“I’ve always operated under one premise: If you create a project that is great, that is undeniable, something WILL happen. It’s my Field of Dreams mantra: Build it and they will come.”

 

Paul Trust began his career as a drummer, going on to the University of Miami’s School of Music Engineering where he used off-hour studio time to write and record songs. By his junior year, Paul was already working at a top commercial recording studio in Miami, Audio Vision Studios, which was owned and operated by Miami legends Ron and Howard Albert (CSN, Aretha Franklin). Under the tutelage of Ron and Howard, Paul’s time at Audiovision gave him a hands-on, real-world producing and engineering education.

 

After graduation, Audiovision hired Paul as a full-time staff engineer/producer. His days were spent engineering for some incredible heritage artists including Stephen Stills, Jimmy Cliff, Betty Wright, Dion, and Millie Jackson, while after hours he recorded original material and worked on developing his own band. That band, Jesse Strange (then unsigned) released a single that went to #1 in multiple major radio markets, resulting in a deal with Sony Records.

 

After the validation of Jesse Strange, Paul and his friend William Ray created Panacea Records as a vehicle for Paul to write, produce, and develop new artists. Panacea’s first artist was quirky latin punk band, Al’s Not Well. After securing a deal for Al’s Not Well with Beyond/BMG and Left Bank Management,Trust landed the band the opening slot for the DURAN DURAN-Electric Barbarella tour, and accompanying the band as tour manager.  Panacea and/or Paul Trust went on to develop and be instrumental in obtaining deals for multiple artists including Endo (Columbia), Crease (Roadrunner), Diecast (Century Media), Sunday Driver (DogHouse) and Atom Smash (Jive).

 

After completing a national tour drumming with Sunday Driver, Trust hung up the drum sticks and was asked to come to LA to work with hot up-and-coming production team, The Matrix.  The Matrix was just coming off the Avril Lavigne record and was incredibly busy, so they asked Paul to temporarily relocate to LA to help with the workload.  This time spent working with Graham Edwards and Lauren Christy (and living in their guest house) was an invaluable introduction to the pro writing team mindset.

 

After getting back to Florida, Paul was introduced to a young artist in a band called Downplay that was signed to Epic.  They began writing together and clicked.   Unfortunately (actually fortunately) Epic dropped Downplay.  The young artist, Dustin Bates, went on to form Starset.   From it’s onset, Paul has been a major contributor to STARSET, now a platinum recording artist on Fearless Records.  He has co-written 12 released tracks over the course of 4 records (including 5 songs from the upcoming release) and contributes to the orchestration and engineering on Starset's latest records.  During a Starset hiatus,Trust and Bates went on to create the genre-bending MNQN and released the project independently.

 

Paul’s reputation in South Florida led to a steady stream of young artists to work with.  In 2014, a friend introduced Paul to a young singer who had recently been on the T.V.  show The Voice.  This singer was MORGAN WALLEN.  Impressed by his voice, Paul/Panacea signed Wallen and began writing and recording. They amassed a catalog of over 20 songs, releasing a 5-song EP in 2015.  That EP has produced a Platinum (soon to be Double Platinum) single “Spin You Around”, and is currently streaming over 12,000,000 per month.  After recording that EP,  Panacea brought in a management team who helped secure a deal for Wallen with Big Loud Records.