We recently connected with Thomas Barnett and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Thomas thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned via the head-banging-against-wall method for many years. It started around age 4 when I whined hard enough to get a guitar and guitar lessons, and really took off when I downloaded Audacity at age 11. I’ve since learned vocals, piano, guitar, bass, and kora, all via the same head-banging method. I think there was a real tenacity and desire to show up older artists in my field, teachers, touring professionals. I wanted to be the best ever since I got a guitar and listened to my first Randy Rhodes solo.

I later found that it wasn’t really about being the best as much as connecting with the audience, building your own world and letting people come and inhabit it. So many young people are artists now that I think the narrative is shifting to a more communal based way of looking at things rather than each artist being their own imposing ivory tower of greatness.

In terms of skills that are essential to learning the craft, I think my friend Josh said it best. “Just sit there”. If you really do just sit there long enough, in whatever form, it will happen for you. In some respect. You may not be the most financially stable person in your group, but you will have something real, even if you can’t see it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I go by 4 Minute Warning. I used to go by newfaces. I got into the discipline of music in kind of an oblong way. I was homeschooled for a time because the school options were pretty dangerous in my area. So I took to watching movies and channels like the IFC at a way younger age than normal. It was from this world that I began to take to music, humming (sometimes screeching) the melodies of The Lord of the Rings in the produce aisle of Walmart.

When I was 11 my mom started taking me to an Electrical Engineering school where she worked as a receptionist because we couldn’t afford daycare. I stayed in the closet, but the engineering students slowly brought me out and would tutor me in engineering concepts for free, out of the goodness of their hearts. This later evolved to showing me their internationally informed tastes. This is where I learned about the Kora, what Diwali was, and started wearing Dashiki’s.

I take this international mindset and infuse it into my work. My training as a Kora player is heavily featured on the work now. I’ve written for a feature length documentary on Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, an ad series for Air Jordan, for ID and Slam magazines, and for various short films.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The ability and necessity of reinvention. When I was a young 18 year old composer I wanted to make solely James Newton Howard inspired film scores. Then I moved into the hiphop space and worked with artists like Lil B and Fashawn. Now I’ve learned the Kora and am working on film scores and sync music again. Things weave and move in a dance-like manner and I like that compared to a more static career. Even though a music career can hurt sometimes.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To highlight underserved and underprivileged communities, like the ones I came from. Growing up poor in the rural south and poor in the inner-city, it felt like no one from the outside cared. I have always used my craft of filmscoring and production to highlight and show struggles from communities tossed aside by the colonial driven powers of the West.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tabadam.wixsite.com/4-minute-warning
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/4_minute_warning.wav/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/4minutewarningwav/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@4_minute_warning
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tab2

Image Credits

Braden Auger