Meet Trey Mills | Music Producer, Founder Unbound By Sound

We had the good fortune of connecting with Trey Mills and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Trey, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I’ve always believed we have one life and we are only here for a short time – so best to spend our time focused entirely on what makes us happy. For me that meant being my own boss, and having an undiminished ability to make decisions for myself including setting my schedule, choosing clients and creating my work space environment. It was really important that my personality could shine and that my work – life philosophy could always be in alignment. I think many people feel they are compromised while working for others and I didn’t want that to be my life story.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My company does many things related to the Music Business, but my primary focus personally these days is simply recording and producing projects for artists. I think the most celebrated music producers typically have a sound that they apply to the various artists they produce. They typically take an artist, singer or songwriter and drop them into their personal production style. What sets me apart (perhaps to the detriment of my career haha) is that I always try to spend time getting to know an artist and figure out what it is that sets them apart from others. I feel my job is to understand their unique traits and then figure out how best to support them and highlight their best features. This has been exciting for me because I’m always challenged to develop new skills and each project is entirely different. For example, with Forest Blakk, I was doing some co-writing, but mostly producing his ideas to a finished product which meant recording his acoustic guitar and vocals and then adding samples, keyboards, drums – programming and even mixing. With the Canadian Brass, I was acting almost entirely from a technical stand point. I would go into a church and hang mics all about and capture arrangements they had commissioned. They are world class musicians who would show up rehearsed and I would only need to give minor notes on tuning etc. I spent the majority of my time editing our favourite takes and then mixing their albums. When I have the opportunity to work with phenomenal talents, my main goal is to just create space and let them bring their expertise to the table, and not screw it up along the way. It took me years to realize that if you hire the right people, their ideas are usually going to be better than your own. The most difficult challenge is to do something world class on your own, because then you literally have to be a savant each time out, which isn’t possible. Surround yourself with the best whenever possible. It still makes me uncomfortable, but I always learn something new and the project always benefits.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ah if you are talking about socializing publicly, you are asking the wrong guy. I like to spend my time with artists in the studio. That’s the number one hang. We listen to new music, old music, watch videos, laugh and discuss philosophy and life. Those are the real conversations. The best music, even light stuff or satire is all about truth. If I’m not in the studio, or plugged in online for entertainment or to learn – I’m on the farm or out in nature. Maybe that’s just conditioning from the past 2 years of our extreme in-person social disconnect here in Canada, but that’s where I’m at.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
God our creator, works in me every day and deserves all the glory for the joy and success in my life. Along my journey I have had several mentors in the Music Business. As an 18 year old, I was fortunate to have an incredible teacher, Terry McManus at Fanshawe College who took me under his wing. He gave me plenty of encouragement, but also shared colourful stories about the Music Industry and taught a course in contracts that gave me foundational knowledge in an area that was brand new to me. He actually turned me on to a book called The Hit Men, which sent me down my first rabbit hole on the music business. This was the first time I heard the name Clive Davis and so many others that built the modern music business. More recently I got a lot out of a book called Extreme Ownership, a wonderful book on leadership by an ex Navy Seal, Jocko Willink.

Website: www.unboundbysound.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unboundbysound/

Facebook: facebook.com/unboundbysound

Other: instagram.com/treymillswins