After Plug In Stereo's hit "Oh Darling" (featuring Cady Groves) blew up the airwaves, fans have been eagerly awaiting a new album from curly-haired Trevor Dahl. We recently caught up with the singer-songwriter after his performance at Bamboozle in New Jersey and he dished to us all about his new music, his sound's evolution, and his busy plans for the summer that include a move to Los Angeles and hitting the road.
J-14: You have a new album coming out this year. How would you compare your past tunes with your new music?
Plug In Stereo: I would say I spent a lot of time on these songs. I started working on this album after I finished my first album, which was two and a half years ago. I've been working on it for a long long time. My first album I finished in like six months. I kind of started it, finished it, and recorded it. This one I've been working on for a really long time so it just felt really natural. I just kind of waited until something important I wanted to write about happened or something that happened to my friends or whatever. It's more personal and I spent as I said a lot of time on these songs. I think after people see the whole album they'll get a better idea of me cause you like kind really do that in some songs. In my past releases certain songs you can, but not the whole thing. I feel like this one if you listen to the whole thing you'll learn a lot more about me. So that's cool.
J-14: Would you say it has the same sound as your older stuff has?
Plug In Stereo: Some of the stuff is similar. I tried to make it more mature sounding. It's more John Mayer, Snow Patrol kind of stuff. There's less, I don't know, it's less cutesy. It's more music I would say.
J-14: Do you have any favorite tracks you've worked on?
Plug In Stereo: I don't know it like changes every week. One week I'm like this is my favorite for sure. I'll pick out a couple though. There's a song called "Better Off Alone," which we played today. It was fun. We haven't played it many times. That's a song I've been working on for a long time. I had the chorus idea in my phone, I typed it out for like nine months and then I was finally like--I wanted to wait until I really felt I wanted to write about it enough, until it was relevant in my life to write about it. I liked the chorus idea, but I wanted to wait until stuff happened to me to base it about. So I did and I really like it now. Well the chorus is nobody is 'better off alone'. You know people think they don't need anybody or whatever and it's talking about people. The first verse is 'I've met people, but only a few have stuck around. The rest went off to something new'. So it's kind of like you know people leave, they come and go and whatever it is, but you're not better off alone. You're better with people, fun people who are worth your time and worth your love.
J-14: So you've been away from home in Portland, Oregon and in California working on your album.
Plug In Stereo: I was there recording for five weeks and I liked it a lot actually. I'm going to move down there.
J-14: Are you excited or scared?
Plug In Stereo: Yeah. I'm both those things, but it'll be good for me I think because when I was out there I focused really hard on the music and my project. So I thought it was a good idea. It's secluded, just me in a room.
J-14: What are your plans for the summer?
Plug In Stereo: I'll be touring in July [with Forever the Sickest Kids] and August and hopefully putting a single out this summer and a new song in a month or so.
Photo: Courtesy of Reid Rolls/Atlantic Records
