Today we’d like to introduce you to Trevor Douglas.
Trevor, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
When my mom was younger her family couldn’t afford for her to take any arts classes, so she made sure my brother, my sister, and I all got the opportunity to take plenty classes growing up. I tried just about all of the arts but the one I really became passionate about and stuck with was music. As I got older, I started delving into music even more. I was playing a lot of shows around DFW at venues like The Door, The Prophet Bar, Six Flags, etc., really getting into the music scene there. It got to the point where I was finding one or two shows to play literally every week. I eventually began going to the arts magnet school Booker T Washington, then stumbled my way onto Season 14 of American Idol. After getting to the top 24 it opened up a lot of doors for me. I was playing even more shows, touring around the US, and even got to give a TED Talk at SMU. That’s when I figured I could do this as a career full time — not just as a hobby.
So, I decided to do my senior year of high school online to really focus on my music. At that time, I was writing a lot and learning to produce my own music because, quite frankly, it’s really expensive to go to studios and pay producers to record my music. I put out my EP “four in the morning’ in 2018 and it did way better than I could have ever expected. The main single “Problems” made it onto a bunch of new music Friday playlists on Spotify has reached almost 500,000 streams at this point. And since then I’ve been working on a lot more music that I’m really excited to start putting out. I just put out my single ‘Think of Me’ that I wrote and recorded with my good buddy Devin Kennedy and could not be happier with how it turned out. I’ll have a music video coming out shortly too that was directed by Seth Lee who is basically my younger brother at this point which I’m really excited for.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Absolutely not. For starters, being a self-funded artist is incredibly hard. Finding ways to make money in the music business is not easy. I made most of my money from playing shows and selling merch, but since Covid hit it’s been even harder to make up for that lost income.
It can be really hard to balance having a personal/professional life as well. I would travel a lot around the US and I find it tough being away from my family, my loved ones, and honestly, my dog haha.
Then there’s the mental health aspect to it. Doing music full time for money can be very inconsistent and have you really stressed about money. Sometimes I think that no matter how successful I am, I’ll always be wanting to do better and top myself. The thought of that can easily trigger my anxiety which has been a big thing I know I have had to work through.
Trevor Douglas – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The thing I’m most proud of that sets me apart is my live show. I use a loop pedal and will hook up my acoustic guitar, mic, bass guitar, and other effect pedals to it so that I can make it sound live band on stage. I’ll lay down a bass line, then add percussion by beatboxing and hitting my guitar, then record harmonies and guitar parts all live and have them all playing together. Performing is honestly one of my favorite parts about being a musician and what I love doing most.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Probably seeing my EP ‘four in the morning’, which I wrote and recorded entirely myself, do so well. It’s incredibly rewarding to see something you worked so hard on like that be just so well received.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.trevordouglasofficial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trevordmusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrevorDmusic/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/trevordmusic
Image Credit:
The flower ones were taken by Alexandra Thomas (@AETphotos on insta)
All other were taken by Brenna Enos (@brorenna on insta)
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