TREY WONDER
“Warmer”
“Somebody Do Something”
Music videos reviewed by Mike O’Cull, independent music journalist. www.mikeocull.com
Trey Wonder is an indie artist living on the Big Island in Hawaii making quirky-but-catchy music that’s highly creative, idiosyncratic, and memorable. His background is in punk, grunge, and metal but his sound is best described as melodic alternative punk with pop-influenced hooks. He’s also somewhat of a minimalist who keeps every aspect of his recordings in service to the song, never overloading arrangements or drifting off into a metallic rage. Wonder has recently released a pair of music videos for the tracks “Warmer” and “Somebody Do Something” that are entertaining and help communicate the abstract, almost surreal sensibilities that lurk just beneath his surface.
“Warmer” is a hip-swaying mid-tempo alt/pop sort of cut that functions as a darkly-sarcastic work song. The lyrics tell of “tying one on” after work on a “pretty good day” but are accompanied by images of heavy-duty mining work in the video, which doesn’t look like much fun at all. Still, the chorus admonishes us “Don’t fly too close to the sun,” which feels like Wonder saying that this existence is difficult and dangerous and we may get burned by expecting it to be anything else. It’s got a bit of Nirvana-esque moodiness to it at first but the chorus is an automatic earworm. The video keeps throwing shifting images at us that pull us in quickly but prevent anything from becoming too comfortable to be dull.
“Somebody Do Something” is a faster, full-on melodic punk track with a classic feel. The drums drive the rhythm along in a cool car-radio way and the guitars crunch as they should. The lyrics deal with helping someone close “figure out” their problems as a priority and they come off as human and real. The video takes the abstract path again, coming at us with seeming-random sequences of eyeballs, high-speed starfish, and two guys filling a house with water until it implodes, which does kind of look like fun.
Wonder never lets us settle in during both of these video clips and that’s what makes them artistic and emotive. He makes us react to his sounds and images in a practically non-verbal way that makes us feel before we realize what’s happening. Plus, both tracks are proper rock and roll and sound good turned up loud. Trey Wonder vibes like something important about to happen. Let’s hope he does. It’d be nice to see something this real break big.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://treywonder.com
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/trey.wonder