His name is Trouble

MANILA, Philippines - Being a fan of Ninjasonik, The Deathset and other NYC/US gems, I was more than excited when I learned that snowboarder, artist, musician, producer and designer Trevor Andrew a.k.a. Trouble Andrew was coming over from the Big Apple all the way to the pleasant streets of Bonifacio Global City for Native shoes’ Color Carnival. I wasn’t entirely sure if he was going to snowboard, skateboard, perform songs from his new album “Dreams of A Troubled Man” or DJ a set. It turned out he was here to DJ at Native’s spring/summer 2012 fashion show at Bonifacio High Street, and what a set it was. Among the tracks in his set were new song Bad Girls by M.I.A., Golden Skans by the Klaxons, and a cheeky addition of Girls Just Want To Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper. It was a really good vibe last Saturday with all the games, snowcones and cotton candy. Trouble Andrew has worked with Diplo, Ninjasonik, Santigold, Spankrock, Lil Jon and a whole lot of other artists that I’ve yet to discover, not to mention his own accomplishments in and out of the sports world. 

YSTYLE: How do you find the Philippines?

TROUBLE ANDREW: I love it here, man, my wife (Santigold) told me how beautiful it was. A lot of my friends were like, “You know you’re going to love it over there,” and yeah, I love it over here.

Yeah, she was just here a few years ago. Performed at a beach. You should really go to Boracay!

I want to so bad, she really wanted to come too. We’ll come back I’m sure. What’s that place boracay? Boracay. That was one of her favorite places to be landed.

How does a day start for you?

Um, man every day is, y’know, different granted, but it’s always… usually I just get up and think of ideas of things that that I can do whether it’s music, design, I’m just always looking for a creative outlet, so like every day that’s what my life is about. It’s just about being creative, a lot of times it’s music and design. A lot of my younger years, it was more about being creative on a mountain or on the street skateboarding, snowboarding, but now a lot of my time’s spent writing music, producing music, working with other bands, working with Native, designing, designing glasses for Electric, clothing for Analog, stuff for Nixon. It’s just constantly being creative. I need to stay creative or I will go crazy.

How did you start off making music? Was it always an interest? What inspired you?

I think music has always been, like, a huge part of my life, you know music always drove me to do what I do on my snowboard or skateboard, and just have confidence in life and just bringing emotion out of me. So in 2004 when I hurt myself snowboarding, that was the first time that I ever picked up an electric guitar and actually just wrote a song and wrote down lyrics, and produced music which I didn’t even realize that I was doing I thought I was just killing time, I was really putting together a piece of artwork that I actually put out into the world, and people’s feedback, it was kind of like it motivated me to keep it going. And I just realized how much I loved doing it, like I knew I’d continue to make music, I just didn’t know I’d make music for people I thought was just doing it for myself, did all my music on an 8-track and I really didn’t even think that I was going to put it out, or do shows or do anything. It was kind of like for me, my own release. Then I kind of fell in love with it, all aspects, performing and all that. It grew from making songs for myself, to realizing that other people identify with them too, then pushing myself to become a performer and actually playing them (the songs) live.

Digital recording or analog?

Analog definitely has a nice feel to it, analog is more… you know, working with digital is way more functional, you know what I mean, quicker. You can do way more stuff, but analog has such a warm feel to it. Even with some of my stuff that I’m doing through digital, I’m going to incorporate it and do it in analog and then dump it to digital, kind of so it meets in the middle and has a bit of both.

Has it been really hectic for you?

It’s always been busy, you know. I’ve been on the road since I was 12 or 13 years old, you know what I mean, so it’s kind of normal if I’m at home for a couple of months. I’m like, oh man, I need to get out of here and do something, I love to travel so I love to just experience new stuff.

With a brand new year and a new record label, any chance of Filipino artists getting a piece of that action?

Oh man, I’m always open for new art, man, you gotta put me on to some Filipino artists. I would love to hear them, man, I’m all about finding new art. I love music, I love finding or discovering music or art that gives you that feeling, you know (excitedly places palm to chest) and the brand, you know, that’s how I felt about Native. Discovering something new is what I love to do.

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Trouble Andrew also designs for Nixon, Burt, Electric Visual, Analog, and works closely with Native shoes. He also runs Trouble Gang Records. For his thank you message to his supporters in Manila and worldwide, check out http://vimeo.com/vbasa/troubleandrew.