New Jersey’s own Molly Trueman sits down with us to talk about hometowns, inspiration, songwriting and her debut album
Molly Trueman’s debut album Angels & Aliens, released just two weeks ago, is a folk/rock dream.
In the wake of its launch, she sat down with Happy to talk all about her writing and arranging process, and where the inspo for the title came from.
Layering strings, guitar melodies and moving vocals, Trueman’s sound is a gentle nudge toward optimism and nostalgia.
With influences ranging from Phoebe Bridges to The Strokes, Trueman lets us in on her unique style, and how it feels to finally release an album to the world. Delve into our conversation below:
HAPPY: What are you up to today?
TRUEMAN: I’m headed to New York to see my mom perform with her band Damsel! I’m off school this week so I get to see them play for the first time in ages.
HAPPY: Tell us a little about where you’re from. What do you love about it?
TRUEMAN: I was born and raised in Princeton, New Jersey. Not a whole lot to do, but it’s cute and homey—very Gilmore Girls-esque. During my gap year in college (which, given it was 2020 and COVID era, I spent at home), I went on a lot of scenic drives and discovered cute neighboring towns—there are so many!
This was an essential outlet for me whenever I got sick of my house and needed a change of scenery. One of my favorite things about Jersey is the trees.
It’s such a green place, which I’ve found to be helpful when I need to romanticize my life a little (super great for songwriting!). It gets a bad rap, but I will forever be a central Jersey apologist. It does in fact exist!
HAPPY: Your debut album Angels & Aliens is out now! How does it feel to finally share your music with the world?
TRUEMAN: Releasing music is such a weird feeling. It’s like, I’ve been working on this music for ages, to the point where I’m almost sick of the songs. But for everyone else (minus the people who helped me bring the album to life), it’s brand new.
My friends and family will notice and appreciate little things in my music that I’ve started to overlook, which is super cool and refreshing. But still it’s like, wow, anyone can listen to these songs whenever they want.
It’s crazy and vulnerable and, at least for me, always at least a little weird. Regardless, it’s the best feeling in the world when someone tells you how much they relate to a song you wrote, or how much a certain song helped them through a tough time.
Like, okay good, that’s literally all that matters to me. If my music speaks to even just one person, I feel like I’ve accomplished something.
HAPPY: What was the inspiration behind the title of the album? Does it hold a special meaning for you?
TRUEMAN: As I was writing these songs, I realized I write a lot about change. Specifically about the people that come and go over time (angels to aliens, if you will), and how I deal with that weirdness.
As someone who hates change, there’s a lot of material to work with there, and the phrase “angels and aliens” started coming to mind more and more. And the more I had that phrase drilled in my brain, the more I subconsciously started working “angels” or “aliens” into my lyrics.
After a while, it just felt like the perfect album title. I kept coming back to it, which I took as a sign.
HAPPY: Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how do they show up in your work?
TRUEMAN: I like to blend folk and rock. Acoustic and electric, gentle and angry, subtle and blunt… On the folk/folk-adjacent side, I get a lot of inspiration from Phoebe Bridgers, Madison Cunningham, and Lizzy McAlpine.
I love the instrumentation and storytelling in their music. Lizzy was actually the artist that got me back into songwriting after years of not writing a single song, which was huge because the longer you go without writing, the harder it is to get back into it.
On the alt/rock side, it’s Paramore, Radiohead, The Strokes, and the like. All very angsty. I have a lot of fun being angsty in folky songs. It makes it a little less scary to be vulnerable when I go at it with an angsty (and lightly humorous) attitude.
HAPPY: What do you enjoy most about the songwriting process?
TRUEMAN: I love that moment when you have a breakthrough and can finally start to visualize a song in its full form. Like you might have a few individual ideas that have been stuck in your head, then after picking at them for a while, you realize they belong together.
That happens to me a lot. I also really love the arranging/production process. When I write, I can usually hear ideas for the instrumentation pretty early on.
I remember when I was writing “Across the Planets,” one of the first things that came to mind was the string arrangement. It took me months to figure out lyrics, but strings? Easy money.
That said, the production process is always super exciting because I can start to really materialize all the random ideas in my head.
HAPPY: Your music has such a layered sound. What’s your approach when it comes to arranging your songs?
TRUEMAN: I love working in Logic when it comes to arranging. I’ll start with the vocals and guitar as a base, and expand from there. Once that’s in, I like to incorporate drum and bass parts so I have a solid foundation moving forward.
From there, it’s really just pure experimentation, which is my favorite part. I love strings, synths, and background vocals, so I like to focus on those areas and see what I can come up with.
Doesn’t necessarily mean everything will stay in the final arrangement, but it’s good for me to just keep going and see what happens. I come up with my best ideas when I’m not really thinking.
HAPPY: What has the journey to your first album been like for you? Any memorable moments along the way?
TRUEMAN: Believe it or not, this album was actually my senior thesis, so it definitely happened faster than it would have otherwise. I didn’t finish writing “Across the Planets” and “Shadow Parade” until three days before my thesis was due in April, and I still had to record and mix—it was a fever dream.
I am definitely someone that works better under pressure. If I don’t have a deadline, it won’t happen. So while it was incredibly exhausting and stressful in the moment, I’m grateful that I had that time constraint.
It probably would’ve taken me several months longer to finish this project otherwise. One of my favorite memories during the process was recording drums and bass. Most of this project happened in my tiny dorm room where I had my own little makeshift studio setup.
I love working alone, but it inevitably gets isolating after a while. However, I opted to go to Miner Street Recordings in Philly to record drums and bass, both as an excuse to go on a little road trip, and because the sound was a million times better.
I had my best friend Sam Spector on bass (which…adorable), Shane Luckenbaugh on drums (still not over the fact that I got him to play on this album), and my friend and mentor Matt Poirier running the studio.
It was so cute and fun! I was so nervous going into it because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to communicate my ideas well, but they just…read my mind?? It was so very exciting to see my voice/guitar demos start to grow into fuller songs.
HAPPY: Looking ahead, what are you excited about for the future? Any new projects or collaborations on the horizon?
TRUEMAN: I’m excited to just keep writing. I took a little break after finishing this project because I needed it, but now I just can’t wait for the next album. I’m also looking forward to learning more and more about studio engineering and mixing.
I was scared of mixing (and the technical side of music-making as a whole) for a long time, but it’s exciting when you can feel yourself getting better at something.
HAPPY: What makes you happy?
TRUEMAN: Music, of course. Don’t know what kind of person I’d be without it. And the little things! Slow mornings, my cats, friend dates, playing guitar, scary movies, day trips, wine and cheese nights, the crossword, kombucha…it’s all like therapy for me.
