Taking their name from the acronym for the aviation term Time Reference Angle of Arrival Measurement System, the Chichester, West Sussex-based post-punk revivalist trio
TRAAMS feature singer/guitarist Stuart Hopkins, drummer Adam Stock, and bassist Leigh Padley. The bandmembers met at Goo, a DJ night Hopkins hosted at a bar in nearby Bognor Regis, where he spun songs by
Wire,
New Order, and
Le Tigre along with mainstream pop and rap hits. Bonding over their shared taste in music -- which also included a fondness for
McLusky,
Pavement,
Television, and
Kraftwerk -- they began playing as
TRAAMS in mid-2011 and recorded some Krautrock-meets-punk demos on their phone. They sent the demos to producer and former
Test Icicles member Rory Atwell, and recorded their first set of songs with him in November 2011. They continued working with him through 2012, and also signed with Fat Cat that year. Early in 2013, they recorded with
Hookworms' Matthew Johnson at his Leeds studio and released the
Ladders EP that June.
TRAAMS' first full-length,
Grin, appeared that September. The band reunited with Atwell for the
Cissa EP, which arrived in July 2014. After relocating to Leeds,
TRAAMS worked with Johnson again on their second album,
Modern Dancing, which arrived in late 2015. ~ Heather Phares