Virgin Islands Featured Music Producer: Tre
Trevone Tre Otto was born on the island of St. Thomas U.S.V.I. to Cleon Otto Sr and Tracelyn Otto in 1991. He's one of four children and began writing and producing music in the early 2000's. Tre grew up listening to every genre of music that he could find, he was introduced to local calypso and gospel at the age of 8, where he played the drums at his church. He turned anything into a riddim, simply tapping the beats on pots and pans and other items that could be found, he did this almost every chance he got. St. Thomas, his hometown played a major role in his music with musical traditions. Growing up he listened to all types of music, he taste in music has been vast and broad from the beginning, because you learn this on St. Thomas because of its diversity. In his teenage years Tre played bass guitar in a band, cutting his teeth as a live performer in front of big crowds. He began receiving recognition in the early 2000's as a member of a Soca Band. The Virgin Islands based producer already has quite a reputation, he's been honing his craft for years. Last year he stepped out of the shadows and identifies as one of the best producers from the Virgin Islands, which is an accomplishment to live up to. The 29 year old had a good run, providing tracks to some of the hottest Soca artists in the Caribbean such as Destra, Shurwayne Winchester, Preedy, Claudette Peters, Hypa 4000, Skinny Bantan, Mr. Mention, Sister Joyce, K.Lee and so on. He was self taught in music producing and still learns more about it everyday. He's played quite few instruments such as bass, guitar, percussion, trumpet, steel drums, with technology improving on a daily, he's able to play them virtually. Daddy Jones was Tre's first inspiration to get into making beats. Tre began making beats on Akai 2000 XL thanks to to his second inspiration Simon "Gusty" Lettsome and Adrian "Aplus" Burke who would lay down some heat on the pads. His brother Cleon Otto Jr. exposed him to a beat making program called FL Studio. He had to learn everything on his own and create his own sounds until he got his first "load up" (VI sample library) from Osei "Daddy O" Lettsome. At the time he was playing in the concert & steel band in Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School so his arrangement stemmed from what he knew from Mr. Liston "Matey" Sewer & Mr. Calvin "Bones" Jones.
He met Daddy Jones when he saw him on MySpace in my early days of “making riddim”. He asked him for feedback on a song he remixed from Lil Wayne “Amille”, for at the time it was pretty hot & made him well known locally through The Virgin Islands. He actually started having conversations with him around 2013 when he heard him at a soundcheck for a gig they were playing at in Virgin Gorda. He even asked him for a beat he was sound checking with! A humbling experience to say the least.
Funny thing is they haven’t worked on anything, they spoke of it but due to time & being busy it hasn’t come to fruition yet. He still look forward to doing so because he lost the chance to work with the now late “Daddy Boots” of Jam Band & “Bosco” of Beat Down Production. They’ve been reaching out to associates of mine but they never really relayed the messages to me while he was away until it was too late. Their untimely passing showed him that we shouldn’t be “too busy” to collab on a project because you never know when it’s “too late”. The uniqueness, always trying to be different. When someone hears a production they would say “that sounds like something Tre would make” because it sounds different from the regular “VI sound”. Tre still tries to keep the “VI Drive” which is that gritty muddy sound that fills up the riddim but also keep it clean so it can be understandable to new listeners.
Some of his favorite projects to work on were, One being “Blame It” by Preedy being that he was the first Trinidad artist he worked with & “No Behavior” By Hypa 4000 because that’s his first time doing a “jab jab” track for a St. Vincent artist & he won soca monarch & road march at the same time with that track.
An artist that he's always wanted to work with is Machel Montano & Bunji Garlin but Tre produce beats for other genres as well so he kind of wants to keep that a secret until the time is right. He had a lot planned but due to the COVID-19 corona virus outbreak his plans were halted, contradicting the way how everything was supposed to flow this year for him but he's still cooking up other projects in the meantime.
He produced other genres of music & loves doing so because it adds more flavor to my production within each genre. He kind of “toned down” on his fun to take my music even more serious but he was an avid gamer & liked RC cars, he liked sports but due to some injuries he suffered when he was younger, held back Tre from the athletic realm so he won’t face having to not walk ever again. Outside of that he tries to clear his mind by going on drives, talking to his close friends & watching movies & TV shows that can expand my mind.
Written By: Minoca A.
Info Provided by: Tre
PC: Tre
