(whisper)
Hey what's up?
It's Travis Thompson
and this is a special episode of Mind Massage
because it's my birthday, 23 years old.
Join me here, Mind Massage.
Let's go.
(clapperboard clicks)
(shushing)
All right, so I've seen the show
and I know what y'all normally do,
but it's my birthday,
so they got me a whole bag of goodies and gifts.
So we're gonna try to make some cool sounds
and do some cool stuff with that, I guess that's all.
Aw, this is my first gift, I swear to God.
No one's gotten me a gift yet, let's go.
A cupcake.
I'm so trashing this.
We also got candles.
Oh what?
These are beautiful.
Hold up, let's get it going right there.
(lighter clicks)
(blows air out of mouth)
What's up?
If you don't know who I am, my name's Travis Thompson
and my new album Reckless Endangerment is out now.
And today, I'm gonna walk you through some of my gifts.
Let you know where I'm from, what I'm about,
how I grew up.
Happy birthday to me.
(tissue paper crinkles)
I am from a place right outside of Seattle,
it's called Burien Washington.
I grew up on a street called Ambaum.
There's a lot of woods, we'd hang out in the woods.
You smoke and drink.
There's rope swings.
You can also get in a lot of trouble, if you want to,
like it's easy to find.
But at the same time, it's like not that bad of a place,
you know what I mean?
(cork pops off bottle)
Oh!
(chuckles)
I didn't expect that at all.
(laughs)
(blows air out of mouth)
Ah.
Oh, this is fun!
I grew up skateboarding
and that became my whole life as it does for a lot of kids.
And that's what got me into music in general.
When I went to the skate park,
I was introduced to all types of music.
That's when the homie told me what DatPiff was.
And I went home that night and I downloaded
every Wayne mix tape I could find,
every Gucci mix tape I could find,
every Three Six or whatever names they were telling me
at the skate park.
(cardboard ripping)
Oh, yeah.
I think more videos have hip hop in them 'cause those
two cultures are tight like that.
That's what really like shaped more world views
like going out into the city as a little kid
on the bus with my friends and just skating around
(skateboard rolling on paper box)
and doing stuff like that.
And that's what made me want to make music
'cause I was like,
I wanna have my songs be in the skate video.
Gimme one sec, I'm gonna clean off my desk.
(cardboard sliding on desk)
(plastic container falling on floor)
(cardboard falling on floor)
(laughs)
That didn't go the way I wanted.
One more time.
(plastic creaking)
Yes.
There's definitely a hole in my stomach off of these
but, they're so classic.
(foil wrapper crunching)
(candy shuffles inside foil wrapper)
(snack crunches in mouth)
Mmm, I needed that.
Also, a classic.
(wrappers crunch and fall on table)
(tissue paper ruffles)
(wrappers crunch and fall on table)
I knew that school wasn't for me, so I worked
a bunch of different jobs saving up money for like,
studio equipment and around like seven years old
was when I was like, all right, I'm finally start
taking it seriously.
So, my manager, Shell, would pick me up from school
(wrapper crunches)
and we'd go to the studio and I'd be spending all
my like, my, at the studio.
I started opening shows in Seattle.
(chews)
I haven't had a honey bun in so long.
I had jobs throughout all that, so I was spending
all that money on like, videos with my friend, Dylan, like
I knew early on that I couldn't go to school
and I couldn't work a job just 'cause I'm
one of those people that's pretty lazy,
unless I'm really passionate about it.
(wrapper crunches)
(candy falls on table)
(skateboard moves on table)
(laughs)
Oh, my God. I'm about to drive up on this honey bun.
(skateboard flips)
(laughs)
In Seattle, there's the Museum of Pop Culture
and the homies, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
started a program and it's a program
for low-income youth.
It's like, basically rap camp.
They have panels with local artists and they
let you play a show at the end
and then you make a whole little album.
Every time I go to a show, it's being opened
by one of the kids that are in the program.
(Nerds candy shuffles in box)
(chews Nerds candy)
This feels mad rude, but I've gotten to like
how it sounds.
(chuckles)
(Nerds candy falling on metal speaker grate)
This is interesting.
I feel like this could be a set up (indescript)
Yeah, that's not happening. At all.
But, (latex mask squeaks)
(laughs)
(pets mask's fur)
This is tight.
I played a show in Seattle at The Crocodile.
I think it's about, like 450 people.
We hit capacity and it was my first time headlining
a big show in the city and it was the first time
a lot of people were showing up
that I didn't know in my life.
It just validated my dream and was like, okay,
we have something here.
(cardboard creaking)
I knew I was major, man.
I saw a news clip of a girl
pushing her friend off a bridge.
There was, like, water under the bridge,
you know what I mean.
She got charged with reckless endangerment
and I was like, well,
One, if I filmed everything I did as a kid,
me and my friends would have a lot
of reckless endangerment charges.
Dude, that felt like a metaphor of, like,
I kind of pushed my friends off the bridge into
this life that we're living.
We're just some kids from Seattle trying
to figure out how to maneuver,
living reckless as hell.
(cardboard creaks)
Sonically, it feels like everything I've done
up into this point mixed together like a
perfect balance of all of it, it also feels the most
like Digest Pool are commercially ready for like,
new people, to like, fuck with us, too.
(cardboard rips)
When we're listening to the album, we're like,
okay, I can like, trace certain influences to
things I might know about and I think
that sound is Seattle and I don't think a lot of
people have that in their ears regularly,
you know what I'm saying?
And I was like, I wanna make a album that everyone
in the world can love, but, still sounds like Seattle.
I feel like Seattle hasn't had a town anthem
in a long time.
If you're from Seattle, you understand
what I'm saying.
So, I was like, I need to make the most legendary
Seattle song of all time.
I was like, who is the most legendary?
So, it's me, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Macklemore and
Geo from the Booze Collars.
Seeing my voice next to them in a file session
in the studio was one of the best moments of my life.
Worked with other people that were outside of the
city at the same time, so I had like Sylvan LaCue
on my album, I had Reason from CD on my album,
This is the first time I feel like we've ever been
chewed out for like, features.
Man, if I could tell anyone anything that was
trying to do what I would do, it's like,
One, do not compare my journey to anybody else's.
That only leaves you in a place of wanting more
and at a really shitty-ass pace.
So, like, every day, I'm going to remind myself
I'm on my own journey.
Anybody can do this shit, you know what I mean?
At the same time, we work really hard
and we're really consistent.
Just be yourself and if it works out, it works out,
but, not matter what, better be authentic with this shit.
It is what it is.
(clanks beer bottle against microphone)
(takes drink)
(wrapper crunches)
(snack crunches in mouth)
(rubs hands together)
That's what tight. I'm a musician, but this gave
me like, a whole different appreciation for sound
and like what connects with people, like, that's that.
Um,
But,
It's my birthday, I got places to be,
I got reckless shit to do.
My name's Travis Thompson.
My new album, Reckless Endangerment, is out now.
(Toy Story toy moans ominously)
I'm outta here. Bye-yuh.
(Toy Story toy falls on metal chair and then on floor)
(laughs)