Seattle native Travis Thompson has been making some serious noise so far in 2018 with not only his musical ability that showed on his album YouGood, but as well as in his presence as a director behind the camera, all in all he’s simply a dope creative. After being put on to Travis a month or two back I knew that I wanted to bring him in for one of our Q&A segments, and today I am more than glad to bring our readers the final product, learn a thing or two about Travis below!
—
EM: Before we dive into the questions, can you give our readers who may not be familiar with you a brief introduction of yourself
TT: My name is Travis Thompson and I’m a rapper and director from Seattle, WA
—
EM: What is your earliest memory of music?
TT: The first music memory I have was my dad playing The Score by The Fugees & old Eminem shit on the way to my basketball games- to try and get me hyped up. My mom didn’t like me listening that shit, so I was really obsessed with it. Around the same time, my big sister was playing me a bunch of Green Day & Good Charlotte which I was also hella into. I was all over the place.
—
EM: When did you first start creating music?
TT: As a kid who grew up on the internet I’ve been writing raps to Lil Wayne beats on youtube since I was like 9. But in middle school my friend Nabil had Microsoft recorder and a little plastic mic. We would make songs and then show our friends on the bus and shit. I stopped until my junior year of high school when my sister got a macbook with garage-band. I recorded raps into her laptop for awhile until my friend (and now manager) Shelton got me some real studio time and thats when we got serious about it. That was about 3 years ago.
—
EM: What/who inspired you to become an artist?
TT: When I was really young my dad would play me videos of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street band performing live and I knew I wanted to do that shit. It looked like a buncha kids having hella fun, looking cool as fuck, and performing in front of thousands of people. The feeling I got from watching those videos made me realize how much I wanted it. I sorta come from a family of artists as well. My dad writes, my sister paints/draws, and my mom’s just an all around hustler. They’ve always pushed me to be whatever I wanted and to go hella hard at it.
—
EM: do you remember the first album you ever had?
TT: I had a lemonade stand with my sister for a little bit as a kid and after a week of hustling my mom took me to Fred Meyer and I used my earnings to buy Akon’s Convicted album & American Idiot by Green Day. That was the first time I remember seeking out my own music and feeling a sense of ownership of it.
—
EM: If you could collab with one person dead or alive who would it be?
TT: I just wanna make a song with Wayne man. Thats my favorite rapper ever. To be able and show my homies a wayne verse over my shit…would be a fuckin moment. I gotta make it happen. I’m gonna.
—
EM: What’s your favorite Wayne song?
TT: I wanna say a buncha different things. But if I’m being real, It’s probably a tie between B.M.J.R and Watch My Shoes. Both those songs just mean hella to me and take me back to a much simpler, and more ignorant time of my life haha.
—
EM: Speaking of Wanye, what are your thoughts on Tha Carter V?
TT: That shit is amazing. There’s definitely parts I like more than others but it gave me that feeling again.
—
EM: can you speak on the creation process of YouGood?
TT:My friend Tyler Dopps put a booth in his apartment and it just became the spot, really. We’ve always worked on shit but we knew about a year ago that we wanted to make a full blown project together. So we started working on the album before we left for the Gemini tour. Worked on some ideas on the road. Tracked instruments in hotel rooms, and finished it when we got back. We both knew we wanted to do something different than we’d ever done before. He just came off working on Mack’s album- so starting a new one can be like, creatively draining. So we would just link up everyday and try to make something weird we hadn’t done yet. We didn’t finish much for a long time, just stacked hella ideas for all winter, then spent the spring making em real. And then we released in May.
—
EM: what is your personal favorite joint off of that project
TT: My favorite song is Infatuated for sure. That shit just felt hella good to say on a song. Thats the song I listen to every now and then and really feel proud of what me and tyler did. And the homie Parisalexa vocals on it just make it smooth as hell
—
EM: Can you speak on the creation process of the YOUGOOD? film
TT: When I make songs- I see scenes. So like, when I’m writing, I’m already coming up with video ideas. About halfway through making the album, my co director Dylan Fout said “we should make a video for all the songs”. Which At first, thought wasn’t feasible at all- but the more we talked, the more we consolidated certain ideas, and made lists of every resource we had, figured out which homies could play what roles, we figured out we could really make a cohesive story off videos that were already out- and construct a whole new world to live in. So me and my girl bought a calendar, and mapped out every video shoot date before we even had treatments. And every day was either spent at the studio- or spent shooting a video, figuring out treatments, props, scouting locations, etc. It was a lot for sure, but worth it cause my heart is just as much in making films as it is music. We put the album out, and had everything shot- but going back and forth with dylan on the phone about edits got hella annoying. And we both have a lot of distractions where we live. So we rented a house in the middle of nowhere Washington, brought the homies and did nothing but edit the film, smoke, drink, and make music. And then I rented a theater in my hometown, sold it out in like 2 days and we premiered it and had a Q&A with the fans. It was so tight. Some dream shit.
—
EM: Is this something you will be doing more in the future, can the fans be expecting another documentary style film in the future
TT: Yeah the film was all narrative and thats where my heart is at. I love writing stories and making worlds. But me and Dylan actually did just get started on a documentary. Fans can always expect crazy visuals. And a lot of them.
—
EM: It’s clear that visuals mean a whole lot to you, what are some music videos / films that inspired you growing up?
TT: I’m fairly young so I grew up with the internet at my disposal pretty early. I was watching Eminem videos hella. The real slim shady especially. Just so much shit going on, so many characters, hella colorful. Something we strive for with what we do. The Fugees Ready or Not video. Also Kanye’s New Workout Plan video. They felt like movies. They were too. I loved seeing popular actors in videos back then too. It all felt larger than life. Movie wise- Forest Gump, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Goonies, Sandlot, shit like that. But really, in high school- seeing Tyler direct all the OF vids and take pride in making films made me really wanna do it myself.
—
EM: The national anthem or the international players anthem?
TT: SPACESHIPS DONT COME EQUIPPED WITH REARVIEW MIRRORS!
—
EM: What can our readers expect from you for the rest of 2018?
TT: I’m going out on my first headlining tour to support my album!
—
EM: Last question, where do you see yourself in five years?
TT: In 5 years I wanna be a staple where I’m from and giving opportunity to my friends and neighborhood. Hopefully doing the same shit, just on the biggest scale possible that the people will let me.
—
Photo by: Zach Fajardo