Trackless

Combining folk, R&B, pop and funk genres, Trackless will kick off the release of their debut album this weekend.

The band, which is composed of four Ball State students and one alumnus, will celebrate with a party and performance Friday at Be Here Now.

Trackless formed in 2011 when Jordan West, drums and vocals, needed a band for a gig in Chicago. Although she did not end up playing there, it resulted in the band’s beginning.
After a few single releases, that band is preparing to release its first album, “For Your Soul.”

“We’re music majors doing music stuff and doing it really well...” bass player Jesse Gaze said. “I think it’s good for people to go see something and have high expectations and have that achieved. Have pride in your fellow students.”

Since the band performed for the first time at Be Here Now, they decided to have their release party there.

“It was a great first show,” West said. “I wanted to do it in the same spot because it’s close to campus, so everybody can come.”

Trackless recorded most of their album back in October. Although they have more than three hours of music, they narrowed it down to choose their top 10 songs for the album.
West described the album’s sound as eclectic.

“It goes through all of our mini phases as a band,” she said. “We had a jazz phase. Our new phase is kind of poppy. A lot of the stuff on our album is not mainstream, I would say. There’s R&B, there’s a country song. The album is us figuring out our sound as a band.”

Since many of the band members have a gig in Indianapolis before the party, they will take the stage around 12:15 a.m. after local bands The Appomattox and Good Morning Players perform.

Gaze said it’s important to support local music.
“It’s a whole big global thing because you can get digital music, but you can’t get this experience, especially for this type of music and the genre as a whole. You gotta go see it live,” Gaze said.

Senior accounting major Kelly O’Connor plans to support Trackless by attending the party.

“My hopes for their album and the party is that it gives them more exposure and opportunities so that their music can reach a broader fan base,” she said. “I hope that everyone that hears Trackless falls in love with the band.”

The release party will start at 10 p.m. Friday at Be Here Now. It will cost $4 for those under 21 and $3 for anyone 21 or older. Trackless will also have their album available for $10. - BSU Daily News

Just more than a month after releasing their first album, Trackless has been named Best Band of Ball State.
Piano player and the youngest member of the band Jon Nelson said the band felt honored to be recognized.
"It feels really good to have all the hard work we've put into composing and rehearsing to pay off because we really do invest all of our spare time into Trackless," Nelson said. "We're really starting to get some benefits back as we're getting booked at some festivals over the summer, continuing to play gigs and getting sales from our album."
The band found it's start in October 2011. Jordan West, drums and vocals, had a gig in Chicago, but she needed a band for it. She brought together some friends to form the group, but they never made it to the show.
Will Smith, guitar and vocals, joked that they did not play the gig because they were "too good for it."
Despite not playing that day, the group felt a connection after their first few rehearsals. They decided to become a band and start performing locally, winning the fan-ship of Ball State Students.
"We're music majors doing music stuff and doing it really well," bass player Jesse Gaze said. "I think it's good for people to go see something and have high expectations and have that achieved."
Now the band of five is growing a steady fan base, with around 750 likes on Facebook. They released their debut album "For Your Soul" on Feb. 22.
"We all felt that the phrase made sense in terms of music," West said explaining the title. "The music is for your soul, and we liked that song. It was an easy choice."
Since then, Trackless has sold more than 100 copies for 10$ each.
"Our sales have been really satisfying," Nelson said. "It's great to see people see who we are and what our music is like."
The band plays a variety of genres, leading West to define the sound of the album as eclectic.
"It goes through all of our mini phases as a band," she said. "We had a jazz phase. Our new phase is kind of poppy. A lot of the stuff on our album is not mainstream, I would say. There's R&B, there's a country song. The album is us figuring out our sound as a band."
Since graduating, Jeremy Jones, vocals, works for a recording studio in Chicago. He drives down to join the band for shows. Though the band members may move in different directions, they hope to stay together as long as they can.
"We're going to do the best we can to move forward together because we enjoy playing with each other," West said. "We all have specific things that we want in life. The ideal thing is that all of our separate desires come together in one location. I would love to see this go as far as it can."
For now, Trackless is working on booking as many shows as they can for the summer.

Daniel Brount - BSU Daily News

After winning last year’s Battle of the Bands and opening for The Knux at Chet Fest, Trackless came back to Manchester on Friday to perform at WBKE’s FuzeFest.

Held in Wampler Auditorium, Manchester University students graced the stage first. “They were simply volunteers who enjoy performing and wanted to participate in the event for fun,” said WBKE Sports Director and FuzeFest emcee, Mark Zinser. Openers included musical performances of original, student-written songs and covers by Chris Minter, Trevor Kimm and Brandon Curry and the comedic stylings of Michael Paynter.

After the openers concluded, Trackless, a band comprised of Ball State University students, began to perform. This group boasts nearly 600 “likes” on Facebook and has an album set to be released by Christmas. “We think they will go somewhere in the music industry, hopefully in the near future,” Zinser said.

With a set list containing pieces ranging from covers (like Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks”) and original songs, this five-person band entertained an intimate crowd and made sure the audience was on its feet and dancing the entire time.

WBKE had been in talks with Trackless for over a year to get them to come back and put on a show at Manchester’s FuzeFest. Trackless “blew us away last year,” said Megan Fetters, WBKE advisor.

Zinser said: “They [Trackless] thrived to develop a deep relationship with us.”

FuzeFest, completely run by WBKE members, was organized so there was a “fun event to attend [on campus, but to] hopefully raise some awareness of the radio station and its presence on campus. We want students to be excited when WBKE is involved with something, like they are when there is a MAC event,” Zinser said. WBKE’s other big event is Chet Fest, which is usually held sometime in April.

Amidst raffles of gift baskets and WBKE apparel, Trackless performed for a couple of hours until having to conclude their show. Unlike the concerts I have been to, the band members simply stepped off of the stage upon finishing and began to interact with the crowd. Having no “roadies” or crew, Trackless members sat up their merchandise table on their own and handled money while selling t-shirts and EPs.

It was apparent that the band members were not in Hollywood just yet, though, seeing that they are all senior students at Ball State. Instead of discussing after parties and record labels, the Trackless band members were overheard discussing papers they had to write over topics like the History of Constantinople, and like any overworked student, were jokingly offering to pay someone to write the paper for them. It seems that the fame and notoriety has not gotten to Trackless’s heads.

Hannah Schutter - Oak Leaves

Jordan West sits on her throne, behind the drums of local band Trackless, and counts in her four companions onstage. Without being told the crowd moves in close to the basement stage at Be Here Now. The crowd begins to dance as Jordan, a slender blonde, and lead singer Jeremy Jones, also slender, though with short, dark hair and complexion, break into the lyrics of Trackless' set opener Feel the Heat, an original by Miss West which will be available on the bands forthcoming EP. You can listen now here.

The openers for Trackless this particular Friday evening had a nice rock sound and time but I could not get any sense of content from their vocals; the crowd of Cardinals was largely indifferent. Hopefully next time the opening act will be sure to announce their name clearly and often enough that everyone knows it.

Fortunately, Trackless' strong connections to the funk and soul music they occasionally cover create a lot of positive energy in their audience. Their lyrical content is genuine and generally communicates clearly live. Their fans dance vigorously throughout the set, especially during the songs when two of Ball State's heavy horn slingers join the group.

With both levels of Muncie's volunteer-run Be Here Now grooving hard Trackless receive loud, insistent calls for "more" at the end of their set. This also happened when I caught the group at D luxe around the corner several weeks prior to Friday's show. I give the bands Be Here Now set a five star review and highly recommend you take advantage of your next opportunity to enjoy a performance. Talking about the band afterwards writer, drummer, and vocalist Jordan says "I love performing live for our fans with this band." - examiner.com