MARY WISNIEWSKI
Assistant A&E Editor
Trey Brown stands outside of The Viper Room in Hollywood with his musical equipment on a weekday night. He is not yet 21 and cannot go in the venue. Unlike most other underage people, he will get inside eventually. He is performing a gig tonight, after all. However, he cannot enter until the time of his performance.
“It was kind of intimidating,” Brown said. However, it certainly did not stop him from performing to a lively crowd. And since then, this Pepperdine sophomore has played many venues ranging from such places as UnUrban in Santa Monica to Joes in Calabasas, and tonight, he will be showcasing his talent in a Coffeehouse in the Sandbar at 8:30 p.m.
“It’s hard to get people out to my shows,” Brown said while scratching his lips. Therefore, Brown said his main goal for his Sandbar performance is to get people to come out who do not normally hear him play.
Brown has always played in the Pepperdine Coffeehouses, but this will be the first one he’s headlining. His show will last a little over one hour. Brown said he anticipates a “good seamless show, like a movie.”
But, unlike a movie, there will be more than soda and popcorn. Brown is a vegetarian and will serve an unusal fare of snacks to feast on including hummus, pita chips and vegetarian spring rolls. Brown credits the Student Programming Board for providing him with a lot of support of having his own show. He said there is a lot less pressure to play at Pepperdine versus other venues.
“I don’t really have to sell myself,” he said.
Despite Brown’s experience with performing, he remains humble.
“There are so many phenomenal artists out there,” he said, while rubbing his curly, golden-brown hair. Although Brown is an Asian studies major, he hopes to make a living off of music one day. He said he realizes it is hard to break into, and said signing with a label does not guarantee money. Watching him strum his hands along to a song while humming makes it obvious how much he does love music.
“It’s like asking me why I like water,” he said. “I can’t separate life from music — you can find music in everything.”
Brown refers to his music as “indie acoustic,” although he said there are a lot of types of music he plays and believes it’s limiting to get caught up in genres.
“I’ll leave it up to the critics if I’m lucky enough to have them,” he said. His greatest influences are M. Ward and Nick Drake.
Friend Erin Wyche compares Brown’s music to Jack Johnson or John Mayer.
“Trey is a very unique guy,” says Wyche. “His music comes through from his personality.”
Brown is a self-taught songwriter, guitarist and singer, and has had no actual music classes besides choir.
“I don’t really know jack about music,” he said. “It is whatever sounds good to me.”
Brown has played in a band before, but so far, prefers to work solo. Although, he said he expects to play in a band eventually on the side.
Brown grew up in the town of Odessa, Texas. He said he did not appreciate it at the time, but reflecting back, he has realized how good it was for him in terms of his group of friends. It was also where he started to get into playing music as a sophomore in high school.
However, Brown said he didn’t get serious about music until coming to Pepperdine, a place that has introduced him to emotions that compel him to write music.
Brown said it takes him 10 minutes to a few days to write a song and uses every single moment to influence his material.
Brown said he mostly wrote about love, but he has started to break into new subjects. “Love gets old, man,” he said. “You’re not always a love bird. Some things become more pressing at the moment.”
For Brown, some of those things include the environment and politics.
“I’m very interested in change,” Brown said. Additionally, he uses politics as a means to write lyrics.
“I should write a letter to George Bush thanking him for giving me stuff to write about,” he said.
In 2005, Brown started the Young Libertarian club at Pepperdine. However, he found students to be apathetic and not many people showed up.
Brown said he is also very interested in traveling and hiking, spending three to five days on the trails. He also works at KWVS and is able to play the music he wants, including his own.
“It’s some of the perks,” he said.
Brown will be selling his 12-track CD at his performance tonight for $5.
03-26-2006
