Suavity's Mouthpiece is the pseudonym of American singer-songwriter Justin Trafford. Under the pen name Sinclair McRickson, Trafford's works are widely regarded as a successful blend of 1920s/30s crooning and post-punk music.

Justin Trafford (born Justin Antoszewski) was born on 13 November 1990 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His unequivocally strict Roman Catholic upbringing played host to an adolescence spent in social anxiety. From a very young age, he wrote and produced his own musical works at home, using self-garnered musical intuition. Trafford certainly had music in his genes, as his mother was in a wedding band with her brothers in the mid-1970s to raise money for college. From early on, his works drew inspiration from the musical stylings of several indie pop and post-punk acts such as The Smiths and Magazine respectively. Being very literarily inclined, Trafford initially infused lyrical writing styles of Romantic poets -- and later, existentialist, anarchic, and nihilistic undertones -- into his music, never sacrificing meter for rhyme scheme. Very few copies remain of Trafford's initial recordings.

Trafford instituted himself into the popular music industry with the 2002 release of his first commercial single, "Empty Dreamer," on his own Widowed Majesty label. The single, which was a patent work of baroque pop, established Trafford as McRickson in the independent artist community. As McRickson, Trafford began working on his first commercial full-length album, which was to contain his specialized brand of crooning baroque pop delineated in the first single, "Empty Dreamer." The album, "The Very Last of My Promenade Days," was released in 2002. Unfortunately, the album passed through the world of independent artistry without much notice. Trafford has since altered the critical past of his debut album by reissuing a legacy edition remastered EP with bonus tracks released on Italian End of Music label in 2009.

Trafford was determined to make his next album a masterpiece. It seems he was successful, as the first single, "Undesirable", from his sophomore album, "The Winedark Serenatas," (released in 2005) made waves in the world of internet independent artistry, winning awards on the acclaimed artist review site GarageBand.com for "Most Original" and "Best Mood" in the indie rock genre. Trafford approached New Jersey independent record label Argento Records to release the subsequent singles and album, but conclusively decided to release "The Winedark Serenatas" on the same Widowed Majesty Records label. The album, which largely reflects the baroque pop sound of the previous "The Very Last of My Promenade Days," boasts the single "The Rapture Incarnate," which became a signature hit of Trafford's as well as a live staple. Trafford's next full-length album, "Embrace the Nocturne," would continue the pattern of his baroque pop sound, but in a much less-confrontational, robust mood. His intention was to create an atmosphere much like songs on his post-punk idols' Magazine's sophomore album, "Secondhand Daylight." The result was a successful 10-song follow-up to "The Winedark Serenatas," released in 2006. "Embrace the Nocturne" included the singles "I Know in My Heart," "I Dream I Am Not of Life," and "Thresholds," the latter of which became a signature hit of Trafford's as well as a live staple. As can be seen through several of Trafford's influences, his writing style tends to exemplify himself as an image rather than a musical entity. Much like his predecessors Morrissey and Howard Devoto (the latter whose original surname Trafford had adopted), the works themselves have always put much weight on the vocal and lyrical aspects of the pieces. Later on, Trafford was to take a step further into the direction of iconicity by introducing aspects of crooning into his material.

In early 2008, Trafford announced plans for his fourth studio endeavor, which was to be entitled "These Thoughts Dost Seasons Manifest." By the time about half of the album was recorded, Trafford had a falling out with web-based distributors at his very own Widowed Majesty label, and vowing to dispose of the label after his new projects were released, he began to alter the course of the production of his next album. The album was originally slated to be released in two separate formats between the United Kingdom and the United States, the former under the new title "Citta Creatura Viva" (a deluxe version including newly-recorded tracks postdating the qualm at Widowed Majesty) -- taken from obscure Italian poet Biagia Marniti's book of the same name -- and the latter under the original title "These Thoughts Dost Seasons Manifest" (only including the tracks recorded up until the falling-out and B-sides from subsequent singles). Plans for the U.S. release gradually fell by the wayside, and "Citta Creatura Viva" was made available worldwide on Trafford's 18th birthday, 13 November 2008. The album boasted four successful singles, titled "Rush Toward the Hilltop," "Killjoy," "I Ebb to the Wayside," and "Fast Car, Sharp Bend, I Will Love You Always." While the essence of baroque pop that predated "Citta Creatura Viva" in Trafford's sound remained, production had noticeably been altered from previous discs, as well as methods of instrumentation. "Citta Creatura Viva" was the first among Trafford's albums to play upon the use of distortion guitar and synthesizer, much in the vein of his various punk and post-punk icons. It is also around this time that Trafford made public that he is an anarchist, and that he was writing a book on existentialism titled ''Not of Life,'' which was to peruse 'the sum of all of my thoughts in reading the works of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Schopenhauer, Skinner, Bakunin, and many more the like.' The book remains unreleased.

By January 2009, Trafford had signed to two separate labels -- Love Torture Records (situated in Canoga Park, California) and End of Music (situated in Pavia, Italy) -- to better facilitate the release of his works worldwide. By early February, Trafford had released a new single entitled "The Beatles Would've Hung Themselves" under the new moniker Battery. The release stood apart from anything previously written by Trafford up until that time -- the song is built upon a melodic punk vibe, reminiscent of the late 70s singles of Trafford's punk idols, The Buzzcocks. The song's lyrics had Trafford's trademark sardonic taste, albeit, with a more pungent rhyme scheme and more contemporary allusions. By the release of a second new single, entitled "Know Your Place," Trafford announced through his labels that under Battery name, this would be the second of three heralding singles leading up to a full-length album entitled "The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth." Soon, however, due to publishing discrepancies with another band by the name of Battery in the southern California area, Trafford announced that the project would continue under the moniker Suavity's Mouthpiece. "Know Your Place" reached more acclaim than any previously released McRickson single, being dubbed by LOSINGTODAY magazine as ''a twinkling bed of celestial halos...strangely amorphous...operatic.'' It was at the time of the release of the third and final heralding single to "The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth" -- entitled "The P.E. Survivors" -- that Trafford's close friend Meredith Bigatel began accompanying him on the bass guitar and rhythm guitar in live performances. Bigatel, who's brother Nick was an active voice in Pittsburgh's Iron City punk scene with his band Bad Influence, remains to date the only musician Trafford has ever worked with. Although the two have yet to record studio material together, Meredith is always given special thanks on the back sleeves to the releases of Suavity's Mouthpiece. "The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth" was released in April of 2009 to critical acclaim. The 9-track pseudo-electronic opus was declarative of the arrival of Suavity's Mouthpiece in the popular music scene. A depart from the ordinary McRickson style, most tracks on the album have their basis in progressive keyboards and synthesized sounds, using guitar as support to drive in each track's point. To this date it remains Trafford's most circulated work.

In several live performances promoting "The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth," Trafford and Bigatel instituted a new cover version of the Frank Loesser-penned Sinatra hit, "Luck Be A Lady Tonight," into their set. The cover, which in the following months would become the first Suavity's Mouthpiece standalone single, expiated on Trafford's desire to delineate the lost vocal style of the croon in his music. He voiced his admiration for gone-too-soon 20s crooning sensation Russ Columbo, whose life was cut tragically short in the apex of his career in a freak antique dueling pistol accident.
In mid-June 2009, Trafford announced plans for a new eponymous extended-play record by Suavity's Mouthpiece, to be heralded by a single dedicated to and bearing a unique twist on Columbo's signature tune. "I Call it Madness, but You Call it Love," released in August 2009, continued Trafford's streak of topping his own material in popularity with each succeeding release. The six-song EP "Suavity's Mouthpiece" was released some subsequent weeks later, followed by a second, less-fanfared CD-EP single entitled "Au Revoir, Mssr. Meursault," released only on End of Music. It was at this time that Trafford began once again pitching Suavity's Mouthpiece to new labels, as the notable difference in promotion standards between his work and that of the numerous industrial and experimental acts on Love Torture Records procured a blatant genre-based favoritism, despite the fact that Suavity's Mouthpiece had been garnering a substantial amount of business for the label. Trafford opted to re-release "Au Revoir, Mssr. Meursault" on the new avant-garde Filipino label Kamias Road Records, headed by Lionel Valdellon, curator of electronic label QED Records. It was the first time since the beginning of Trafford's professional career that he was without backing from a US label.

In October 2009, Kamias Road Records released a compilation of twenty original singles spanning Trafford's seven year recording career (both as McRickson and as Suavity's Mouthpiece), entitled "Singles To Which Lovers Roll Their Eyes," with the intended purpose of instilling the classical quality of the McRickson catalog. While received to a degree satisfying Trafford and garnering radio airplay for the 2006 "Thresholds" single, the artist insists that the move to release the compilation was merely a push to bridge the gap between Suavity's Mouthpiece projects, saying, 'With the body that is Suavity's Mouthpiece moving at such a more intensive speed than discs released under the name McRickson ever did, I did feel that it was necessary to move for the compilation as a reminder to both the public and myself that I have been around for awhile and, yes, there are quite a many good songs that had too little a promotional run because of my attentions being divided across multiple endeavors at the time.' It was at this time that he began including more often material from his back catalog in his live sets, specifically from the album "Embrace the Nocturne."

Trafford's next intended move was to follow-up "The Audial Equivalent of John Wilkes Booth" with a second full-length Suavity's Mouthpiece disc. Again feeling dissatisfied with the cooperation of his labels, he dropped Kamias Road Records, scorning their lack of service quite bitterly. Not long after, Suavity's Mouthpiece was picked up by progressive Dallas label Subspine Records, the representatives of which had reportedly been in discussions with Trafford for some preceding length of time. Now confident of the safety of his back catalog and finally with a label in his home country again, Trafford looked forward to the inception of his new project, to be entitled "The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece." The first new single from the project -- a trumpet-blazing, showtune-esque, boredom-glorifying number called "The Brains of Flies" -- was released in early December 2009, and immediately became a recognizable live favorite. What was to follow, however, became the most acclaimed release of all predating written by Trafford.

The follow-up single "I'm Sick of Your Tedious Girlfriend" was released in mid-January 2010 some short weeks after having been introduced to the artistic community through the renowned Garageband.com reviewing medium. Garageband.com, which, in conjunction with the iLike company, is the largest and most reputable artist network online, bestowed upon the new Suavity's Mouthpiece single the awards of "Best Male Vocals in Alternative Pop," "Best Overall Programming," "Best Production in Alternative Pop," "Best Mood in Alternative Pop," and "Most Original Overall," along with making it the site's "Track of the Day" on January 23rd. With it's basis resting upon a jazz-flamenco fusion rhythm with flaring trumpets and an exotic eastern breakdown, "I'm Sick of Your Tedious Girlfriend" is consistently referred to by Trafford as the most important track he's ever written. The sleeve for the single is the first to feature Meredith Bigatel alone; Trafford has remarked endearingly that this is, in fact, the reason for the success of the single.

The following weeks saw the full release of "The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece." Trafford had successfully met his intention of creating a significant work worthy of following the success of the first Suavity's Mouthpiece disc. With nine new complex orchestrations (including the two intensely well-received new singles) joining the Suavity's Mouthpiece original repertoire, Trafford was well on his way to developing a poignant back-catalog for Suavity's Mouthpiece, one to rival his solo work. Praised as "an incredibly well-realized release...recorded beautifully, written carefully, and...performed in genres, idioms, and styles that have been largely abandoned by modern pop music" by Independent Clauses editor-in-chief Stephen Carradini, "The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece" deftly evaded the domain of the music industry's dreaded 'sophomore slump' album, largely due to Trafford's "voice, the songwriting skill, and the charisma."

At the time of the album's release, Trafford and Bigatel had been separated several months due to each attending different universities; however, the two remained in close contact and discussed plans for live Suavity's Mouthpiece performances in the summer. Lacking Bigatel's knowing bass, Trafford refused to perform under the name Suavity's Mouthpiece when he debuted material from the new album in live performances at this time.

A few short months following the release of "The Passion of Suavity's Mouthpiece," Trafford was contacted by University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Music, Dr. Christopher Bartley, on the subject of Trafford speaking at his "History of American Popular Music" course on the topic of 'The Future of the Music Industry.' Trafford accepted with much gratefulness to Dr. Bartley, who introduced Trafford to the background of "I'm Sick of Your Tedious Girlfriend," the first time Suavity's Mouthpiece was played in a college lecture. Trafford thanked Dr. Bartley for his class's engaging discussion.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.