One question we get asked often is “How long have you been playing?”… seems like a simple enough question, but the truth is it can be fairly complicated.
For example, Tommy originally wanted to be a bass player. His mom told him to take guitar lessons first. Thanks, Mom. Even then, however, his path wasn’t straight. He DID play bass for a minute, did some music/guitar in college, stopped playing music altogether for a while, and didn’t find his stride until he was in his 30s! Now we know him as the master of the Telecaster and the well-rounded guitar player we love.
Mimi went a completely different roundabout way to get to bassing it. She played bass for a very short time between 11 and 13, and not at all seriously. No lessons, just thumping on her mom’s old bass. At 16, she got a guitar and- once again- no lessons. Mostly learning by ear at this point. She took her electric guitar to university, where she picked up a few things from her fellow music major folks, but she was a voice major, so it mostly collected dust. It wasn’t until she moved to St. Thomas that she finally started working on playing guitar using the internet as a guide. Bass was not even on her radar until 2014 or so, 11 years after moving to St. Thomas, when she said, “How hard could it be?” There may have been alcohol involved. The rest is just by the seat of her pants. The music background didn’t hurt.
Wyatt’s background is a mystery lost to time. We think, based on research, that he stumbled across a cursed drum kit in a corn field. He hasn’t said much about it.
Honestly, everyone starts somewhere. Some people take piano lessons as kids; some people join band as an extracurricular activity; some just pick it up and watch a ton of YouTube videos. There isn’t one correct way to become a musician. If you love it, do it. You don’t have to play for money, you don’t even have to play for an audience, but if you love to play, you’re a musician. Welcome to the club.
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