Trapdoor Social’s founding members, Merritt Graves and Skylar Funk, met in an Environmental program at Pomona College and bonded over a shared concern for the future of the planet. They started off on a journey to make music and do some good along the way.
Taking on 2016 with new music and a new platform from which to sing it, Trapdoor Social founders Skylar Funk and Merritt Graves realize their long-time dream of solar-powered concerts. In June the band hosted the first annua Sunstock Solar Festival, a 100% solar powered music and arts event promoting support and awareness for solar technologies and donating all of its proceeds to advance solar improvements in California communities.
Having expanded from a duo to a 5-piece, their August 12 eponymous debut album is an impassioned call to action. It’s a raucous, anthemic environmental and social critique, erupting with signature rock guitar and synth bass riffs from new additions Louie Gonzalez and Patrick Griffen. Drummer Ben Ebert has been added as a full-time member. Their “Sunshine” single has received strong radio positives around the country. The band states, “The verses are a brooding, melancholy meditation of unrequited love, while its chorus launches into an almost naive proclamation about filling up the void with sunshine. The song’s theme is one of embracing contrast and using loss as a catalyst to move the ordinary.” “Sunshine” has been voted #1 on KROQ’s “Locals Only” show and attained “Hall of Fame” Status on Las Vegas’s X107.5 nightly contest “The Beatdown” by winning ten times in a row.