So… I'm Tre.

Before I had a teacher or a gear list, I had family reunions with my mom, Judith Smith. I'd sneak my picks onto the speakers, the soul, Motown & R&B cuts, and the room would ask who put that on. I'd raise my hand. That attention to detail was there before I knew what to call it.

Cleveland sounded like everything at once. My older sister Jeri ran funk, soul & quiet storm. My sister Jade ran Three 6 Mafia, Aaliyah & Master P. I got the best of both worlds. Then MTV, BET & VH1 put Kanye next to Green Day, Slipknot next to Madonna, Linkin Park next to Natasha Bedingfield. I never saw walls between any of it.

In fourth grade, Mr. Bonick saw that music could be a healthy place for me to put what I was feeling. He's the reason I found Mr. Michaels, the teacher who handed me the technical side & believed in me early. That's where drums became my first love. Guitar came later & never left. It's still my favorite instrument.

“Music opened up a world that wasn't black & white. Not smart or dumb. Not rich or poor. Just people who loved something.”

My first gig was a friend's birthday party, me on guitar & drums. My first paid gig started with an axe. I spent a summer chopping wood behind a friend's dad's shed, and when I told him I DJ'd, he hired me as the sound guy for his cover band, Collage. First night at Red Hawk on 44 in Chardon, I played between their sets. The crowd loved it. A whole new lane opened.

That lane led to the Tri-C High School Rock Off. Sold-out House of Blues, main hall, and I'm a high school kid feeling every emotion at once. Then my computer crashed mid-set. We lost. I let my bandmates down, and it still turned out to be the best thing that could've happened. I went all in on my own career & the studio.

The Rock Off gave me mentors. Dave Nakaji, a mixing & mastering engineer who's worked with The Weeknd, Beyoncé, Wiz Khalifa & basically every artist I dreamed about, gave me hands-on experience. Tony Yerman taught me the business side: get paid for your work, stay stable, invest in yourself, be self-sufficient. Both sat with me through the parts of this nobody sees.

I was uploading remixes & mashups to MySpace with nothing to show for it. Then I watched Ski Beatz resample “Dead Presidents” in Ableton 7 & it looked like magic. I studied the DJs I loved and decided I wasn't going to be a playlist promoter. If you're great, you're self-contained. So I learned to mix, master & produce everything myself.

Twenty thousand hours looked like long nights confused in Ableton. Doubt. Calluses from Blink-182 riffs. Big wins & bigger losses. Every one of them is why I'm hungry for 100,000 more.

Today a session with me feels like relief. No performing professionalism, no proving yourself. I'm not entitled to your creative energy. I work for it.

“If you're great, you're self-contained.”

Design started as survival. I was a musician who needed flyers & covers, so I taught myself in GIMP, charged middle school friends five bucks a Photoshop edit & bought Adobe with the money. Around year five, I realized passion wasn't enough to stand next to the best designers in the world, so I got serious: the software, the client management, the communication.

Rob Cristofaro started as an influence & became a mentor through Instagram. Virgil Abloh was on our radar early, and his hand in building Ohio Against The World showed us what an Ohio brand could become. Between the two of them, I saw that one person with a MacBook Pro could be a full creative agency on the internet.

The real test came through a late-night Instagram follow. Mark from No Cover Magazine followed me back, met me at Immigrant Son & said he knew Wendy Dio. I figured he was bluffing. He called her in front of me. That day I became managing editor of a national music magazine. I ran a staff & a budget, worked with Corey Taylor, Yellowcard & Tropidelic, put friends on covers & shipped 20,000 copies a month. It was the first time I led, not just delivered.

That's where creative manufacturing comes from: the studio, the design house, the label & the agency merged into one operation. Making things has never been cheaper. The edge now is running the creative like a real business.

“I realized I could be a one-man creative agency on the internet.”

In 2020 I quit Amazon & went full time. Not for the hype. I'd watched too many musicians stay broke & scared of the world, and I wasn't going to be one of them.

Now I'm in the best space of my career. Building with Taylor Gang. DJing at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & board members' homes. Fresh off the Lost Americana tour with MGK, DJing the VIP tent, where he told me he still hasn't made his best song. That stuck. Sixteen years in & the foot stays on the gas.

“Feel Good,” “Heart For Handouts” with King Pala & new music with Al Fatz are on deck. I'm playing more guitar, writing more & taking more sessions.

Everything runs on one rule: Love First, Serve All. Love the craft first, whether you've got 25 years or 25 days. Then remember you owe something to everyone who helped you get here.

“Loving what you do doesn't give you permission to be love drunk.”