If you have never had the pleasure of attending a WERS discovery show, you sorely missed out on Trevor Hall at Royale on Wednesday. The venue started to fill up even before Hall’s first opener Christina Holmes had even walked out on stage to start her set. After a solid set from Holmes that had the crowd clapping along and generally pumped up, out stepped Will Evans with his didgeridoo and his very impressive looping skills which had the whole audience charged and excited. Finally out stepped Hall to a packed audience who was more than ready to hear him perform. Trevor was such a down to earth and friendly guy, during his opening song he noticed a little girl on someone’s shoulders and for his next song he allowed her up onto the stage where she grabbed onto him for a hug and he bent the microphone down to be on her level. WERS had the chance to sit down and talk with him before the show to talk a bit about his new album KALA and his experiences so far.
KB: The letter you wrote along with the release of your album talks about your grandma and how she give you the gift of Kala, what does she/ or would she think of the album?
TH: When she said those words to me I don’t think she knew it inspired a whole album. I ended up on the day it was released we went back to south Carolina and told her that there was an album inspired by her and we played her the album and she cried, so I think that she liked it”
KB: What started you on the road to music?
TH: It was definitely my dad, my dad was a drummer, he always had music around the house, instruments and was always the one that was supportive and just was always there for me, so definitely my papa.
KB: you say everything happens for a reason, would you say your journey through music was pre-destined?
TH: I think so, I don’t know what else I would be doing if I wasn’t a musician, I believe that nothing can happen without the will of spirit, it was definitely written.
KB: What does your song writing process look like?
TH: Its all over the place, you know sometimes I could be in the most amazing, inspiring beautiful place and no song will come out, or I could be in a motel six like stale environment and write the greatest song, its weird I can’t turn it on and off. I believe for me I have to be alone and I just kind of listen and the music comes first and the music kind of creates a vibe and then I kind of mumble a little bit over the music and then I translate my mumbling and before I know it there’s a song.
KB: Where is your favorite place to perform?
TH: Favorite place to perform? Other than Boston? I don’t know if I have an exact favorite spot but I usually like kind of smaller things over like grand big things. I like kind of intimate spaces, but there are so many beautiful places. I love touring the northwest like Seattle and Oregon the coast is just so beautiful like Vancouver and I love touring the northeast I like green lush environments
KB: What are some pre-performance rituals you do?
TH: nothing exciting, I tend to like to warm my voice up for about a half hour with really weird noises that somebody taught me, we like to get quiet and we don’t like to have a lot of people back stage, we just like t get silent and quiet before everything gets really loud
KB: How do you think your music has evolved?
TH: I think my music was like you know, I’m still on the journey to find my way, and find my style. When I first started out my music was about what girl I liked, or like my calss or something and now its kind of evolved into more of a spiritual journey for me. Just in its subject matter its changed and hopefully I’ve become a better musician
KB: Have you always been inspired by the spiritual?
TH: I definitely have always been hungry for something and I didn’t know what it was, I tried to fill it up with different things as I grew up but eventually I knew that it was a spiritual hunger. I just always had this kind of intensity about me ever since I was a kid, its just always how I’ve been I guess.
KB: How has teaming up with the Love Your Brain Foundation changed you?
TH: Its been really beautiful, I saw Kevin Pierce’s movie before I met him, and its just such an inspiring story, I was like man this kid has been through a lot but I just felt like some connection even before. I actually his brother first Adam and we really kind of hit it off and I just learned that its main focus obviously is for brain injury survivors, but I learned that it went much further, much far beyond that, like loving your brain and living a conscious, healthy life for yourself, for your head, for the people around you, and that’s what we are trying to do with our music too, we are just talking to spirit world and just try to be guided in a healthy way, and its just been such a beautiful journey and its gone a lot further than what I would have expected. We are actually just about to do a benefit for love your brain in November back in L.A.
KB: you once said, "These songs are not all where I'm at presently, many of them are where I aspire to be.” Are you where you want to be now?
TH: I’m still working on it, I think the day that I am not working on it is a bad day I think till the day I die is a journey and I just try my best.
KB: What would you tell your High School self who got dropped from the label now?
TH: This is so cliché, but everything happens for a reason, just relax because you know everything is being taken care of, but my High School self I would say what the hell are you doing though I think a lot of us would say the same thing.
KB: What is it about India that draws you back every year?
TH: I don’t know its just I’m from south Carolina I never expected to go to India or be affected by India, it just happened. There’s a lot of things, here in the west we are so caught up in kind of main stream culture this and that, that we forget about spirit where as over there its like completely opposite its hard to forget spirit because everywhere you turn there is something going on spiritually with the temples so its just a nice environment to be in when you are a spiritual seeker, but I think the main thing is just their way of getting into the heart, just the way that they have that ability to share love its just special.
KB: When you need to relax where do you go mentally?
TH: when I need to relax I go to Netflix, I’m joking, when I need to relax I just like I don’t know I think I turn to music, you know not necessarily my own but others, just to calm down, or you know you turn to loved ones, someone that you just know will listen to you, they don’t even have to say anything to you just to be able to listen is a really amazing quality just those types of things.
KB: so what’s next for you?
TH: well, we are wrapping it up for the year here, and then we have a few months off which is going to be really needed and beautiful, just resting and focusing on recharging and then next year we are just back at it, we are going back to Australia for blues fest, and we are going over to Hawaii for wanderlust, and playing on a Zen cruise in March it’s already shaping up, so just taking it one step at a time.
By: Kate Bell
