TREY

Anna Brannon

Hey guys! Can you all introduce yourself for our readers?

Trey: Well, I’m Trey! I write our songs and sing, and play guitar and keys. I grew up in Saint Louis, lived in Nashville for a sec, and now live and work in Greenville, Illinois!

Dan: Hi, my name is Dan, also known as Danchi. I play bass for the band allcapstrey, also known as TREY. I’m from New Jersey.

Carter: I’m Carter from Springfield, Illinois! I play those sweet lead guitar licks.

Let’s get right into the music. What would you say your sound is?

Trey: I’d definitely say we fall into some kind of indie-pop genre. A lot of our songs have a consistent vibe to them, but the sounds we use and the writing style of each track varies a lot.

We’ve also been lumped into kind of an emo-pop grouping at times, which I’d say is pretty fair since our music is SAD.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you think they are an attribute to your own personal sound as a band?

Dan: The 1975 is definitely one of our huge influences for the band. We listen to most bands in our genre and play off of that with bands such as The Band Camino, Joan, THE WLDLFE, and Amber Run. We use other bands to help describe our band to other people. If we hear a guitar tone we like or the way a song is mixed we’ll take those ideas and build on it in our own way.

Carter: My earliest influences are John Mayer and Kenny Wayne Shepherd; they introduced me into the world of guitar. I don’t think they really show through on our stuff as a band since

it’s more blues oriented, but that’s still where my roots are. A lot of inspiration for the sound I’m creating with TREY now comes from a mix of Joan, Boston, 80’s glam pop, and honestly Jason from THE WLDLFE. Trey and I also bonded super hard over The 1975’s second album, so that definitely comes through on the newer stuff.

A fan wants to know what the inspiration was behind your band name. Was it intentional to have TREY be in all caps?

Trey: Great question. Back in the day, TREY was running under another name as The Great Indoors. There was another band about our size with the same name, so when smaller labels or management companies started contacting us, it got really confusing for everyone because sometimes they were looking for us and sometimes they were looking for the other band. After about a year of that whole ordeal, the drummer for TGI brought up the idea of rebranding and having the band name kind of center on the songs themselves, all of which I write. It seemed natural to change the name to TREY. The all caps thing was also TJ’s idea (the drummer for TGI), and I think that helps set us apart from other artists that perform under “Trey.” It’s also cool as hell to have kind of this double meaning, with “trey” being me, and “all caps trey” being the band.

Would you say you guys have a specific aesthetic as a band, or do your personal likes and influences go into your music and visual presentation?

Carter: I think we’ve been trying to create a specific aesthetic but we’re not quite sure what that is yet. It’s a journey, you know. We all bring different things to the table visually, musically, and physically on stage. We have different energies, but they mesh really well. If we’re talking like visual aesthetic though, I’m super into the current trend of over romanticizing the 90’s, for what that’s worth.

Going back into your music, your most streamed song of Spotify is “Outofline,” currently at 178,336 streams and counting! Did you ever expect that song to do so well with the public?

Trey: I remember having the idea for “Outofline” in the middle of another

project I was working on for someone else, and just throwing it down really quick as like a 2-minute chord progression. The next day, I wrote all of the lyrics in my car during like a 10-minute drive and demoed out the rest of the instruments that night. I remember feeling like there was something a bit different about this track, and I think a part of that is because what I was feeling at the moment I was writing it was so genuine, that the creation of the song as a whole flowed so quickly. I think when people hear “Outofline,” they feel how natural it is and it really resonates with them. I think it’s also a pretty common feeling to be in love with someone and not be able to tell them how you’re feeling, so people just… get it.

Are there any details on when you guys are going to release your debut album?

Carter: I can’t give any details on what projects we’ve got going right now, as much as I’d love to. Always more, soon. ;)

Trey: Yeah, we have some new stuff coming down the pipe! We can’t quite give dates yet but we never stop coming up with new material.

the idea of EPs more than full length albums?

Trey: Hahaha, we’ve had this conversation as a band so much lately. Personally, I think I like the shortness of an EP, because it gives a quick glimpse into a particular feeling or concept or story that an artist is going to convey. Albums can do this too, but I think it’s a bit easier for a small indie band to lose the interest of a listener with a longer release.

Carter: For me, I enjoy albums more as a whole. There’s more potential there, more room to work. Artists can create albums based entirely around one concept, tell a linear story through individual tracks and the way they correlate with each other, or they can just show off the different sides of their artistry. EPs are more limited, used for kind of just testing the waters. EPs have their place, and we’ve been set on utilizing that as best we can, but personally nothing beats a full length album.

When are you guys heading out on tour again? How have your previous touring experiences been?

Dan: We [went] to the East Coast in the middle of December. We have some shows on the East Coast this summer, and we had a lot of shows this past fall in the Midwest that you could call a tour. I personally enjoy traveling and long road trips, but having it with friends that you love makes

it that much better. Touring to a venue or a new city (even if it’s just an hour away) has become one of my greatest pleasures in life.

Trey: Yeah, I agree. Shows and tours are where we get to bring these songs to life in a new way, and it’s crazy because we get to play the same set at every show, but it feels different every time. And yeah, over the past few months it’s just been surreal to meet so many new people and to show up and have people that we’ve never met singing our songs.

What can we expect from TREY in the future?

Trey: We’re always working on writing and recording new stuff! We have lots of new songs coming soon, and we’ll be on the road as much as possible. TREY has no plans of slowing down, so we’re all really really pumped about the future. The other day, Carter and I just kind of loosely outlined our next year of releases, and they are...so good.