“Captain America: Civil War,” is in its global release this week. TREN, a band of BYU students and graduates, attempted to get their song, “Civil War,” into the film through the use of social media.
“Civil War” is the band’s second attempt at getting the film industry to recognize their work. In mid-2015, TREN sought to get their first song, “Live or Survive,” into the last “Hunger Games” movie but fell short.
Although the movie did not feature their song, Richard Williams, of TREN, told LDS.net that they still saw success from using social media as their promotion tool.
“We got a number of important people in the film and music industry to hear it…which is pretty phenomenal when you’re starting from ‘nothing,'” Williams said. “We’ve connected with many people who have approached us and have wanted to work with us because they see a lot of potential in us.”
TREN is unique in trying to be recognized by film, since their main promotion tactic is social media. Williams said that he believes that putting TREN’s songs on the different social media platforms, engaging with fans and getting as many people to share the songs as possible will be a key factor in getting their songs into film. Williams said,
Generally speaking, we get a positive response from people, so as long as we can get them to hear it, it does well. But really the fans sharing and posting our music has made such a HUGE difference in getting the word out there, and we’re really grateful for that!
Williams explains that reaching their ultimate goal would mean the absolute world to TREN. “That would really launch our careers, and give us more opportunities to keep creating our music and share it with people,” Williams said. “We just enjoy being able to use our talents for others to enjoy, and that would just really help accelerate our goal to be able to do so.”
The group of four stands out from some others in the industry with music that shares worthwhile messages. Williams explained that “Civil War” demonstrates how contention can weaken the power of good, causing a division, which ultimately allows evil to prevail.
Fans of TREN can look forward to more from the band. Their newest song, “Wonderland,” is “quite a different feel” from the band’s first two, with the goal of being featured in “Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass.” Although the music video hasn’t been released yet, you can listen to “Wonderland” on iTunes.
MormonMusic.org has an exclusive interview with TREN. See the video and read about TREN’s latest adventures.
