INTERVIEW: Truss is ready to break out of the Cleveland rock scene
Photo: Truss recently released its second album. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Earshot Media with permission.
Truss, a hard-rock outfit from Cleveland, recently released its second album, Fluorescence, which includes its latest single, “Numb.” With this recording the band hopes to expand its reach beyond Ohio and gather even more fans across the United States, Canada and the world.
For those who are new to the band, Truss promises sounds that can be placed in many categories, from grunge to alt-metal to hard rock to punk. The trio of Hannah Crandall (vocals), Eric Kennedy (guitar/bass) and Holden Szalek(drums) first began when they were students at The Ohio State University, and they’ve been gathering momentum ever since.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with the members of Truss to learn more about Fluorescence and how they started this group while still college students. Fans should check out their June 21 concert at the Grog Shop in Cleveland; that’s the official album release party. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can fans expect off your new album Fluorescence?
Fluorescence is very introspective lyrically, wrapped in 2000’s hard rock/alt-metal nostalgia. During the writing/production process, we called back to our influences from when we were growing up and looked at them through a modern lens. It’s packed with post-pandemic self-reflection, frustration and (of course) plenty of loud guitars.
What inspired the new song “Numb”?
When I (Hannah) wrote the lyrics for “Numb,” I was caught between the expectations of what other people thought I should do with my life versus what I actually wanted to do. I was dealing with an existential crisis, and writing “Numb” was my way of sorting through it.
How would you describe your sound? Hard rock? Grunge? Alt-metal? Punk?
A lot of the time, we just use the “hard rock” umbrella to make things easier, but I think influence-wise, there’s definitely a little bit of each of those. We grew up throughout the ’90s-2000s post-grunge, nu-metal and pop-punk scenes, so I think naturally those elements bleed into our sound. I think Fluorescence has a darker, more alt-metal vibe overall, which seems to be the direction we’ve been gravitating towards. Ultimately, though, that’s up to the listener to decide!
What’s it like to be based in Cleveland? Is it a musical town?
Cleveland is awesome (and extremely underrated). There’s a little bit of everything in the arts community, whether it’s music, visual arts or the culinary scene. It’s surprisingly diverse; you’d be hard-pressed to find a genre (or art category, etc.) that doesn’t exist somewhere here, yet it’s small enough where everyone knows each other. As a result, you get a lot of interesting multi-genre bills that wouldn’t intuitively make sense, but that totally work. It’s super affordable to live here, too, and the summers are perfect (despite somewhat miserable winters).
Do you hope this new album gets the band more exposure throughout the United States?
We do! I think the new record is thematically relevant and sonically taps into a nostalgia that a lot of people (including us) crave in 2025. We’ve grown and learned so much about ourselves as songwriters while making this album, and we hope it resonates with people. It’s definitely the best reflection of us and our ideas to date.
What did day one of the band look like? How did this start?
Hannah, Holden and I (Eric) have actually been playing music together in different projects well before Truss was formed, so our chemistry was already really solid. We were all going to school in Columbus at Ohio State at the time and wanted to establish something more concrete down there (around late 2018). We built some traction by playing the local bars and parties, and by the time we graduated, we all had plans to move back up to Cleveland, which made the relocation pretty seamless.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Truss’ new album is called Fluorescence, and the band is playing a slew of summer dates to celebrate its release. Click here for more information and tickets.
