The Trevor Pan Show

Goethe once said, “architecture is frozen music”.

Similar to the beginnings of Pink Floyd, Trevor Pan attended architecture school and received a master’s degree from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. His father encouraged the pursuit of beauty from the age of twelve, teaching him how to garden as well as giving him a guitar and amplifier. It was at the height of Nirvana, when Beavis and Butthead offered their wisdom on the arena of rock that Pan really saw his star. Never losing the dream, even through school and after band breakups, The Trevor Pan Show continues to write music he calls “Freelance Rock”. At the core of all unforgettable music is the basic sequence of chords, melodies and ideas. If any of those elements are missing then no amount of production value can compensate and magically make it memorable .

Much the way a freelance writer can cover a variety of topics while still maintaining their title of writer, Pan rests on the foundation of Rock and exercises the freedom of freelance with soft, jazzy, and at times aggressive guitar tones and colors. This is the result of his varied interests and abilities to capture feelings into song and space.

He has organized concerts starting with “The Millennium’s Last Act: A Tribute to Columbine High School” since he was 17. There were ten local bands and proceeds from the show, held at the Loveland, CO fairgrounds, were donated to the United Way Healing Fund. Slowly building up over the years with a since disbanded band, The 6th Sense, he continued organizing larger events. Sometimes weather got the best of them, see article.

To better his craft, he began taking vocal lessons during his Master degree program and began learning more about the business side of music. Attending many music conferences by Billboard Magazine, he slowly acquired knowledge of the music “business”. The founding of Pantonic Records, meaning Pan-tones or tonic of the soul, in November 2007 marked a defining moment. This is the realization that the day of the independent has come. Commercially, Pantonic has not performed in the way one might hope for. However, it is the dedication that will ensure its worth and longevity.

Always searching, trying the next thing, it should not come as a surprise when, in November and December of 2008, Trevor posted a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, CA to promote his most recent EP – It’s About Time…. The Pantonic Records sponsored billboard cost $6K. The return-on-investment? One download.

Though it was a valiant effort, he has not lost hope. After stalling in architecture since May 5, 2009 as a result of the economic meltdown he enrolled in a music composition program at Scottsdale Community College. Playing in the ensemble Rock Band gave him some more band experience and the music theory and aural training has improved his musicianship immensely.

For the summer of 2010, he will be studying personally on voice with Beth Livingston-Hakes, piano with Raul Yanez and guitar with Dr. Alex Zawilak.

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If you’ like to see one of Pan’s architectural designs, please visit the links below. Please note, 3 Desert Way was the building where the girl from the song “Hollywood and Vine” came to for the “photoshoot”.

Architectural Record
BusinessWeek

Click on images for larger view…Jerry Portelli shot these pics.