It's safe to say Trey Pearson has done a lot in his musical career. Once a member of Everyday Sunday, this multitalented artist has taken up a solo career and is on the verge of releasing his debut album this summer. A viral sensation, an inspiration for the LGBTQA+ community and so much more, we caught up with Trey exclusively for FLEX to talk all about his new single 'Piedmont Park' and his sights for 2022...
Hey Trey! Welcome to FLEX, how are you doing?
I’m doing good, thank you! Tell us all a bit about your quite amazing story so far...
Ah, thanks so much. I signed my first record deal with my rock band, Everyday Sunday, after my freshman year of college, with a faith-based record label out of Nashville, called Flicker Records. I had grown up deeply entrenched in conservative, evangelical Christianity, so that’s what I knew. Unfortunately, that also meant not being able to come to terms with being gay, and so I pushed it down as I toured in that world. I had five #1 singles in the U.S. on Christian radio, and twenty Top 10’s. I married a girl, and then my life hit the fan. It took me awhile, but I finally found some self-awareness and came out of the closet to myself, my family, and then publicly.
You've been the most talked about person on Facebook, that must feel quite surreal, right?
It did feel super surreal. Those first several days after my story came out there were moments I just couldn’t believe it was real life. I knew people would talk about my story, but I just had no idea it would be that talked about. You also have a band in Everything Sunday, why did you decide to venture solo?
I started my band when I was 16. I had grown up so much, and changed so much, through the years that I didn’t feel like it still made sense to create music through that lens that I had presented before. I had stopped believing in the idea of “Christian music”, so it just felt like it was time to move on. And tell us all about your new single 'Piedmont Park'!
Yeah! ‘Piedmont Park’ is a song from my upcoming album, “Somebody You Knew”. It’s a love song I wrote, inspired by my first boyfriend I have started dating after coming out. He was living in Atlanta when we started dating, so I started spending a lot of time down there with him, and we would go on a lot of long walks on the belt line, and through midtown and Piedmont Park, which is kind of like Atlanta’s ‘Central Park’. I was so inspired, and dreaming, and wanted to capture all of those feelings of finally allowing myself to experience that kind of love, not feeling any shame about it.
The video for 'Piedmont Park'
Describe your sound and musical influences in this song particularly?
I wanted the sound of this song to be beautiful, and to feel like a love song, but also with a slight sense of melancholy. It’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t gone decades of their life not accepting themself, never getting to experience how surreal of a feeling it is to finally allow yourself to fully experience romantic love. And also how much damage that is, and how much healing needs to take place. So I feel like it’s a beautiful love song, but I also feel like there’s this slight sense of melancholy to it as well, which I find to be beautiful. I think finding some of that inspiration in this song was in some of the old Radiohead, Coldplay, Gorillaz, and what some of those British bands were doing around the turn of the century and in the early 2000’s. You are an inspiration to all LGBTQA artists, do you have any advice for them approaching their music careers?
Well, thank you for saying that. I would just say that a super power for so many of us LGBTQ people is that we have done the really, really hard work to love ourselves, to find self-awareness, and to be vulnerable, and all of that I believe brings us connection with each other, so don’t be afraid to use that in your art. And lastly, what are your plans for the rest of 2022?
The album comes out July 1st. I am part of a PBS National Television Special that is taking place for Pride Month, called True Colors. It’s with the American Pops Orchestra, and I’m performing a few of my songs from the album, with the Indigo Girls also performing, and several others.