Oakland’s Trails and Ways use their worldly travels to captivate a sold-out Independent

Photos by Tomáš Valda // Written by Nik Crossman //

Trails and Ways with Bells Atlas //
The Independent – San Francisco
June 5th, 2015 //

With sounds derived from their worldly travels, the four Oakland natives of Trails and Ways promoted their debut album Pathology at The Independent after the soulful melodies of Bells Atlas. The inspiration for Trails and Ways began abroad and amalgamated with a bedroom recording project, which produced their hit single “Nunca” and transformed the project into a dedicated passion. Thanks to their recent national tours and performance at Outside Lands last year, this up-and-coming foursome is one to watch.

Flowing over a sold-out audience in SF, Trails and Ways set out to debut the latest songs from Pathology, which was released just three days prior. The public infancy of the first few tracks made it difficult for the audience to rally behind the sing-along energy produced from their better-known hits like “Mtn Tune”, “Sure Thing” (a Miguel cover) and of course “Nunca”, but Trails and Ways seemed to pick up on the energy and quickly shifted gears to the crowd favorites, enlisting everyone to move and sing along.

While there were different expectations across the board, it’s always difficult to debut new music and maintain solid engagement with a crowd. Fortunately, Trails and Ways were able to leverage the delicate intimacy of The Independent and create the best of both worlds, leading fans on a journey through Pathology. Once Trails and Ways abandoned the stage, the crowd quickly summoned them back for an encore, and they happily obliged.