MANSFIELD — Al Jenkins & The Trio created a sonorous buzz after their performance in the Richland Source basement.
The After Hours guests swayed and bounced to Aaron’s smooth-but-edgy electronically produced beats. They gawked at Al Jenkin’s swooning lyrics. And those who had not been formally introduced to Andrew’s electronic wind instrument pondered its existence. Ariane’s keyboard rig filled the space’s walls with atmospheric sounds resembling scenes from Star Trek.
Everyone was jazzed.
“Why haven’t these guys made it big?” nearly everyone wondered aloud.
But as professional and polished as The Trio sounds, the band is still only three years old. They started playing together when a family friend asked Aaron to play for downtown Mansfield’s Shop Hop at the Carrousel Antique Store. He asked his siblings to join him.
Aaron, the band’s drummer, said he heard that sentiment long before playing in the Richland Source basement. But the band’s main priority starting out was to create a solid fanbase in Mansfield, their hometown.
“This is where our fanbase is,” he said. “So we’re just sticking to that, making sure that that is kind of built up well — like a solid foundation. But, ultimately, we do want to branch out from Mansfield, for sure.” Especially now that the band just released their very first full-length album, “Hype.”
The band started recording and producing the album in January. It is the band’s favorite project since joining forces.
“This album is what The Trio sounds like,” said Andrew, the EWI player. “When we first came out we didn’t have all this equipment and our sound was really different than what it is now.”
The mixtape released in September 2015 was for fun, Andrew said. The band released a single, “Hot Air Balloons,” in June 2015. Another single, “Trill Cosby,” in January 2016.
“We kind of feel like this (Hype) is essentially the first, actual Trio project. This is really our true sound,” Aaron said, adding the album’s “Electrojazzhop” represents that sound best for him.
Andrew said “Android Samurai” is his favorite song from the album.
And other than a few looped vocals throughout the album’s songs and the album’s single, “One Up” — which features rapping by the siblings’ youngest brother, Allen — it’s instrumental, enveloping a trancelike feel.
The album’s inspiration came from the band’s awareness of the hype surrounding a popular skate company’s apparel selling model.
“There’s a streetwear brand called Supreme,” Aaron explained. “Their brand is literally based around selling items at really limited quantities. And people literally lose their minds purchasing the stuff. People actually make a job out of purchasing the gear and then reselling it for like quadruple the price.”
Those people are called hypebeasts.
Like Supreme’s success, the band dreams of making it big with their music. But they know they will need to branch out of Mansfield before that happens.
“There’s just not a lot of venues to play here (Mansfield),” Aaron said. “We literally played four shows last week within a block of each other.”
Andrew said the music scene in Mansfield seems split.
“There’s the in crowd and then everyone else,” he said. “And if you’re not in then you miss out I guess.”
So where will Hype take them? Follow the band on Facebook, Soundcloud and Bandcamp.
