Interview with Musician Trevor Hall About Burnout, Success & Fulfillment - Different Hunger

[Music] so I am here with one of my favorite musicians of all time Trevor Hall and of course and for those of you who are not fortunate to have heard his music before he has toured with people like so ja Colbie Caillat Matisyahu michael franti and his musics been featured in movies like Shrek which of course we

all know so he's a legend and I couldn't be more excited to have the chance to sit down with him so thank you for being here thanks for having me right on so how did you get into music I got into music pretty young my dad is a drummer he's actually here yeah oh you did okay yeah

so my dad is the drummer and some music was always around the house so just growing up even you know there's photos of me like in my diapers playing the drums so it's kind of just from from his influence and from my childhood just can start it super early yeah yeah and so when she got I grew

up in Hilton Head South Carolina it's like small tourist destination you know like golf and tennis and beaches and so but it was cool because it was really you know small town and really sweet and you know just you know a lot of a lot of outdoor activities and stuff so it was really a really great place

to grow up but it was also good to get out when I got out you know yeah definitely and so the Trevor all that I can grew up listening to was dread headed dude yeah and so when I think don't head South Carolina I do not think of reggae musician white Mike rad with dreads so how did

you kind of find your kind of authentic voice and style well it's funny a lot of people ask that I mean the the part of South Carolina I grew up is like I said it's really touristy so it wasn't really like southern in a way you know it was kind of tropical you know because it was the

island and you know we grew up surfing and going to the beach and so kind of being a surfer and kind of being in surf culture I was really listening to a lot of music that was in like surf films you know which was a lot of like reggae music and like Jack Johnson and Ben Harper and

these types of conscious kind of artists and of course Bob Marley and Rick and so I kind of got you know I kind of that's how I found that influence and then ran with that you know a lot of people are like huh you know because when they think South Carolina yeah but yeah it was just kind

of threw through surf culture and and just being in like a tropical environment and that's just what hit me you know like when I heard reggae music or like acoustic music that was the thing that hit me so that's what I went with right yeah and so when did you kind of start performing and recording music that

sort of thing not till like a little later on I mean I think I was like 15 when I mean later on as I guess 15 it's pretty young but my dad my dad for my birthday I remember my 15th or 16th birthday he surprised me and brought me to his like friends recording studio and we did

a we did an album but it was it was more of just like a thing to like sell to my friends you know it wasn't really like this is what I want to do you know I was just kind of like it was what I love to do and I just wanted to give it to the homies

yeah so so I recorded it and then one of his friends my dad's like really good friends in LA was like well he should come out here and you know play a show and I was my place so you know I don't know how to do that you know let alone in LA you know and but that's

just what happened and that's kind of how it all started you know for me pretty pretty young you know yeah and so when you're 16 right that's when you went to idle why I go a while yeah it was like 17 16 or 17 yeah and so tell us about kind of that transition because in previous interviews

I've heard you mentioned that your grades right we're not very good growing up and held net but when you got out to Idlewild which is a art academy that you'll kind of talk about a bit and your grades kind of improved a lot uh-huh so I'm curious to kind of hear about that transition and that change of

performance as well yeah I think grow it I grew up with the school that I was going to in South Carolina was like a prep school you know I was like a private perhaps school like dress code and yeah just like you know didn't really have like a lot of attention on the arts and for somebody that

was like really artistic and wanted to express themselves so bad it was kind of suffocating and it was a good school you know if you wanted to like go to college and you know do that but that just wasn't my thing so I always felt kind of did it off you know like am i okay is this

okay you know and and I think that kind of lack of like inspiration really affected my just you know overall interest and attention and in school you know and then when I went to the boarding school in California Idol whatõs arts boarding school you know it's like a International School there's kids from all over the world it's

focuses on the art so it's the exact opposite of the spectrum and you know kids are going to class and they're like pajamas and they have like purple hair and I was just like you know I was like this is crazy you know and they you know the emphasis was on the arts the emphasis was on creativity

and like just unleashing that artist within you so my whole I just like woke up every morning I was so excited they go to class and and that I think intern just helped you know attention and my grades and you know it's it's it's funny cuz it's like growing up I think you know we're told to like

read certain things you know nobody nobody likes being told what to do you know like nobody does I don't care you are and it's like when you're told to oh you got to read these books like summer reading remember that stuff oh my god that stuff killed me right right yeah yeah read the book yeah yeah you

know and then you get out of school and it's like I'm reading all the time it's cuz I had the freedom you know I had the freedom to go after what I wanted or I had the freedom to like learn about what inspires me and so that school really was all about like what inspires you whatever inspires

you go for it and I think that that is just kind of important in life you know in general so yeah I was a huge like turn it I mean when I when I graduated I was like crying I just was so sad to leave the place I don't know how many kids you know cry when they

had a high school so yeah I was really different really different that's when my artistic kind of a you know self really like when before and I started writing a lot so that's awesome I mean you know you were kind of disengaged with your work before at your previous high school and then once you were able to

immerse yourself in this kind of creative environment of the curriculum was one thing and then kind of the people that you're around was another I mean or some of the types of people that you met that allowed you to really kind of tap into who you were as an artist well that was the thing I think that

you know the thing like the thing that most inspires me is people you know even today you know and I just was around these just beautiful Souls man that just were so artistic and so like just spontaneously creative and and you know you're around art all the time and you're around art from the world you know you

got the Asian kids and European kids and all types of kids just creating so you're really exposed to like all this different expression and you know a lot of the kids they were just learning English you know but you could feel each other because you through your artistic work whatever that was whether it was painting or music

or and that's the thing that really just like cracked me open you know and even today you know it's like let me see you know people are like what are you inspired by it's like well I'm inspired by music you know like I'm inspired by other music you know because I love music you know and that's what

it was like there you know I was just around so much art all the time and we were in such a safe place you know to create art we weren't we didn't have to think of it as a job yet we didn't have to think of it as like oh I need to pay my rent or career

you know we were very lucky just a 100% focus on our art so it was yeah super special yeah and so you've referred to your music as your duty and then so I'm curious to hear gonna what you mean by that well that's a good question did I say that it's funny because like yeah it's funny you

know a lot of people are like when did you like wanna be a musician right you know and I never wanted to be a musician like it it's and people are like wow yeah but it's like music was just like life you know and like there wasn't any point where I was like I want to be a

musician like I want to play live in front of people like I was just going with it because it was like Who I am its Who I was you know and I think that as human beings like we're all given some type of gift do you know and that gift doesn't have to be like be a rock

star like or be President of the United States it could just be like yeah shoot yeah oh that's that's funny I didn't think of it like that but some people need to over need to reevaluate their duty but you know it's it's like it could be something small you know like pumping gas honestly like you know some

of the most like inspiring moments of my life have been meeting like really simple strangers who do like something that's really simple but they do it with such one-pointed attention and focus and so much joy you know that's the difference you know we have to look at the substance not the external like amount you know so with

music to get back to your question was like that everybody I believe everybody has a gift and like for me it was just kind of obvious like I don't know what else I'm gonna do you know honestly like I'm like I'm that this is this is who I am you know and this is I feel like this

is the gift that was given to me and as long as it keeps giving itself to me then it's my duty to share it you know a big or else it's just stupid right like you know anybody who has a gift to keep it to themselves is just I feel like it's just kind of stupid yeah and

what you mentioned around being it being something as simple as pumping gas right it reminded me of a story that I heard from this leadership expertise his name's like Robin Sharma uh-huh he gets paid like a hundred thousand dollars for like keynote speeches which is well mind-boggling but that's another topic anyway he met this janitor at this

Airport uh-huh and he was just struck by exactly what she said like this janitor was like welcome to my office like this is my office right this is not a bathroom this is my office this is my place of work right and you know for you I I feel that you were in a very amazing environment that

allowed you to kind of find that place you were surrounded by that curriculum of creativity and absolutely some types of people yeah but unfortunately a lot of people don't have that and so for those types of people who are kind of looking to figure out you know what is my duty or yeah 20-somethings you're like what the

hell do I do with my life is a question that we all have asked ourselves and some of us are still asking ourselves I mean I'm still asking myself that I'm still asking why I think we asked though you know it's funny cuz it's like we you know something that I've really kind of been focusing on in

the last couple years is like really going within myself and asking myself Who am I you know and you know in India which is a place that I'm really inspired by is like Yogi's have been asking this question for thousands of years you know Who am I and not meaning I like who's Trevor Hall it's not that

it's like Who am Who am I what is what is that thing inside me that is moving me that's that's like pumping my heart I'm blinking my eyes and you know who is that like the thought before my thought you know the space before everything who is my deepest self what is that you know and when you

ask yourself that the Yogi's believe that you're brought into a place of silence you know and I feel like a lot you know in today's world with what am I going to do especially in the West especially in Western culture you know we're so obsessed with like career and like manifestation and job and going and answer your

email and your phone and your tech we're so obsessed with it you know we we go on these social media and we do it too you know we put up pictures and we create like how we want people to see us you know we're so obsessed with it and nobody really knows how to like you know look

within and turn within and and chill we don't know how to chill and slow down you know I mean we're just going way too fast there's a lot of pluses obviously to our culture and stuff but there's a lot of when it comes to like us as human beings you know it's funny now I'm reading that I

was reading this book and and forgive me if I'm going off topic here but but it talks about this it talks about how in the West and in our culture we're brought up like hey go to prep school go to college get a career start a family get a big house like that's success right and you look

at like our culture like we we people do that you know this is something I learned growing up in Hilton Head because it's kind of a wealthy place people do that they do those things they follow that formula and people are miserable we have anxiety we have depression we have like all sorts of things you're so loneliness

you know living in these huge things so that can't be the answer right then you have these cultures you know third world cultures all over the world that don't have that much at all but they have community and they have tribe and they have you know I was reading this report about like the indigenous cultures like Native

American cultures you know like before they were colonized there was studied like reports and stuff like they didn't know what anxiety was they didn't know what depression was nobody committed suicide like because of their own problems you know so getting what I'm trying to say is getting back to your your question about like what do I do

with my life I think it's a deep I think it's a kind of a really deeper question I think you only you can answer that you as a person you have to go into your heart and say Who am I and what do I want out of if you want to go live on the beach somewhere and

you know be a beach bum and surf every day and eat papayas and you're happy that is a greater service to me then being in a big corporate job leadership job and being miserable because my happiness is your happiness right you know if I'm miserable you're gonna be miserable right as a people like in especially in America

right now I mean it's crazy right you know there's we still don't get it after all these years you know if one coat if one people is put down you know the other side of the scale that happiness is not real happiness that happiness will not last you know art my happiness is your happiness everybody it's so

it's a it's a communal thing it's all linked you know this is some hippy I'm talking really excites me is when I find people like you who are so committed to something and whether that thing like we said is music or coming gasser you know maybe it is being the CEO as long as it something that fulfills

you it makes you happy then that is what you need to be doing because like you said it's a domino effect it's gonna transfer from one person to the next absolutely nuts it's but it's something that you have to write I'm not saying the corporate job is a bad job if you love doing that you truly love

doing it and that's wonderful but you know that's amazing and so going back a few years you know again music is kind of your life it happens to be your career and but with that comes kind of extraction and burnout and that's kind of what happened to you and so yeah you know you know you know you

know they're just like I just need to learn so I just did exactly that like I it was it was you know wasn't eventful I mean I just just slept and cooked food out of my own kitchen you know and and you know wasn't worried about oh I have to be in this place at a certain time

and and like I look really went inside myself you know and I got married you know which was like very healing for me and then was just kind of focusing on that life and just slowing down really it just really slowing down and it was amazing yeah it was awesome you know and as a result you know

like for the first a few months of it I didn't even pick up the guitar at all I didn't even like listen to music I was I just need like silence you know and then you know after a few months I started picking up the guitar and I was writing and these songs were coming through not from

a place of like I want to write a new album it was just like I need to like write these songs like for myself to like heal myself you know and you know after a year year and a half I had like an albums worth of songs and and it was kind of you know unplanned on my

part but I was like oh this is I have to release this because this has really helped me and I would I have to share it you know and as a result it was like a beautiful beautiful like experience because I was like you know I was really being true to myself in the writing process and I

wasn't worried about how are people gonna like this and is and as a result I think people like really resonated with it and it's one of my favorite albums you know chapter of the forest and I think that you know people feel that they feel that honesty and I really needed to just take that time to do

that I'm ready for another one you know for anyone who's kind of going through a dark place and you've mentioned your music many times and many different lyrics that you know those places of darkness and those places of suffering are yeah we're kind of the greatest lessons are learned for anyone kind of going through maybe not the

exact same scenario cos I think similar I mean what what are some kind of pieces of advice you could share with those types of people yeah so they can use these dark places to their advantage well the greatest thing that I learned over the past you know a couple years is in regards to time and we wrote

we released an album called kala which means time and the biggest thing I learned is you can't rush your healing you know and some somebody like me who if I if I get into a zone in my head or I get stuck I just want to get out of it right away I just don't I'm just like

I need to I need to heal or you know I need to get out I need to be good I need to be good all right you know you know I just like it's like and it just the more you push the more it pushes back and the more you push the more you give it life you

know and and the thing that I learned is is if I just sit with it and I am just still with it and just be with it and not try to pull it or push it or anything it's the best thing I can do and as a result I learn why that thing has come to me or

why that thing is there and what it's teaching me you know I had you know I in regards to healing you know I I got really sick a couple years ago or no a year and a half ago I don't even know now but that's why I had to cut my dreadlocks you know and and when I

got sick you know I was like man why is this happening to me right now I just want to be better you know we had all these shows lined up and I was like you know well I was happening and I ended up getting better and but I was really lost I really felt lost and I just

wanted to be well you know and about a month later we the earthquake happened in Nepal and my wife was supposed to fly over there before I got sick and she canceled because I was sick she stayed with me and then we realized that she was gonna fly out the night the earthquake happen so the earthquake happened

in the morning and she was supposed to fly out that night if I didn't get sick right but at that moment I was sick I was like what is the reason and blah blah blah and I'm always trying to figure it out so my advice is is it's just from my own experience is to not rush your

healing try not to push it just see what happens you know if you're sad just be sad you know and see what happens because there's usually something there and you know some of the greatest like I'm sure anybody can relate some of the greatest lessons in our life is when we were lost or confused or you know

they really made us get down in there yeah and get into the dark and and walk through it to come out so just be patient with yourself I'm like the most unpatient person with myself so this have to be saw it's all a trick it's not a trick it's all the external show yeah cool well let's transition

a little bit to some brighter yeah so as a musician I mean you have the privilege to share your gift to the world and with that you know you're able to reach many thousands of people across the world so what are some of their kind of most fulfilling aspects of being a musician and being Trevor Hall well

I mean definitely that I think the most fulfilling aspect this is exactly that is is being able to kind of grow you know grow your family you know I mean I would have never known at like 16 years old that first album that I did that I would like visit every state in America and like except Alaska

I still gotta get Alaska gotta get Alaska Alaska I need Alaska but you know music has that power to just remove like here we are we're sitting here because of music you know and every place we go you know we we know people in that city because of music you know and that's like the most rewarding thing

it's like you know and going and you know traveling so much you know it's like we go into a city it's like I know that city it's like oh this is my coffee shop this is where I want to get some food you know music is just has that beautiful thing of just going beyond all barriers and

going straight into the heart because it's a feeling you know we can't we can't hold it we can't see it it's it's a it's an internal feeling you know so just being able to feel that with other people and see how what it does to us it's just so cool it never gets old never gets old so

I have to say that's probably my favorite part awesome yeah something that I would love about you and that's something that many other people love about you is you're just tell me cut that part out yeah like where does that come from I mean how are you able to kind of just stay balanced as you're able to

you know we see successes and and that sort of thing I don't know I think that it it probably just comes from my parents you know I mean my dad and my mom are just like incredible and they just brought us up right you know me and my sister and southern you know manners and all that stuff

but yeah I just I just don't feel good when I'm like an right you know as simple as that you know it's like it's just like I value relationship and value people and like I just see everybody as equal or I try to as best I can and yeah I'm just cruise with that you know it's like

one of my pet peeves too is when somebody else makes you feel like small or lower it's like just so stupid yeah it's just stupid it's just stupid so that's what I yeah it just it's just how it is and so I kind of a little bit of a selfish question because when I was a senior in

college I had an idea to start a website and I was kind of looking for inspiration and I didn't really know what the kind of end goal the site was I just knew that I wanted to reach people and I was listening to hear song different hunger and it was just like boom that is it so can

you tell me what the meaning behind that song is yeah it's a it's a song that's like you know searching for pleasure but we only find pain you know and it's it's about you know just as people you know we search for happiness we search for unlimited happiness and limited things simple as that everything is changing right

everything everything is constantly changing this whole world we're changing our minds are changing everything you know so we're for happiness we're looking in things that are changing so it's not gonna last you know and different hunger is about that different Hunger the hunger of the soul the hunger of the heart that wants to unite with that unchangeable

entity you know whether you call it God or love or spirit or there is a thing you know the the the Saints and for me the Saints and the Yogi's and holy men from all different traditions holy women they for all they've tasted it you know so and we know that it's there and different hunger is about

yeah like just having that hunger for spirit and not for things of this world you know having a hunger for the heart you know not living in our hearts only living our we're chasing after name and fame you know these things are gonna go you know so yeah it's just about that internal internal hunger though yeah you

know I think that's I mean you're kind of the creator of that name and good I think it's definitely you said it better than I ever could again knowing what you know now you're you're 29 going on 24 right knowing what you know now and kind of experiencing all the incredible and some of the miserable things that

you've been through what what is something that you would tell younger 20-something Trevor Hall if I could tell my younger self something or my angsty teenager self it would be to just relax honestly just chill out I mean you know I think as you get older I'm so done with my twenties you know I'm just tired of

trying to figure things out you know and I just want to just surrender you know the older I get the more I just think about surrender you know and if I could tell my younger self something it would be like just you know just relax you know you know because I think we're when we're young you know

we're so we want to you know know it all and we have this which is beautiful as a beautiful spirit you know and that's part of the journey you know that shouldn't be left out but you know even so I would just tell young Girt revver to just just relax a little bit you know and yeah I'm

looking at him now Oh Trevor oh yeah that's great advice and again anyone who has been living under a rock and a cave maybe they were on a beach bum and they haven't heard your music yeah tell us where we can follow along you can follow at Trevor allmusic.com and Facebook / Trevor Hall and or Instagram Trevor

music it's all on there Spotify but yeah just check it out awesome hopefully you like it yeah and I when I was looking through the interviews the prep for this one yeah there was myspace there was anger and all those old thing we don't have them anymore now that's guys yeah like yeah yeah I know I pour

my space just got swallowed up well thanks man it was an honor thanks to the Y and I can't wait to see your show and be a little bit yeah respek [Music]