Caption:C. Moon trent and Paul f. Line of Pale
(DEBBIE NODA / The Bee) photo by Tracy Thielman.
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Modesto Bee, The (CA) PALE HARDLY THE WORD FOR DUO'S SONGS
Published September 11, 1992
By: LINDA CEARLEY, When a mutual friend introduced C. Moon trent and Paul f. Line just before New Year's 1991, it was dislike at first sight. |
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"He wasn't the kind of guy I'd hang out with at all -- he was so quiet," trent said of Line.
"We just didn't like each other at all," Line confirmed.
Fifteen days later they played their first concert together as Pale.
And now the alternative rock duo is talking with music companies about a record deal.
"We got to know each other," Line explained with a shrug. "We wrote a song together and things just clicked."
Writing songs -- and playing those songs -- is what makes both trent, 20, and Line, 19, tick.
Their sound, which reminds listeners of the Eurythmics and Erasure, has found an audience throughout the country via underground music magazines, where their self-produced tape is distributed.
The duo is a regular at Stanislaus area shows and recently taped an appearance at San Francisco's Lavender Lounge for local cable television.
Both trent and Line got into music early.
Growing up in Modesto, Line said, "My aunt used to watch me. She was 80 years old and the only thing she had was a piano. I figured out I could play and make music."
He six at the time.
He was composing his own songs by age eight.
He moved on to recording -- hooking up "a bunch of tape decks" and laying down several tracks of instrumentals and vocals. And then he moved on to live performances.
"I've been in just about every band in this area," Line said. "But people only want to go the safer route, they want to follow the next trend. I just want to do this one thing."
He got the opportunity with the Denair-born trent.
"I was pretty much the outcast," he said, "but that left me alone to be creative."
In more ways than one.
"When I was in the fourth grade, my babysitter was in the school choir," he said. "The rule was you had to be at least in the sixth grade to join, but I got up a petition and all my teachers signed so I could join."
But at 15, trent left Denair for Los Angeles. He worked in record stores, played in several bands and lived in the music world there.
"In one band I just hollered all the time," he remembered with a laugh. "I just wanted to be in a band then, but I never got to do my own songs.
"I've been writing songs since I was 15, seriously since I was 17."
At 18, trent moved back to Modesto and has been working at radio station KHOP. But he's about to move on again, to San Francisco this time. He's looking for more opportunities in the music world.
Put Pale will definitely continue. trent and Line are sure of that because this band gives them the outlet for their songs with a social message.
"I really believe in this group and th things we're doing," said trent, admittedly the chatterbox of the group.
"I've always been afraid to bear myself but that's what we do now."
And they want their music to make people think.
Their songs include:
* "Final Exit," about euthanasia,'
* "Inside," about a woman having to enter a rest home (trent's grandmother),
* "As of Noon," about a battered wife and an alcoholic husband and
* "Fiction", about growing up gay -- trent's own experience.
"I never wanted to address it because I thought I couldn't go anywhere in music," trent said. "But now more and more musicians are coming out.
"Paul's straight but he gets more upset about slights than I do."
So the two guys who took an instant dislike to each other now have a bond of more than music.
(DEBBIE NODA / The Bee) photo by Tracy Thielman. |
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Copyright © 1992- Modesto Bee, The (CA) and may not be republished, rebroadcast or redistributed without the express written consent of The Modesto Bee. Pale's website PALE |