By Oliver Heffron

Trey Lyons is a director from Los Angeles who has established himself as a surging young artist, directing music videos and creating visuals for some of the music’s most notable names (Kehlani, 6lack, Lil Tecca, Jhene Aiko, Jasiah, King Princess, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Yung Bans, and more) all before turning 22. His most recent video is “Hunting Season” by Jadakiss and Pusha-T. 

What are you working on right now?

I’m excited about this new video I’m shooting this week. It’s for Jasiah’s song “Rebel,” and it’s going to be insane. We’re gonna be burning things that shouldn’t be burned, toddlers with guns, a cop with rabies held hostage, black panther inspiration vibes: it’s really, really intense, but everybody involved is fucking with it. The song is so fucking fire. 

How did you get your start in directing? 

I never planned on being a director. A few years ago, I was dating this girl for a while, and we hung out with this one record label a lot. The label had an event coming up, and they needed someone to create visuals for the show, so I volunteered and ended up getting the gig. At the event, someone approached me about the visuals and wanted to know if I was a director, so it all started there. I had an amazing mentor, Clare Gillen, who helped me get my first gigs editing footage to create visuals for concerts. I saved all that money and bought my first camera and equipment, which I used to shoot “Love Me” with Steven Moses (my first music-video). That video put me on the map, but my first real set; my first real production where I was able to execute my creative vision was “Alone” by Steven Moses, which dropped later that year (2018) and I ended up dropping out of school not long after. 

How would you describe your creative vision?

Cartoons inspired me. I always have been, so many of my tattoos are cartoon characters [Trey lifts his arm to reveal a Betty-Boop tattoo on his forearm]. What I love about cartoons is that they have no boundaries; they exist in their own universes. I bring that idea to live-action and try to get as close to “no boundaries” as I can in real-life, each video existing in its own universe with no boundaries. I love dark comedy and am interested in examining the light in the dark in my own work, so a lot of my videos find humor within more sinister ideas. 

How do you approach each video

I channel my experiences and dreams and mash those with the emotions and ideas of the song and artist I’m collaborating with. I write full stories for each video to create that insulated universe. While I definitely see overlaps between some of my videos’ ideas, each project starts in a different creative place. 

What are your favorite moments from production?

There’s been so many, but two really stand out: 

When I was shooting “Case 19” with Jasiah, it was a court-room scene and I needed a jury full of strippers. We looked everywhere but couldn’t find anything that could work, so in a moment of desperation, I went on Craigslist and listed $100 to any local strippers who would work all day and left my producer’s number. We immediately started getting callbacks, and we were able to fill the jury with the strippers from Craigslist. They were all so amazing to work with, and the shot turned out better than I could have imagined. 

The other one was from the “Internet Money - Somebody ft. Lil Tecca and A Boogie wit da Hoodie” video. It was a wedding reception scene that Lil Tecca and A Boogie wit da Hoodie were going to crash, so we had this reception hall packed with extras, and at some point, everybody was going to have to start getting lit with Lil Tecca and A Boogie. The whole room felt very stiff at first, and I could see the artists and extras were having a hard time getting loose with each other, so I gave one of my Production Assistants $150 to go get the most quantity of not-gross (Cuervo or better) tequila and vodka for the set. We had the extras go to the back and take a few shots, and before you know it, everybody was having the best time, and the whole turned out amazing. 

What other things are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m inside working on Vogue’s Docu-Series for Pride Month, which is really cool. My friend Quinn Whitney Wilson directed it, so I helped shoot and produce it and I’m doing some editing right now.

In my spare time, I have been teaching myself Unreal Engine Software, which makes Fortnite, because I’ve always been interested in video game design. I study in 3D printing and Film Photography as well because I’m interested. While I am focused on Directing, it helps to be knowledgable of all sides of the process. 

Are you interested in moving into Directing narrative projects, like shorts of features in the future?

Yes, I am very interested in getting into that field and could see it happening soon. While I definitely have aspirations for future projects, I just try to master whatever I am doing at each moment and get that thing right.