{"id":2019,"date":"2014-05-12T03:05:36","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T03:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amusednow.com\/blog\/?p=2019"},"modified":"2014-09-18T23:38:47","modified_gmt":"2014-09-18T23:38:47","slug":"2014-indie-music-award-winner-trell-daray-best-pop-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amusednow.com\/blog\/2014-indie-music-award-winner-trell-daray-best-pop-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"2014 Indie Music Awards Winner ~ Trell Daray"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trell

Trell Daray<\/p><\/div>\n

I recently interviewed Trell Daray as part of the Amused Now Featured Artist Series, so I was very excited when Khymberlee Carlyle announced that Trell won for Best Pop Artist at the 2014 Indie Music Awards. Did Amused Now give Trell the bump he needed to win? Hope so! Trell describes these last couple of months as \u201cnothing short of a blessing. I\u2019m very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trell Daray has been working with Khymberlee Carlyle and Lipstick Radio since 2012. \u201cShe\u2019s been spinning my records Secret Crush<\/em> and Night Owl<\/em> on the radio for two years now. They\u2019ve been playing in Los Angeles and New York. We\u2019ve had a great relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Indie Music Awards winners were selected by their fans. Trell Daray used quite a creative method to get his fans to vote: \u201cI was at a performance and, while I was at the performance, I made everybody take out their cell phones and I made them vote for me right then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trell told them, \u201cYou guys have to vote for me. I have to win this. I need this award. It was beautiful.\u201d What a great outpouring of affection.<\/p>\n

Trell Daray connects with his fans over all social media outlets: Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. He also has an MTV Artist page as well. \u201cI try my best to keep it current, keep it fresh and keep it tasteful and classy, so I can get to the right people, demographics and my true fans. Whenever they talk to me, I talk back to them. We keep it like a bond. They are truly, truly special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trell does his own social media, which is rare these days for many recording artists. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work, but I love it. I love my fans and they support me. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TrellTrell Daray has been an indie recording artist for two years. \u201cPreviously, I was working with labels in New York and Atlanta. It just never worked out. It was difficult, because I had a vision and I knew the vision I had was given to me from a higher power. I didn\u2019t want to sway into something that wasn\u2019t me. A lot of things they presented to me, I didn\u2019t want to do, because of my morals and my upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After parting ways with his last label, he told his head of operations, \u201cI want to do this independently from now on, because no one knows me better than me. No one gets me better than me.\u201d Also, Trell does not want to focus on money has his targeted goal. \u201cIt makes you do things that you don\u2019t want to do. That\u2019s why I\u2019m indie and I love it!\u201d<\/p>\n

As he also mentioned in our Featured Artist interview, \u201cI love being true to the art. Being anything else is just not right, because you\u2019re not really fulfilling your purpose. You are not true to who you are as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trell Daray has been training in music since he was very young. It started in church. \u201cI started singing in the church as a young boy, my dad\u2019s church. From my early upbringing, my training came from the pianist. I also had a teacher named Ms. Jackson, who had music classes in elementary school. She taught us about tempo, time signatures and how to locate the notes on a scale and the piano.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn junior high and high school, my teacher, Mr. Watson, he trained me like I was training for the Olympics. He taught me the art of music. Music is more than just singing or playing an instrument. You have to become it. You are the main instrument.\u201d Trell competed in many competitions and rallies.<\/p>\n

\"TrellThis prepared Trell for the next phase of his life when he attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA) in New York City. \u201cI was singing and dancing and acting every single day of my life for three years. It was a lot of work. The teachers there did not care how you felt. No excuses were allowed whatsoever. I can recall going to school with the flu (almost). I just wanted to sleep, but I had to go to school and present my final piece, my showcase. The dedication made me advance, conquer everything.\u201d Now, Trell Daray happily and independently performs at a professional level.<\/p>\n

Trell\u2019s first inspiration was his older sister, who is a gospel singer. \u201cShe has a beautiful voice. I would listen to her sing around the house and I would think: Man, I want to sing like that! Listening to her made me want to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, Trell listened to his father\u2019s Motown recordings. \u201cMy father would play a lot of The Temptations, The Supremes, Bobby Womack and Smokey Robinson. A lot of them influenced my vocals today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trell\u2019s first professional inspiration was Aliyah. \u201cHer voice was like an angel. She was so pure and she was so honest with her music. She was really what I would call a true artist. She loved what she did. Her ability to grasp, to take a song and make it into something not of this world, was just angelic to me. I wanted to aspire to be in that type of position, where I can be true to the art.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to collaborating with other artists, Trell looks for originality. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be on a project with another artist just to get a buzz. It\u2019s just not true. I\u2019m all about truth. If you\u2019re not true to the art, I can tell. I collaborate more with producers and songwriters, because they bring out an element in me that I don\u2019t know I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s up next for Trell Daray now that the awards show is over? \u201cThe awards show has been a great thing in my life. Khymberlee is such a beautiful soul. She\u2019s opened a lot of doors for indie artists. I have magazine interviews, radio interviews and interviews with beautiful souls like you (I\u2019m blushing). I\u2019m currently recording a new project that I\u2019ll be ready to release, hopefully, by October.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I told Khymberlee, the awards show was a beautiful beginning. What God has for her as a result is beyond her wildest imagination, because she\u2019s doing it from a place of love and a place of truth. You can never go wrong with being a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth!<\/p>\n

Watch the complete video interview with Trell Daray on the Amused Now YouTube channel:\u00a0http:\/\/youtu.be\/cWF-qv8MTvo<\/a>
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