We’re taking a break from packing to highlight a special artist from Ue3 Promotions. Trevor Drury has recently released his latest single, “Chapter 4” from his forthcoming album Alice It’s All in Your Head, and is getting rave reviews from everyone, including this blog.
The song is a hypno-symphonic power pop-rock ballad that mixes elements of alt-pop with rock and jazz, including some discordant sounds that will instantly draw you into his story that intimately
Drury released his first album, The Start, back in 2016 at the tender age of 20, a promising debut that turned this young and talented singer-songwriter into a future superstar. Since then, he has released the critically acclaimed and widely streamed tracks “I Know You From the 70’s,” (339,000 streams on Spotify) “Jealousy,” (378,000 streams) “Snowy Nights,” (686,000 streams) “Trip to the Water” (137,000 streams) and his previous single, “Head on the Tracks,” which is a dramatic look at anxiety and self-absorption. The song recently prem
Drury’s music has a pervasive retro feel that flows from his musical influences that range from Radiohead to Elvis Presley. His writing is evocative and allows the listener to engage with his words in a way that’s difficult to forget and impossible to ignore, as there is a narrative quality to his lyrics that includes fantastic piano riffs in each track.
Drury was born in Tucson and raised in San Diego, and began playing piano at eight years of age while pursuing music with a passion not often seen in one so young. Drury subsequently studied music at San Diego State University and British Irish Modern Music Institute.and is currently living in London. His forthcoming album includes collaborations with top studio musicians and is being produced by Marc Swersky, who has been nominated for multiple Grammys while winning a pair, and Mark Needham, whose mix for The Killers‘ Mr. Brightside has now hit multi-platinum status. While perhaps best known for prominent songs recorded by Joe Cocker and Hillary Duff, Swersky has become the go-to guy behind the boards for a wide range of independent artists, including The Chordaes, Ashley Delima and DR King.
Despite the fact that Drury is credited as songwriter and Swersky as producer on the singer’s tracks, they are truly collaborative efforts. “I don’t think the songs would sound anywhere as powerful and impactful as they do without Marc,” he remarked. “This is the first time I have worked with other musicians, and Marc instinctively knew who to bring in to flesh out my piano oriented demos into full productions – including the opera singer who sang with me on ‘Alice.'”
Drury continued, “A great producer is one who knows how to reach into you as an artist and pull out the essence of your idea, honoring what you want from the song while offering new insights on where it can go sonically. It/s really cool to hear these tunes I create on the piano suddenly come to life with this massive sound. I can sit back and listen to them as if they’re someone else’s work, but every track represents my final vision. Marc works his magic, but they always feel like me.”
Drury recently had the opportunity to tour throughout Europe and Japan as the opening act for Ramin Karimloo, a well-known Broadway and West End performer.
“I am a big fan of sounds that have movement to them and records that evolve and tell a story,” he says. “I don’t like creating generic pop stuff, and feel bored with the idea of doing that. If I hear a pop song, even if it’s a big hit, I’ll think, what if they had made it bigger and added a choir or taken their vocal and crunched it into guitar grittiness. These things jump out at me as a way to make the song cooler and more interesting. Marc is totally on the same page as I am in that respect. We like creating things we have never heard before. To that end, for every track we’re doing together now, we will have three versions: the one on the recording, a live version with a band and an acoustic version. It’s fun to try different arrangements to play with the emotions of a song.”
Although these days you will mostly find Drury performing within the UK and Europe, he is making a special trip to the US to perform on July 20 at Genghis Cohen (740 N. Fairfax Avenue) in Los Angeles. Tickets are available here.
