Trés Bien

By Ben Grad

Photo by Nicole Kilbert

Très Bien is on the move, literally and figuratively. Since finishing in sixth place on Fox’s The Next Great American Band in November, Très Bien has spent the winter touring Florida, releasing a follow-up to their debut album and writing a third album. Now, the four-piece power pop group is driving nonstop to a secluded cabin in Pennsylvania, where they plan to record and mix their newest album in a single month.

Michael Crowe, Très Bien’s lead guitar, explains the new project as a more polished take on their well-honed early-British-Invasion sound. “The problem with the songs from our other albums is that we’d just write what we write, and however [the songs] sound is just what they’d end up being.” Crowe says. “This time, we’re doing more than that. We’re bringing extra instruments. We have a bell kit, a banjo, a harmonica and a trumpet. We’re basically going to expand upon our sound and try to throw all the rules of our traditional songwriting style out the window, just see what happens.” As Crowe describes the trip, one of his bandmates can be heard in the background struggling to relearn the trumpet. He hasn’t played the instrument since 7th grade.

Cody Wilson (bass and vocals) takes the phone next. The interview has suddenly turned towards On the Road and Into the Wild, two books the band lists as among their most important non-musical influences. Comparing the life of a constantly touring musician to Sal Paradise and Alexander Supertramp, Wilson says, “We always like to see people have a good time, but the adventure aspect of being a musician is almost as appealing as playing a show or the theatrical aspects. It’s like being a wild man and then every night coming to terms with an act. It’s being an actor, it’s being everything. You’re an actor, a hunter, a rogue fucking warrior. It’s just great. I wouldn’t do anything else.”

Wilson’s enthusiasm is obviously shared by the rest of Très Bien. Their manic stage presence has earned them fame in the Florida music scene and a devoted following on The Next Great American Band. Of course, as Crowe is eager to explain, Très Bien’s performance on the reality contest was only a small sample of the range of their live act.

“Truthfully, [the television performance] isn’t even close to our real show. I mean sure, it’ll show you what our faces look like, but on that show we toned down how we play considerably. On that stage, they told us not to move around a lot because the camera couldn’t get the shots that they needed when we played like a normal band.”

Wilson and his bandmates are surprisingly casual in their responses to The Next Great American Band, an experience that any other indie band might consider the highpoint of their career. For Très Bien, the show was just a slight break in their normally hectic touring schedule. Crowe explains, “Whenever we weren’t working on the show, we were just writing stuff. One of the songs on the EP we actually wrote in L.A. That was pretty fun — while we were supposed to be rehearsing for this stupid TV show we’re writing new music. A producer would come in, and we’d say, ‘Dude, check out this song we just wrote!’” Crowe’s voice drops to a monotone, “They’d be like, ‘Great, you made another song.’”

Over heavy road noise and the sounds of the van’s driver aimlessly switching through south Georgia’s barren radio, another band mate takes up the thread of Crowe’s story. “Our intentions for going on the show weren’t money — we had a pretty good idea that we wouldn’t win. We knew it was gonna be a complete boy band or country band. But there needs to be some kind of rock ‘n’ roll voice. It needs to be heard all the time, otherwise it’s gonna die. We’re just trying to be that voice sometimes. We’re on such a small scale, but we’re trying to climb and continue to scream as loud as we can.”

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