By Drew Williams/sports editor

Don’t mind the dreadlocks. He means business. Literally.

NE student Trevor Trenor has made a business out of doing what he loves to do — make music. He started his own production company, Throwback Productions, from the ground up last year and wants to make an impact in the recording industry.

“It’s something that was handed down to me through the veins,” he said. “My dad’s side was extremely musical, so I was born to do it.”

This is his second semester at TCC, but not successively. After graduating high school in 2008, he spent the fall semester on NE before transferring to the University of North Texas in the spring. After playing guitar in a few bands and projects, he decided to fully pursue a career in the music industry and put college on hold.

When his brother Evan graduated from high school in 2009, the two moved out to the West Coast to attend the School of Audio Engineering in Los Angeles. One of the most credible audio institutions in the world, SAE Los Angeles is in the heart of Hollywood and was quite a culture change for Trenor. He admittedly had some nerves about it at first.

“It was a big step, and I knew I wanted to take it,” he said. “But to move that far away from home, you start to wonder what’s going to become of everything and if I can make something off it. You wonder, ‘Will I be able to use it? Will I fail?’”

But soon enough, he fell in love with LA and the different lifestyle that came with it. More so than the city itself, though, he loved the school and everything he was learning.

“It felt good to go to school and actually like it,” he said. “I hated going to college, so that was the best part. Doing something you love and learning all the life lessons from it was exciting.

“And the teachers, they were awesome. It was almost like they didn’t care what you did because, in the end, the people who didn’t want to be there got kicked out, and those who cared did well.”

After graduating there last summer, Trenor interned with The Lair, a recording studio in the LA area owned by Larry Goetz. Along with Goetz, he interned under producer Matt Squire (The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Panic! At the Disco), producer Ulrich Wild (Pantera, Deftones, Seether), producer and former Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader and producer and Phantom Planet bassist Sam Farrar.

While working at The Lair with Goetz, Trenor helped record bands such as Soulfly, 3OH!3, All Time Low and Augustana.

“I learned more from Larry than school,” he said. “At school, it wasn’t so hands-on and not the real world. It was like being a fish in a bowl, not a fish in the sea.”

After completing his internship, he decided to take what he had learned back to Texas to start his own recording studio and what would become Throwback Productions.

His first client was R.J. Poncik, an acoustic guitar-playing singer/songwriter who had no idea what to expect but was completely happy with the way his EP So You Say turned out.

“He was awesome. He likes the raw appeal. He likes the raw guitar sound and acoustic sound, like you’re sitting in a room and actually listening to the music in person,” Poncik said. “We actually recorded in the office of his house before we even went to the studio just to get that perfect raw sound.”

Poncik was also happy with what Trenor brought to the table as a producer.

“He’s got a good ear, and he’s trying to be different,” he said. “But at the same time, he keeps everything sounding good and sounding like it’s something people will want to listen to.”

Recently, Trenor moved his studio to Fellowship Church in Grapevine, where he is collaborating with Hillsong United producer James Rudder to produce a live album from the church’s C3 conference, which was held in February and featured Grammy Award-winning artist Israel Houghton. While he is staying busy with Fellowship Church and Throwback Productions, he is also focused on his first semester back at TCC after a year-and-a-half break, something his mother, Dana Trenor, is happy about.

“It was hard to see him drop everything and go off to the big, crazy town of LA,” she said. “But I’m glad he did it because music and everything about it is his passion, so it’s good for him to be educated in that. I’m also very glad, though, that he’s back in school to make him a well-rounded businessman and help him fulfill his passion.”

To learn more about Trenor and Throwback Productions, visit ThrowbackProduction.com.