right after college.

?: What did you go to college for?

Kevin: I went to college for computer design and came out with a degree in drinking, a degree in something other than that. (laughs) I still do work on computers. It's kind of fading away. I really like technology. When we're recording in the studio I try to do everything I can to maximize my knowledge of what I learned in school and what I'm learning right now.

?: Do you throw loops into the music?

Kevin: When we're creating it sometimes. I like to do that when I'm creating, just put down a simple beat and then we'll jazz it up later. That basically provides a background. Ordinarily I write alone in the studio and I need something to keep the tempo coming. It's better than a click track.

?: Are you the main songwriter?

Kevin: We can do it either way and we've done either way - just me or the whole band writing. I prefer to write the songs and then bring everybody in.

?: Is this your first major tour?

Kevin: Oh no, we've done a few tours with a few different bands. We've done shows with The Donnas. We've done a few dates with Lit. This is our second time out east though. We are really excited to be playing with the bands that we're playing with. We really enjoy it. Never really met a band member that we didn't like. If you're in a band and you're on the road, you have to be pretty cool. Otherwise a lot of [expletive] is going to get to you and you're going to flip out and trash something. I've been enjoying it so far. All of the kids that are coming out to the shows have been really supportive.

?: Is the EP available in stores?

Kevin: It's only available at shows and on digital download mediums. We ship it out with all of our merchandise too.

?: Do you guys have a full length CD coming out soon?

Kevin: We have a full length coming out this next year. It should be coming out 90 to 120 days.

?: Are all of the songs recorded already?

Kevin: Well, we've got to mix and stuff and we still have to work on a few things, but for the most part it's done. We're working on video concepts right now. Before we set a release date for it, we want to have a pretty good idea of what we have. We're excited. All of the songs on the CD are equal in strength.

?: How do you guys kill time when you're on the road?

Kevin: Um, I sit and stare a lot. (laughs). A lot of times we'll play Backgammon. A lot of times I'm working on the internet doing different [expletive]. A lot of times we go drinking. Kirby is one of the guys that heads the fun-entertainment department. Whether it's to go out drinking or to go out and play pool. We can kill time real easily.

?: Why did you guys change the name of the band from Sneakers 2 Bombs to Quietdrive?

Kevin: Oh, we didn't change the name. What happened was that we had two different groups. Me and Matt (also known as Kirby, guitarist for Quietdrive) we had a side project going on. We just decided to bring everything together. When we did that we had to decide on what name we were going to use. After a while, we decided on Quietdrive because that represented our vision. That's what I believe in now. What Quietdrive means to me is that we all have this drive inside of us, but we don't want to be flamboyant about it. We do want to show it in our show.

?: Aside from the songs on the EP, how do the other songs sound?

Kevin: All the songs that we chose for the album are fairly new. On one spectrum you have this grind sound and on another spectrum you have a pop sound. Then there's an acoustic sound. It's a full spectrum of genres. I get bored really easily when writing the same type of music. A lot of bands will have a certain niche, and they'll just keep writing songs in that niche and it works for them. I have nothing against that at all. Maybe someday we'll find that niche.

Rather than trying to put Quietdrive's music into words, I'll let the music speak for itself. You can check out two of their songs from their EP, Fall From the Ceiling at www.myspace.com/quietdrive. The band will be playing at The Silo in Reading, Pennsylvania on January 14th. I highly recommend checking them out to hear the music that isn't available yet.

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Concert
5/5 Triangles
Quietdrive
The Pontiac Grille, Philadelphia, Pa.
Sony Music