Niko Tsangaris & Tye Trujillo – Suspect208 ‘Way More Holy Sh!t Moments To Go’
Last week we broke the news about a surprise new act called Suspect208 who released their debut single ‘Long Awaited‘ which, consequently, sent the heavy music scene into a frenzy and blew up all across the entire fucking planet!!
The band, consisting of frontman Noah Weiland, guitarist Niko Tsangaris, bassist Tye Trujillo and drummer London Hudson scored rave reviews and praise for their debut release, resulting in over half a million hits (on YouTube alone) in less than a week. Not bad for a band who only hooked up a couple of months ago, jammed a few times at London’s rehearsal studio, room #208 (later inspiring their name) and the end result? Well, surely you’ve seen it with your own two eyes already! They’re currently the most talked about band around the globe!
It should also be mentioned (but not overly important to their story) that Suspect208 features the sons of Rob Trujillo (Metallica), Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots) and Slash, but the boys have stated very early on (as you’ll read below) that they’re going to pave their own way in the music scene and want the connections to their famous fathers to end there.
This new band is fresh, energetic and just waiting to erupt with everything else they’ve got in the works… So, we reached out to Niko Tsangaris and Tye Trujillo for a chat all about what’s to come…
Hey guys, thanks for taking the time out to chat with us. Firstly, the big question to ask is how you all came together to form this new project?
(Niko): London [Hudson, drums] and I have always been childhood friends- and London and Noah [Weiland, vocals] were childhood friends as well! They were working on music together, so I decided to start working on a couple tunes with them. Next thing we know, we got a gig in a week and we were writing material to fill our set (which we barely did). Since then, we came up with the name SUSPECT208 to go by!
(Tye): A couple of months ago London had originally reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to join a side project he started with Noah and they wanted to mix punk rock and hip hop. I immediately got back to them and told them that I was in!
All of you have had various other music projects going on over the last few years, how do you find the balance with sharing your talent evenly across all bands?
(Niko): I don’t believe in sharing talent! I believe the more ideas you come up with, the more ideas come as a result. I’ve always found that the more projects I work on, the more creative I am through all of them!
Gotta say lads, ‘Long Awaited’ is an absolute beauty. Is this song indicative of your overall sound as a band or will future releases be reflective of a wider variety of influences?
(Niko): This song shows a couple sides of our sound all in one! Punk, alternative, and hard rock coming together to make something new and fresh. We are definitely going to branch out and show all our colours as we grow as a band.
(Tye): I would say ‘Long Awaited’ is a piece of what we have, we have so many killer ideas we haven’t even gotten to yet!
On that, who or where do you each personally take influence from?
(Tye): I listen to varieties of different types of music. Sometimes I’ll be listening to Bad Brains or Slayer, all the way to modern hip hop. I like to take influence from each genre I listen to.
(Niko): I love all of it. Old to new, hard rock to indie. Personally I’ve always been inspired by the classics- Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Hendrix, etc… But lately I’ve been into a wide variety of new pop and indie music like Dua Lipa, and The Killers, and the many others that are out right now!
Your debut single has blown up bigger than expected, so what’s the plan for the next release? Is there an album or EP in the works too?
(Tye): We have an EP releasing relatively soon, After that our plan is to continue on writing new material until we have a solid selection of songs.
(Niko): We have more music coming soon, don’t you worry about that!
You’ve made it clear you want fans and the music scene to take you for who you are as musicians and songwriters and avoid the comparisons to your fathers… Why is it important for you so early on to set that standard for Suspect208?
(Niko): We are all passionate musicians that want to be known for 1 thing- playing music. We want to establish that this band is about energetic, raw, and powerful music, not anything else.
(Tye): At the end of the day, our goal is to play and write music and have fun with it. We want to make it clear we’re not much different from anybody else who enjoys playing music.
You guys have already performed in some iconic venues (e.g Classless Act opened for Adler’s Appetite @ Whiskey a Go Go, House Of Blues, Hollywood Palladium). Do you ever think about the iconic bands who have played those venues, at the same statue of your current bands?
(Niko): I’m always inspired by playing where my heroes have played in the past. It’s what pushes me to strive to become as great as they were.
(Tye): It’s cool to think that some of our heroes have played in some of the venues I played at, I’m looking forward to playing in more iconic venues hopefully soon.
You’ve also met some genuine Rock Icons (Producer Bob Rock at Tommy Lee’s studio come to mind). Have any of these encounters influenced your musical direction in any way and what sort of advice have you received from these legends?
(Niko): Yes indeed. I’ve learned many things about what it takes to be a professional musician and what makes the best musicians great. I’ve learned that everything about you affects the way you play and that no amount of chops on your instrument can make you soulful!
(Tye): I’ve received advice from [a lot of] different people. One of the pieces of advice (that many legends I hear say) is to be prepared before going into the studio.
Suspect208 are going to pave your own way in the scene without the help of your family members… but have they passed on any knowledge about the music industry and the do’s and do not’s of starting out in a band?
(Tye): Definitely one of the pieces of knowledge I received is to have a solid amount of killer songs before you play a show or record.
When you’re not jamming, what do you guys do on the side?
(Niko): I love to be outdoors and in nature! I like to go on hikes and go on road trips with my girlfriend and spend time with my family.
(Tye): When I’m not jamming I love to skate, surf, and make hip hop beats.
What’re your current goals and mindset like for the future of the band?
(Tye): My goal is to keep on writing and releasing new music and seeing where it goes and seeing what signature sound we develop.
(Niko): We’re gonna keep releasing songs and writing and see where it takes us.
Looking forward to hear/see what else you have been working on. So far, what’s been the biggest “holy shit!!!” moment you’ve experienced just by making music together in Suspect208?
(Niko): I’d say the biggest “holy shit” moment for me was when we put out ‘Long Awaited’ and the whole internet was blowing up with it. I couldn’t believe it- we’re all incredibly excited.
(Tye): Most likely when ‘Long Awaited’ blew up. We’ve only been together for two months, we have way more holy shit moments to go, this is just the start!
As we are too haha Any final words for fans reading this, around the globe?
(Tye): Stay tuned we got more songs that will be released!
(Niko): Keep up with us and join our journey.
You better believe we’re strapped in for that ride. Thanks for much for the time lads and we (and the world) can’t fucking wait to see what 208 shit you do next!
Interview by Duane James @duanejamestattoo and Paul ‘Browny’ Brown @brownypaul
Follow Suspect208 on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube
Keep up via their personal Instagram accounts: Noah, Niko, Tye, London
