New York native and recent Spoon recruit Benny Trokan today shares his album Do You Still Think of Me, a double debut: his first solo record and his first project partnership with Wick/Daptone Records. Listen to Do You Still Think of Me here.

Trokan started writing the songs on Do You Still Think Of Me with other people in mind to sing, but wound up keeping some of them for himself. Some inspirations include walking around and drinking alone at the Adirondak or the Olympia, Frank Sinatra’s “Wee Small Hours” and all the songs about loss and heartache, Downtown Soulville shows on WFMU, and Hagstrom 12-string guitars.

Of course, there are the more direct sonic influences, too: sweet soul & low-rider souldies, with a dash of the Morricone Spaghetti Western drama a la The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Trokan’s talents have earned him the right to call the following both inspiration and friends: The Altons and Thee Sinceers, Shannon and the Clams, Allah-la’s, The Black Angels, The Hold Steady… the list goes on.

To solidify the album, Benny Trokan worked with Wayne Gordon (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Kali Uchis, BadBadNotGood), Spoon’s Jim Eno, Gabe Roth…. The list goes on. He says that “It’s pretty insane I got all these talented people on this joker” — but when you hear the expertly-concocted combo of British Invasion and American garage rock, it makes sense why legendary producers and rock n rollers were so eager to work with Benny.

Benny writes music that’s too cool for the A side. In his own words, “I like to think that someone discovering my music is similar to the feeling I get finding a record I’ve never heard before, or flipping over a 45 to find out that the b-side is really where it’s at. Those are the songs that always do it for me.” 

Trokan had long made a name for himself playing with Robbers on High Street, Lee Fields’ Expressions, The Jay Vons, Reigning Sound, and Charles Bradley’s Extraordinaires. He also had a brief stint in Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. His most recent collaborative exploit has been contributing his talents to Spoon’s GRAMMY-nominated album Lucifer on the Sofa. For this record, Daptone’s Gabriel Roth (aka Bosco Mann) invited Trokan out to his newly christened studio, Penrose Recorders, in Riverside, CA. With longtime friends and musical associates Mikey Post (drums) and Morgan King (bass), most of the tracks were recorded live to 8-track tape, Trokan singing most of the vocals on the record live to get that raw, wriggling feeling throughout.

See Trokan’s upcoming live dates below, with more yet-to-be-announced shows in the near future.