"You better take what you can because the sky's the limit," sings Trinket's Brian Youmans in "Unbehaved," the first single from their self-titled RCA debut. It's a feeling that's apparently shared by bassist Tommy Salmon. "It's about taking chances," he asserts. "Some bands do things by the numbers. That's not us." That work ethic has driven this infectious, glam-inspired five-piece from Athens, Ga., since its inception.

Youmans was only fifteen years old when he convinced his understandably stubborn mom and dad to let him move to Athens with his guitarist buddy to form Trinket. "My parents made him my legal guardian so that I could go to school and continue to play my music," he says of those early days. A bassist then, he eventually talked his bandmates into allowing him to sing instead. Line-up changes saw Salmon and guitarists J. Christopher Arrison and Jeffrey Fisher emigrating south from New Jersey to hook up with Youmans. Add drummer Derry De Lamar and Trinket's roster was finalized.

Taking their credo from fellow Athenians R.E.M. to "be yourself, be intelligent, get huge," according to Salmon, the quintet worked day jobs during the week, counting the hours until their weekend "mini-tours." A fortuitous meeting between Youmans and R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe at a local club led to the latter's interest and subsequent production work on Trinket's 1996 indie release, Your Head Is a Shimmer.

But it was heavy touring that molded their sound from somewhat ethereal mood music to catchier rhythms and throttling, Jane's Addiction-style vocals. The resulting metamorphosis caught label attention and earned them a record deal with RCA in late '97. A few months later, they found themselves in Memphis' House of Blues studio, recording under the tutelage of engineer/producer Greg Archilla (Collective Soul). "The studio was very nice, but there was a weird buzz, so we had to record the album by standing in these cages made out of chicken wire to kill the buzz," laughs Salmon. "We'd cut a track, listen back to it and if it wasn't good, it was back to the cages!"

Evidently, the plan worked. The resulting record is rife with vibrant melodies and experimental elements. "It's pretty much a rock album made by rock fans," asserts Salmon. Indeed, "Deceiver," a fun track with a nasty, dissonant guitar sound augmenting its chorus, goes over great live. "It's about the two lives I led in high school -- playing shows at night, getting in at five in the morning and waking up at seven-thirty to go to school," recalls Youmans. Other tracks, like the introspective "Pure," a showcase for Youmans' deceptively powerful voice, were collaborative efforts.

But it's the Youmans-penned "To Be a Star" that captures the band's quixotic outlook best: "I wrote that when we were out working our day jobs and dreaming of a better place," recalls the singer. "I've always been really into Pearl Jam and thought it was really funny how Eddie Vedder was so miserable. I can't imagine why. If I was in his position, I'd be really happy and really into it. [Being a rock star] is such a gas...that's what it's supposed to be, anyway."
ADRIANNE STONE
(February 16, 1999)