Debut album from one of Seattle's hardest rocking bands of 2006
by Tron Carter
Tron Carter are on a mission to return Seattle rock to the mainstream. Their debut album - a guitar-driven affair full of huge riffs and tight melodies – makes that much abundantly clear. Introspective, confessional, and angry, the songs making up Tron Carter’s debut release make a powerful statement.
However, while they are a self-described “big, dumb, rock band,” the band has a history and a dirty little secret – its members were involved in one of the late nineties biggest draws in the Seattle club scene, the decidedly R&B-influenced Red Velvet Relief.
After leaving Red Velvet amidst label turmoil in 2000, Tron Carter lead-singer and guitarist Frank Morrison began writing new material in his home-built Seattle studio. Five years and more than one hundred songs later, he emerged with a new sound, the polar opposite of his keyboard-playing days in Red Velvet Relief. Instead of The Doors and Stevie Wonder, Morrison now found inspiration in Faith No More, Gruntruck, Queens of the Stone Age, and Alice in Chains. Tron Carter was born, and fortunately for Morrison, some old friends were ready to lend a hand.
With former RVR members David Zager on guitar and David Brotherton (who has since toured and recorded as a member of Royal Trux-spinoff RTX) on drums, Morrison entered the studio in 2005 to record the trio’s first released material since 2000. Their self-titled debut, produced and engineered by Morrison, was recorded over the course of the past eighteen months between Los Angeles-based Studio Wishbone (home to former Seattleites Brad Smith and Christopher Thorn of Blind Melon fame) and Morrison’s Room with a View studios in Seattle. Morrison handled multi-instrumentalist duties on the album, playing Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, and Percussion in addition to his multi-layered vocal tracks.
Highlights of the release include the rockers “Antibody” and “Let Go,” the atmospheric “Wanderer,” and the infectious “Fate of the World.”
Joined by John Schuster on Bass and Ty Creighton on Drums, the band celebrated the release of their self-titled debut with a CD Release Party at Seattle’s Crocodile Café on July 21st, 2006 and are currently touring the Northwest in addition to writing their second album.
