Tender Trap

For other uses, see The Tender Trap (disambiguation).

Tender Trap
Tender Trap playing in Liverpool, July 2010
Tender Trap playing in Liverpool, July 2010
Background information
OriginLondon, England, UK
GenresIndie pop
Twee pop
Years active2001–2014 (on hiatus)
LabelsFortuna Pop!
K Records
Elefant Records
Matinée Recordings
Past members
  • Amelia Fletcher
  • Katrina Dixon
  • Rob Pursey
  • Emily Bennett
  • John Stanley
  • Elizabeth Morris
Websitehttp://www.myspace.com/tendertrap

Tender Trap were an English indiepop/twee pop band based in London, England, formed in 2001 by three of the five members of Marine Research - Amelia Fletcher, Rob Pursey, and John Downfall.[1]

Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey were previously in the twee pop bands Talulah Gosh and Heavenly, and some have seen Tender Trap as representing a return to the pop aesthetic of those earlier bands.[2] On their first, electronically slanted album Film Molecules, the songs demonstrate an eclectic mix of musical styles, with a clear nod to the similarly eclectic approach taken by The Magnetic Fields on their 69 Love Songs album.[1] The band took their name from a line in the song "One Step Forward" by Even as We Speak.

The band's initial intention was to be a recording outfit only, due to their hatred of transporting drums from place to place. They compromised by playing live but using a CD player for backing beats. Additional live performers have included Claudia Gonson (of The Magnetic Fields) on drums, and Lupe Núñez-Fernández of Pipas and Amor de Días, who was a guest vocalist on the Language Lessons EP and the second album 6 Billion People.

After a quiet 2007–2008, Tender Trap reformed at the beginning of 2009 as a five piece, with additional members Elizabeth Morris (also in Allo Darlin') on guitar and vocals and Katrina Dixon (formerly of Police Cat, Sally Skull and The Garden City Project) on drums and vocals.[3] They performed on the main stage at Indietracks festival in Derbyshire in July 2009 and the indoor stage in July 2010.[4] Elizabeth Morris left to concentrate on Allo Darlin' in August 2010 and Emily Bennett (Betty And The Werewolves) joined the following month on guitar and vocals.

In 2010, Tender Trap released Dansette Dansette, an album that finds Fletcher working with "up-and-coming British indie luminaries, rediscovering her musical beginnings, and continuing to incorporate and impart feminist consciousness through sharp, yet tender, pop songs" [5][3]

In 2012 they released their latest album Ten Songs About Girls, amidst somewhat of a revival of the '80s and '90s indie pop sound.[2]

As of 2014, the band is on indefinite hiatus, and Fletcher and Pursey now perform as The Catenary Wires.[6]

  1. ^ a b Fields, Alison (11 August 2002). "Film Molecules - Tender Trap - 2002". Pitchfork.
  2. ^ a b Burt, Stephen (14 September 2012). "Tender Trap and the Girl-Group Sound". The Guardian.
  3. ^ a b Wolk, Douglas (28 June 2010). "Dansette Dansette - Tender Trap - 2010". Pitchfork.
  4. ^ Gourlay, Dom (30 July 2010). "Indietracks 2010: The DiS review". Drowned in Sound.
  5. ^ "Venus Zine: Tender Trap has a soft spot for female-led indie pop". Archived from the original on 27 August 2010. Retrieved 26 August 2010., Venus Zine 2010 Tender Trap article.
  6. ^ "The Catenary Wires (mems Heavenly/Talulah Gosh) ready debut LP, playing free show at Rough Trade before Popfest". Brooklyn Vegan. 19 May 2015.