New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Before he was collaborating on EDM hits with
Demi Lovato and Fetty Wap, Trevor Dahl was making music on his own terms. With the rapid rise of Cheat Codes with bandmates
Kevin Ford and Matthew Russell, the trio has also made it a priority to also focus on their own creative endeavors. Now, going by his surname Dahl will be making music as "Dahl" in a project parallel to Cheat Codes, returning to his solo roots.
With a hybrid of influences from electropop acts
Bazzi and Lauv alongside the lyricism of John Mayer, Dahl reveals his talent for being a jack of all trades: he wrote, produced and mixed all of his music. "I'm the only person touching the songs from start to finish, which is rare," says Dahl.
For the Portland native, making music was instinctive. Prompted by his father's songwriting and performances for he and his brother, Dahl picked up the guitar at the age of 12. The guitar was his musical gateway drug -- he went onto learn the drums and piano without lessons. He began toying with production, writing poems and beats, and soon enough his passion for sports became entirely about music.
At 15, he began releasing his music on MySpace and booking his own shows. Just one year later, he decided to drop out of high school in order to play as many shows as possible and was signed to Atlantic Records at 17. For the next five years, he toured the country, even writing songs for other major label artists. As a broke musician in Los Angeles, he lived in a house with 16 people, converting a laundry room into a studio in order to pursue his dreams. By 21, he left Atlantic Records to pursue electronic music, which led him to Cheat Codes.
While "Dahl" will be a departure from Cheat Codes' music, there will be hints of the act's sound embedded in his solo work, but this project is the most candid the now 25-year-old musician has ever gotten, detailing everything from him growing up to his two serious relationships to dropping out of high school and smoking too much weed. "It's about letting people know everything about me on a level I've never opened up on," he says. Dahl's music will blend genres from electro-pop and indie-rock to hip-hop.
"Think About Us," the first single from Dahl's project, is a hypnotic breakup song for the modern age- detailing his most recently ended relationship. "You hit me with the unfollow, now baby girl I feel hollow," Dahl laments in the first line. When he broke up with his girlfriend, she blocked him on every social media platform and digital device. "It was this very dramatic, 'one day I'm with you and hanging out with you every day' and the next day there's no contact and that's the end of it,'" he says.
