Trans Am was first exposed to the Champs in 1997 during the drive from Portland to the Champs' hometown of San Francisco. "This sounds like really badly recorded Iron Maiden," Trans Am guitarist Phil Manley remarked. Intrigued, Trans Am contacted the Champs. A few joint tours followed and the bands bonded during late nights spent listening to Meshuggah, plotting the overthrow of mediocre rock, and hanging out with Bonham at the Rainbow in LA. The idea of a split release between the two bands was conceived of by Jeremy Divine in 1998. The original idea was to release a collaborative 12" picture disk. Trans Am and the Champs quickly agreed. A year later, a reel of half-completed material the Champs had recorded arrived at Trans Am's National Recording Studio with a cryptic note, "If you fuck this up, I'll fucking kill you!" Trans Am got right to work. After another year and a half, they sent their contributions out to the Champs' Louder Studios in San Francisco with Phil Manley as courier. Both National Recording Studio and Louder Studios share very similar equipment which made the transfer of tape even easier. The final product of this unholy alliance is a collaboration in a pure sense of the word. No track on "Double Exposure" features less than one member of either band. This arrangement allowed the members of each band to stretch out and explore new dimensions in sound. Enjoy.
