25 Temple St
Portland, ME 04101
USA
Trousdale is a powerful female band consisting of Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones. Their melodic and heartfelt harmonies are often compared to The Chicks and The Staves, but the girls draw inspiration from a wide array of music, including Crosby Stills and Nash, Kacey Musgraves and HAIM. Driven by their passion to empower young women, Trousdale is committed to making quality music that spreads a message of self-acceptance and love.
When John-Robert left his Edinburg, Virginia, hometown (pop. 1,070) for Los Angeles in 2019,
he did so with starry-eyed ambition – a teenage songsmith bypassing a Berklee College of
Music scholarship to chase his own musical manifest destiny. It quickly materialized:
Grammy-nominated producer Ricky Reed (Leon Bridges, Lizzo) signed him at age 19 to Nice
Life/Warner Records, helping integrate John-Robert’s lilting blend of traditional folk and
Appalachian country into the modern pop landscape.
His debut single, 2019’s “Adeline,” has become an 11-million streamer, and collaborations and
co-signs from the likes of Alessia Cara and Camilla Cabello, respectively, have further cemented
him as a deeply auspicious writer on releases like 2020’s Bailey Barely Knew Me and 2021’s
Healthy Baby Boy, Pt. 1. Now, on his new EP, Garden Snake, the artist hailed as “a small-town
teen poised to become the next big singer-songwriter” by Live Nation’s Ones To Watch explores
the pull of his past in a captivating five-song collection, bursting with the grassroots musicality of
his Shenandoah Valley birthplace and the homespun purity of his earliest songwriting
endeavors.
“My dad nurtured my love of music in a way he never received himself growing up,” John-Robert
remembers. “When I was in elementary school, he’d take me to sing at local fairs and open mics
at coffee shops and bars. I even sang the national anthem at baseball games and MMA fights.
He was always encouraging me. His motto was always, ‘the worst they can say is no.’”
After an impromptu a cappella performance at a local Relay for Life cancer fundraiser at age 9,
John-Robert started posting YouTube covers and later joined the cast of the Shenandoah
Jamboree, a concert series run by Dukes of Hazzard actor Ben Jones. At age 13, he was
handpicked to perform on Ellen, where he was gifted a $5,000 Guitar Center gift card, which he
used to purchase a laptop and interface. Before long, he’d gone from making demos on an RC
30 Looper station to writing and producing his own recordings.
It’s in this way that Garden Snake, at its core, is very much a throwback, melding the rich
storytelling of the self-described “top-shelf” country he was exposed to as a kid with the
buoyancy of contemporary popular music. Accentuated by high-capoed guitars, delicate
fingerpicking, double bass and soothing harmonies, the musical menagerie John-Robert fills on
Garden Snake showcases not only his elastic versatility as a songwriter but also his hard-worn
DIY mentality.
“I’d just gotten Ableton and decided I’d teach myself how to use it,” he explains of the project’s
genesis. “It took me back to when I’d watch YouTube videos to learn how to use Garageband
and Logic. I dove in headfirst, using the Nice Life studio space and focusing on classic, great
songwriting. I had to take it back to basics, and build up from there.”
Ruminating on friendship, loneliness and the search for identity and inner peace, the songs on
the self-produced Garden Snake are rooted in truth but seem cinematic, the soundtrack to a
coming-of-age epic. From the back-porch breeze of “Come Pick Me Up” and colorful chants of
“Sweet Child” to the West Coast bedroom pop “Road Trip,” wistful, twangy “Westward Bound”
and red-clay shuffle “Good Days’ll Come,” the project radiates the spirit of John-Robert’s
upbringing at the intersection of both small-town America and the internet age.
“In the past, my writing sometimes felt like I was trying on different costumes – experimenting
with different styles without being able to commit to one sound,” he says. “I had a dynamic
collection of demos, but it didn’t make for a cohesive body of work. Garden Snake feels like
home and true to myself. It sounds the most like me, and what’s really cool is I feel like the
songs have legs that allow me to perform them in any setting – on a solo run or with a band.”
That complex songwriting, centered in his hometown roots, is what’s taken John-Robert this far,
and you can trust it’ll be there in everything he created. He’s poised to do a lot of it moving
forward, as he notes that Garden Snake is but the first entry in a long line of releases that will
find him spreading his sonic wings further than ever before. (“I want people to be able to mosh,
cry, and everything in between,” he says with a laugh.)
For now, the EP represents a healing exercise for the 23-year-old songwriter, a way to pull
himself out of professional and personal turmoil and reconnect with the people and places that
made him who he is today – the banks of the North Fork Shenandoah River and rolling hillsides,
the home-cooked meals and close-knit community. It’s the place he found himself physically in
2020 as the COVID pandemic began, and a destination he’s since learned is only a song away.
“Garden Snake is a time capsule,” he says. “It was like trying to make a Virginia record in LA.
I’m really proud of myself for seeing it through. It was character building, but I proved to myself I
could make it out the other side. It’s something no one can take away from me.” XX
SHORT VERSION:
When John-Robert left his Edinburg, VA, hometown (pop. 1,070) for LA in 2019, he did so with
starry-eyed ambition – bypassing a Berklee scholarship to chase his own musical manifest
destiny. Grammy-nominated producer Ricky Reed (Leon Bridges, Lizzo) signed him at age 19 to
Nice Life/Warner, helping integrate John-Robert’s lilting blend of traditional folk and Appalachian
country into the modern pop landscape.
His debut single, “Adeline,” has become an 11M streamer, and collaborations and co-signs from
Alessia Cara and Camilla Cabello have cemented him as a deeply auspicious writer. Now, on
Garden Snake, the artist hailed as “a small-town teen poised to become the next big
singer-songwriter” explores the pull of his past, bursting with the grassroots musicality of his
Shenandoah Valley birthplace and the homespun purity of his songwriting.
Ruminating on friendship, loneliness and identity, the self-produced Garden Snake is the
soundtrack to a coming-of-age epic. From the back-porch breeze of “Come Pick Me Up” and
colorful “Sweet Child” to the West Coast bedroom pop “Road Trip,” wistful “Westward Bound”
and red-clay shuffle “Good Days’ll Come,” the EP radiates John-Robert’s spirit at the
intersection of small-town USA and the internet age.
“Garden Snake is a time capsule,” he says. “It was like trying to make a Virginia record in LA.
I’m really proud of myself for seeing it through. It was character building, and it’s something no
one can take away from me.”