Stream: Trapdoor Social, ‘The Lie’

Kevin Bronson on July 23rd, 2019

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L.A. indie-rockers Trapdoor Social are known for their energy — two kinds of it, actually. First, there’s the band’s relentlessly catchy and emotive pop-rock, often spiked by bursts of saxophone, as heard on their self-titled album in 2016. Then there are the calories the quintet burns on environmental activism, from doing solar-powered concerts on tour to staging the three-year-old boutique event the Sunstock Solar Festival.

The band, started by Skylar Funk and Merritt Graves while they were studying environmental sciences at Pomona College, is now working on its second full-length. While their late-2018 single “Hold Me Down” catapulted them onto the KROQ Locals Only 10-song vinyl album and March showcase, their latest song, “Lie,” is a step outside their proverbial box.

It’s twinkling, melancholic indie-pop song that oozes regret, with a sublime melody encircling a speak-sung/rapped verse and a chanted reminder that “I gotta trust myself.”

The song is “about the ups and downs in a relationship, and the active choice we make sometimes to postpone conflict, inevitable as it really may be, and tell ourselves ‘this is gonna be alright,’” the band says. “A lot of our songs have positive energy and uplifting messages, and we love the idea of encouraging our listener … but this song plays with the darker moments and that feeling of hiding your head in the sand when the problems are bigger than we can face.”

If pure melody can give you the strength to stand taller, “The Lie” is gigantic.

||| Stream: “The Lie”