Trevor Daniel Opens Up About His Scariest Moments While Pursuing His Dream And New Album Nicotine

Trevor Daniel, the 25-year-old singer and songwriter rose to fame in 2019 with his single “Falling”, a song that quickly went viral and broke the billboards charts peaking at no. 25. The song was released in his 2018 debut EP “Homesick”, and it started gaining popularity a year later through TikTok, a well known trend-setting source as it helped many other artists, and then was added on various Spotify big playlists and charts.

Some months later he is back with the release of his debut album “Nicotine”, which consists of 10 tracks including “Falling” and is full of hits. Some of the people that have worked in the album are, Finneas, Based1, KC Supreme and many more, and it’s released through Interscope & Alamo Records.

2020 is going to be a huge year for the American artist, as he has so much more in store for his fans. "Nicotine" is a wonderful piece and an album so addictive as the title.

New Wave got the chance to talk with the artist about his quitting his job during Hurricane Harvey, his goals, his musical all-star team and much more.

Your debut album is called Nicotine, do you feel like you have an addictive personality?

I don’t feel like I have an addictive personality for a lot of things but then on the other side maybe I do, but who knows? I feel like a lot of people with addictive personalities wouldn’t realize that they have an addictive personality.

Your music draws from different genres, where would you say that comes from?

My music draws inspiration from a ton of different genres. but it just depends on the time period of when I’m making the music and what I’m listening to, going through, or seeing a lot of.

Your album has no features, if you did who would you love to collaborate with and on what song?

My album has no features because no one that I wanted to feature with at the time got back to me mostly due to them having albums coming out and just timing not lining up, but I’m not big on features anyway so it didn’t really bother m. I feel like if someone does a feature they need to deliver something that I couldn’t and this was a very personal album for me so it would be hard for anyone else to tell my story the way that I could anyways, so I ended up being OK with it. However, if I did do any collaborations in the future there are a lot of artists that I would love to work with depending on the songs.

If you could make an all-star music team with 5 artists, who would they be?

My All-Star team would be Travis Scott, Dua Lipa, Taylor Swift, Kid Cudi, and myself. I just want to hear how that would sound. there’s a lot of other artist that I’d add to that roster if I could.

Which albums or musical projects have inspired you the most during your life?

The albums that inspired me most would definitely have to be 808s and Heartbreak, Man On The Moon II, and a bunch of different other random songs put into a playlist that I made, lol. my own projects have inspired me to push harder and get better as well but that’s just because I hear what I want to get better at every time I release something it becomes a little bit clearer to me.

Do you think living in Los Angeles is important to your success and your musical impact?

Living in Los Angeles definitely has its perks and I’m available for collaboration with a lot of the artist that I’ve also moved out here and producers as well. My label also is based out of LA so it’s easy to communicate things that I want with them. However as far as creating on my own terms I feel like I could be anywhere as long as I was in a creative head headspacespace or felt creative in that space. But when it all comes together; I couldn’t do all of this without my team so it’s very essential for now.

What did you learn during the experience of collaborating with Blackbear?

I learned a lot collaborating with blackbear, I’m the type to write a ton of stuff that comes to mind and just figure it out after I record it and a lot of times that leaves me with a lot to work with. I have a lot to say but sometimes saying everything clouds the overall point you’re trying to make. But working with him helped me see more from the “less is more” viewpoint. he’s very good a telling the story directly. HUGE lesson for me. love that guy!

How did you feel when you saw “Falling” so high in the Billboard charts?

When I finally saw falling hit the Billboard charts, I ran around my house screaming “WE MADE IT BRUV TAKE OVER TIME BABBBY” in a British accent because I was watching “peaky blinders” haha.

What is your favourite song to perform?

My favourite song to perform is "Falling" at the moment because of how many people in the crowd know every single word it’s really hard not to tear up when that happens. It’s always without fail an emotional moment.

When did you start singing and pursuing your talent in music?

I always made music and I always sang around the house, but things got real whenever I decided to quit my job after hurricane Harvey.

Internet Money was a really big step for your music career, how did you feel when they asked you to sign with them?

Internet Money changed my life I’m forever grateful for them. I was ecstatic I love those guys.

What’s been the most memorable moment while touring?

Every show has a really memorable moment but the first time the entire venue sang back all of the words to my songs I realized that I was really doing something with my life and I couldn’t stop crying hahaha.

What’s the scariest experience you ever had pursuing your music dream?

The scariest experience I’ve ever had pursuing my music career was taking the step to quit everything else and become 100% reliant on music. Forcing myself to do that was the most freeing, confidence-boosting, confidence destroying, whirlwind experience I’ve ever had in my life. But there’s nothing I’d change.

Tik Tok played a big role in your musical success, what’s your opinion on social media and especially Tik Tok being the platform that people choose what is going to be the next hit?

I love Tiktok. When I get old, I’ll probably get it tatted on me just for fun, maybe not but I do love that social media is so available to artist nowadays I don’t know how else I would’ve gotten my music out if it weren’t for social media platforms. I just hope that people continue to just make music that they feel and not what they think is going to blow up on the Internet. because I strongly believe regardless of where the music is found people gravitate to what is real and can tell if someone is trying to do something as a gimmick. 

What was it like working with Finneas on the album’s latest single “Past Life”?

Working with Finneas was very cool I learned a ton from him and a lot of it had to do with minimalism and he pushed me to hit notes that I didn’t think I could hit I was in the booth. He was using the talkback button most of the time just gassing me up, it’s really hard not to have confidence that you can do something when you have someone so excited in the other room pushing you and looking like they would bet everything they’ve got that you could do it. I don’t really lack confidence in myself at all but there were certain notes that I was iffy about and this man was in the other room screaming, “you’ve got this” looking so excited. I feel like my mind just hit those notes just because we believed I could and for no other reason. Having people believe in you is kind of a wild thing, it’s crazy what you can accomplish knowing that.

Which song from Nicotine are you most excited about and why?

I made probably 80 different songs for this album and narrowed it down to 10 that was really hard for me to do so I made sure all 10 I was equally excited about. Every single song on this album is special to me and excites me equally in different ways I’m just really excited to see what other people gravitate towards at this point.

What is one message you would give to your fans?

One message I’d like to give to my fans is to always believe in yourself. Know that at the end of the day we are all going to get through everything that we’re going through, especially things that we’re going through as an entire world. I don’t know if we needed something like this to bring us together but our world has been in such a state of division that at least on the bright side we’re all trying to fight this thing together and maybe when we all come out of it we’ll see things differently and appreciate life for how special and fragile it is. Every single one of us is special, every single one of us has a role to play, we’re all important, we just all have to figure out what it is that we want to offer because we all have something that no one else has. I love all of you. 

And finally, what’s next for you after Nicotine?

The Nicotine deluxe album

Listen To Nicotine below!