Speaker A

Honestly, you know, back when I was about five years old, that was like, when I first started learning how to play the drums.

Speaker A

And then I went from the drums to guitar.

Speaker A

My sister got this acoustic guitar, and I was kind of.

Speaker A

Be honest, I was a little jealous.

Speaker A

I was just like, oh, I want a guitar.

Speaker A

I think that's cool.

Speaker A

You know, whatever.

Speaker A

And then I was just like, all right, I'm going to try and learn this, you know, and try and just see if I can learn more than my sister.

Speaker A

And then.

Speaker A

And then, like, I started.

Speaker A

I started playing it, and I was just like, oh, this is.

Speaker A

This is actually pretty cool.

Speaker A

And I started.

Speaker A

I grew up in church, and so when I was about 11 or 12, I was playing guitar and a little drums, you know, in church and stuff.

Speaker A

And my music pastor at the time, like, was like, man, we got our bass player.

Speaker A

All of our bass players are moving away or something like that.

Speaker A

And they were just like, man, we really need some bass players.

Speaker A

And we have, like, a Baptistry, like, at our church, like, in a back closet stuff as well.

Speaker A

And there was, like, all these, like, random bases back there.

Speaker A

And I was like, what are all these back here for?

Speaker A

And so, like, I asked my pastor.

Speaker A

I was like, hey, you care if I, like, take one of these home and just try and learn how to play it?

Speaker A

Because I know we need bass players.

Speaker A

And he was just like, yeah.

Speaker A

He's like, man, that'd be awesome.

Speaker A

He's like, you know, in six months to a year, you might be playing in a service.

Speaker A

And I'm like, prophesied, gosh, that's no pressure.

Speaker A

That's a long time to me.

Speaker A

I was like.

Speaker A

I was like.

Speaker A

I thought I was just gonna pick it up and just start playing the next service, right?

Speaker A

But, like.

Speaker A

But like, he says six months to a year.

Speaker A

And I was just like.

Speaker A

I took that as a challenge.

Speaker A

And so I literally started practicing, like, day in and day out, and I was up there in two months, start playing my first service.

Speaker B

Oh, yeah, he took it there.

Speaker B

Okay, Turkey.

Speaker B

That gives you about what?

Speaker A

Yeah, not even, like, six days.

Speaker A

I'm in trouble.

Speaker A

Oh, my God.

Speaker A

Wow.

Speaker A

Two months.

Speaker B

That's crazy.

Speaker B

Well, we got.

Speaker B

We got a master teacher here, so hopefully, Travis, you're gonna break it down.

Speaker B

Show us some of your strategies to take us from drummer like Matt to bassist in two months.

Speaker B

That's.

Speaker B

That's exciting.

Speaker A

Oh, so you're a drummer?

Speaker A

Musician.

Speaker B

Matt's a drummer slash engineer slash professional microphone recognizer.

Speaker B

For those who don't know, Drakey is A budding pianist.

Speaker B

Relax.

Speaker A

Well, you are pianist.

Speaker A

All right, fair enough.

Speaker B

You got a better word?

Speaker A

Learning piano.

Speaker A

Oh, man.

Speaker A

Budding pianist that just.

Speaker B

And myself.

Speaker B

I'm a bass player like you, man.

Speaker B

So I'm interested in talking to you for sure.

Speaker B

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B

So take us.

Speaker B

Continue the story.

Speaker B

So you're 12 years old, pick up the bass.

Speaker B

Two months, you're playing live in front of audiences.

Speaker A

So, yeah, that was my first time playing in church and everything like that.

Speaker A

And so from then on, this, like, kind of love or like hunger for music started to come, which I had it when I was playing drums.

Speaker A

Yeah.

Speaker A

But honestly, whenever I started playing bass, it was just like another.

Speaker A

A whole nother level of it.

Speaker A

And so whenever I started doing that, I started playing at little camps here and there, A little, you know, little summer camps and little conf.

Speaker A

Little conferences.

Speaker A

And when I turned 18.

Speaker A

Well, when I turned 17 years old, I went to college for music.

Speaker A

And.

Speaker A

And so, like, that was when I started getting to the professional side of things.

Speaker A

And I went from.

Speaker A

I went to this school called University of North Alabama because I'm originally from Birmingham, Alabama.

Speaker A

Yeah.

Speaker A

And so I'm.

Speaker A

I moved there to the school and I also.

Speaker A

I was homeschooled my whole life.

Speaker A

And so that was the first time going to public school.

Speaker A

I mean, that's probably the reason why I, like, had time to be able to learn how to play the bass.

Speaker A

Yeah.

Speaker A

Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker B

That's the secret.

Speaker B

Sorry, guys.

Speaker A

That's.

Speaker A

Yeah, that's the two month secret.

Speaker B

Well, you know, it is a good time for that.

Speaker B

So homeschooling and all that's going on.

Speaker B

Good time.

Speaker A

Well, and then I think I just kind of got tired of being home.

Speaker A

And so I was just like.

Speaker A

I found a school that did music.

Speaker A

It was like the top school in Alabama music.

Speaker A

I mean, I don't know how.

Speaker A

I don't know how big of a deal that is in Alabama, but.

Speaker A

But that was like where I went.

Speaker A

And.

Speaker A

And so I took some music in like, some music technology classes, production classes and stuff there.

Speaker A

And I halfway through.

Speaker A

I was like.

Speaker A

I was halfway through my bachelor's and I realized a lot of my friends were moving away, getting gigs and starting to play with artists and stuff.

Speaker A

And I was just like.

Speaker A

And I.

Speaker A

And I was kind of in the business side because I was.

Speaker A

That was like, what I was doing a lot of was like, managing and marketing, that kind of stuff.

Speaker A

And so I was like, oh, man.

Speaker A

Like, I don't.

Speaker A

Do I need to be like, trying to get a gig or do I need to be, like, trying to go out and do something?

Speaker A

And so I started.

Speaker A

One of my friends from school got on this.

Speaker A

The show the Voice, and he got pretty far on there.

Speaker A

And there was this one.

Speaker A

We had this one time he had it.

Speaker A

Like, a lot of the contestants were, like, close to Nashville that he was on that season with.

Speaker A

And so they had this, like, Voice party, like, where they were.

Speaker A

Where they.

Speaker A

Because they all had it pre recorded until, like, the very finale.

Speaker A

The finale.

Speaker A

So, like, all of them had already, like, been up there to LA and everything like that.

Speaker A

And so they wanted to all watch it together when it first came on.

Speaker A

And so I went there, and I immediately met, like, all these, like, people who are just, like, you know, just starting.

Speaker A

And like, usually they're just, like, on the.

Speaker A

You know, about to break out into, like, you know, being an artist and all this kind of stuff.

Speaker A

And.

Speaker A

And so, like, I.

Speaker A

I went there and I connected all these people and started playing with, like, three or four of them and.

Speaker A

And then started managing a couple of.

Speaker A

A couple of them.

Speaker A

Okay.

Speaker A

And playing as well.

Speaker A

And that kind of took me into, like.

Speaker A

And that was here in Nashville.

Speaker A

I was coming up.

Speaker A

I was like, literally driving up here every week.

Speaker A

Like, every week and then.

Speaker A

And I never had a desire to move to Nashville.

Speaker A

Like, it wasn't like this childhood dream.

Speaker A

Yeah.

Speaker A

But I literally went.

Speaker A

I kept going up there.

Speaker A

I was like, you know what?

Speaker A

If I'm working, I'm up here all this time.

Speaker A

Like, I might as well move up here.

Speaker A

And, like.

Speaker A

And.

Speaker A

And that was, like, kind of what got me.

Speaker A

Really took me to that next point in my career, and.

Speaker A

Because I finally made the move up there.

Speaker A

And then I got a job at a management.

Speaker A

A management company, working as an intern at first and then kind of taking it into a little bit as a job.

Speaker A

And then I realized I didn't like the business side of stuff.

Speaker A

I was just.

Speaker A

I don't know, it's just like.

Speaker A

I think for me, I wanted to be more creative, and I realized how cut.

Speaker A

Cut through the business side is too.

Speaker B

And I was gonna talk about that.

Speaker A

A bit, for sure, but, like, that was.

Speaker A

And then from there, I just, like, you know, I was like, you know what?

Speaker A

I have this little YouTube channel that I, you know, started when I was like, I don't know, when I was like, a teenager, and I was like, I mean, let me just.

Speaker A

Let me just start throwing some videos on there.

Speaker A

And I just, like.

Speaker A

And it just.

Speaker A

I wasn't.

Speaker A

It was no strategy and Then from then on, it's just like started to become a thing.

Speaker A

Like, it was only a couple of years ago I actually started to take it seriously.

Speaker A

And so.

Speaker B

But yeah, were these playing videos at first or tutorials?

Speaker A

It was playing videos now.

Speaker A

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker A

I don't.

Speaker A

I don't even know if I should say this, but whenever I would, when I was my first videos on there.

Speaker A

So there's one video is me and my sister and our, like, my sister's piano teacher.

Speaker A

We had like this little groove.

Speaker A

I was playing the bass.

Speaker A

I knew, like, for.

Speaker A

I knew this progression and I was just like, oh, yeah, this sounds killing.

Speaker A

We're playing this.

Speaker A

This song called Love is yous by Chrisette Michelle.

Speaker A

Oh, yeah, okay.

Speaker A

And like.

Speaker A

And that was like the vibe.

Speaker A

And I was.

Speaker A

And that was like the first video that was ever of me on YouTube.

Speaker A

It's no longer on there.

Speaker A

Let you know.

Speaker A

But then I started cut to that.

Speaker B

Video right now, I think.

Speaker A

I think it was on my sister's channel.

Speaker A

And she just kind of like took it down.

Speaker A

And then from then I got.

Speaker A

I started posting like these dumb, like, acoustic videos.

Speaker A

My parents used to live on a lake, and I would just sit out on the pier and I would just record these acoustic on the sunset.

Speaker A

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker A

It was so stupid.

Speaker A

I took those down immediately.

Speaker A

Let me tell you, there are no.

Speaker B

Secrets among us here.

Speaker B

You can say whatever you want.

Speaker B

You can share videos.

Speaker B

Stay with us just a little.

Speaker A

But that was like.

Speaker A

I started posting that and then like, when I was in college, I posted.

Speaker A

I was like, oh, let me try and do this cover in my.

Speaker A

I just like, I was playing with this gospel choir.

Speaker A

I was like, in rehearsals with this gospel choir.

Speaker A

Yeah, and at the school.

Speaker A

And they.

Speaker A

We did this song called Happy by Tasha Cobbs.

Speaker A

And.

Speaker A

And I was like.

Speaker A

I was like, oh, man.

Speaker A

Like.

Speaker A

And I thought I was gonna be playing it.

Speaker A

And then all of a sudden they're just like, oh, we're gonna hire this.

Speaker A

Hire a bass player to play with us at the concert.

Speaker A

And I was like, what?

Speaker A

And I was like.

Speaker A

And I was practicing with them all semester.

Speaker A

And I was just like, man, I got.

Speaker A

I spent all this time learning this song or learning these songs, and I was just like, you know what?

Speaker A

I'm just gonna record a video of me doing it.

Speaker A

And literally that video was what got me into, like, wanting to put videos on YouTube because it was Happy by Tasha Cobbs.

Speaker A

And it was like on my old, like, ESP Ltd, it's like a six string bass and, like.

Speaker A

And my friend who was, like, just kind of learning, producing and stuff like that, he was like, oh, bro, you got to record the audio.

Speaker A

You know, you've got to.

Speaker A

And then that's how I learned about, oh, I got to.

Speaker A

Audio is important.

Speaker A

You know, I can't just, like, record it from, like, my computer speakers and stuff like that.

Speaker A

And then so.

Speaker A

And that just literally just sparked it.

Speaker A

It just sparked, you know, the whole YouTube thing and everything.

Speaker B

So that video went up on your channel, too, or was that kind of just what sparked the idea?

Speaker A

It would have on my channel.

Speaker A

It's still up there.

Speaker A

Like, I was.

Speaker A

I mean, I was actually really surprised on the quality.

Speaker A

Even to this day.

Speaker A

I was like, man, the fact that.

Speaker A

Because I think I just did it on my computer or my iPhone or something.

Speaker A

Like one.

Speaker A

It was like an iPhone, like, four or something, like, super old.

Speaker A

But the quality, I was actually.

Speaker A

With the audio, I was actually really still impressed with today.

Speaker A

I was like, wow.

Speaker A

I mean, of course, I was like.

Speaker A

I was definitely not as mature when it comes to, like, being a musician at that time.

Speaker A

Right.

Speaker A

But.

Speaker A

But, like, it was.

Speaker A

Yeah, it was just kind of that spark.

Speaker A

Yeah.