We were lucky to catch up with Trevante Williams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Trevante, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
There have definitely been times where I felt misunderstood, disrespected or ostracized. I just had to keep going. Basically when you’re unapologetically yourself; sometimes people don’t like that. I can remember countless times telling somebody close to me, “Hey we should do this, or we should do that.” They just didn’t wanna hear it because it came from me. But, countless times I would say things & people would kind of dismiss it, and then later it would come back to hit us all in the face. That always let me know that I just have to follow my gut and follow my heart even if it’s not the most popular thing to do. Just be yourself unapologetically because clearly you are on to something.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a Christian R&B Artist that started in this music industry as an R&B artist at the age of 11. At a young age, I always viewed the world differently and I felt that God gave me a gift to give to the world. Watching different family members be apart of the industry had a big impact on me falling in love with music. I oftentimes would find myself listening to old school music at the tender age of 6yrs old. My dad started to teach me the artistry of becoming a singer and really honed in and molded my songwriting skills. From that day forth, I knew that becoming an Artist was my destiny. Shortly after, I branded myself as “Tre’” and my mom established Sel Sum Records, where I released my first two singles, “That Girl” and “Baby Girl”, which were written and produced by my father Joe “Simply” Halliburton. Soon after the release, I secured a major distribution deal with FYE (12 yr old Tre’ at this time) and embarked on a regional in‐store tour of the South to promote the records and build my fanbase. “Baby Girl” hit the Billboard charts and spent 15 weeks on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop chart and peaked at #50. “Baby Girl” then later hit #1 on the Hot R&B/Hip Hop single sales for multiple weeks beating out Chris Brown, Ray J, NeYo & more. “Baby Girl” ended up selling over 80,000 units independently. In 2007, I also became apart of Radio Disney’s Incubator which broadcasted worldwide and aided to my success.The FYE tour as well as radio airplay opened the door for future tours as I began an aggressive schedule performing and meeting with artists such as Bow Wow, B5, Keke Palmer, Romeo, Jagged Edge, Crime Mob, Jonas Brothers and Nick Cannon just to name a few. I also had a role in Lil JJ’s Nickelodeon (Ralph Farquhar produced) show “Just Jordan”. Alongside this, I went on to perform on Lil JJ’s stand up comedy special “Almost Grown”. Eventually, I attracted the attention of industry heavy weights and I inked a major deal with Imani Entertainment Group/Geffen Records in 2011 and officially re-branded and changed my name to “TreVante”. By the summer of 2011, I embarked on BET’s “Closer to My Dreams” tour alongside fellow heartthrobs Mindless Behavior, Lil Twist, Tyga, Diggy Simmons and Jawan Harris. This era was coined by fans as “a time to be alive” as frequent viral posts highlighted the artists alongside myself who blazed the charts during that time. Shortly after, I also opened up for selected dates on Mindless Behavior’s “All Around the World Tour” as well as being featured alongside Jacob Latimore on Jive recording artist Jawan Harris’ “Keisha Remix”. I have had the opportunity to co-write and collaborate with some of the industry’s elite producers, artists and writers over the years: Chris Brown, Dark Child, Rico Love, Diane Warren, The Underdogs, Eric Bellinger, Diamond Love (which was recorded by Jacob Latimore), Vedo, Shameik Moore, Harmony “H Money”, Samuels & more. I also co-wrote one of the biggest hits of the era with Ezekiel “Zeke” Lewis of thewriting and production team “The Clutch”. Alongside this, I also co-wrote a historic song for the OMG Girlz, (i.e. “Where the Boys At” in which hit #1 on 106 & Park for multiple weeks with over 18M+ views and #77 on the Billboard charts). Later, I was able to secure a publishing deal with Warner Chappell Publishing. At the top of 2012, My first single “Be Your First”, which was written and produced by Tank, allowed myself and Tank to perform live on the world renowned Wendy Williams Show among others. Following this, I dropped a 2-part movie-like music video directed by Benny Boom which included “Be Your First” and “Forever” (produced by Rico Love). Both music videos including “Bad Girl”, hit the 106 & Park top 10 countdown with “Be My Girl” peaking at #6. I later returned to 106 & Park in 2013 with “Bad Girl” featuring Lil Twist, which also peaked at #6 on the countdown. Despite my solo success, in 2014 I decided to fulfill my childhood dream of doing what I always wanted to do, which was to be in an all male r&b group. During my ten year tenure in the group, we were able to also have billboard chart topping songs as a group and joined Jacquees on stage and Soul Train as well as on the road on tours. Now, I have finally decided to rebrand myself as a solo contemporary gospel/inspirational artist and fulfill my God given destiny and purpose. I have recently released my first Christian R&B single “Remember” that is available on all platforms. My next single “No More Poison” will be released this month and will be apart of my Rhythm and Gospel project.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Yes, there is a goal. The main goal is to get people to know Jesus Christ, because without him we’re no good and without God, we don’t belong; We have no purpose. I feel like God has brought me on this road and on this path for many reasons; the main reason is to reach out to as many people as I can through my talents to let him know that I’m only here because of him. Because of the places that I’ve been in my life and the things I’ve experienced since the early age, I could’ve been somewhere else. But because Jesus loves me and because there’s purpose in what I’m doing, my road has me here. So the main goal is to let people know that we have to trust love and lean on our father in heaven. Another goal is to bring passionate soul music back and what’s more soulful than singing about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? The mission is to also do good music and to speak positive & be positive to inspire people to get closer to God in their own way and find their purpose. I try to do it through my art, through my creative influences, through my musical influences, through scripture and through just knowing without a shadow of a doubt that this is what I’m supposed to do. I feel like I finally found my lane, and this is where I’m supposed to be singing; for my father above.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
One of the lessons I had to unlearn was that the music business is exactly what it is; It’s 90% business and 10% music. As a young kid, I didn’t understand that. I always compared wrestling to the music industry because of storytelling and the fact that you know the script and how it’s written. It’s no different in the music industry. For instance, you may feel like somebody is truly your friend because y’all hang out and because you feel like they know who you are. You may even share similarities of personal experiences; but it’s just an act for them. You realize that nobody really cares. Not saying that there aren’t good people, but we have to be smart enough to know that there’s been plenty of times where I’ve gotten my hopes up and got my feelings hurt by thinking that people are my friend.
I can also remember when Twitter was first coming out and I was on TV every other day on 106 & Park with other young artists and the love was always half-and-half. I would trend with other artists and half of the people would say “oh my gosh Tre is so great”. Then the other half would say, “Tre is horrible who do you think you are?” The older that I got the more I realized that you need both types of fans, but none of it is real. It’s all a show, so don’t feed into the ego. Don’t feed into the popularity contest because when I was no longer on TV, it was like where did everybody go? It’s all a game. But thankfully, I don’t do this for popularity. I do this because this is my love.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heis_trevante/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TreVante
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@heis_trevante
