We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Travis Ball. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Travis below.

Travis , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have a three song EP titled “Three Miles” I recently released based on family history from events involving my grandfather along with his older brother and sister in a small area of Kentucky known as Wallow Hole in 1921.
This was during prohibition times, my grandfather’s brother was a member of a moonshining gang that made and distributed illegally moonshine from one end of Kentucky to the other as well as Ohio and some claimed all the way to New York City and Chicago.
My grandfather’s brother left the gang causing a dispute between himself and the other members along with pressure from federal agents sent in to apprehend the moonshining gang, all coming to a head and resulting in my grandfather witnessing the death of his brother and sister.
Though not a concept EP to tell the story, it’s more a piece of work that’s songs were written in the perspective of my grandfather’s older brother, the struggles he faced trying to leave behind an illegal lifestyle, coming from a deeply religious family and his fight with temptations from the devil, which to the people of the area and the times, was the root cause of any hardships that would fall on an individual.
My song “The Devil” is a reflection of those hardships, mainly arriving in the form of grain alcohol, which was looked at as evil by many folks from that time period and living in an Appalachian setting.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Music is huge within my family, for as long as I can remember.
I’ve been playing in various bands around central Ohio since I was 14 years old.
I always enjoyed writing, be it stories or songs since I was a kid, but never took to serious songwriting till I was older, mainly because I didn’t feel confident in my abilities.
But the older I get, the more I feel like I need to get the artistic side of me out there, almost therapeutic in a way, plus I enjoy creating these projects and bring my family members in to work on them with me.
On the Three Miles EP, I have my brother Randy Ball on guitar, my cousin Ric McClure on drums and a longtime family friend Andrew Merritt on fiddle and mandolin.
To me, that’s the most rewarding part, bringing us all together to create something that hopefully people all over the world can enjoy.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

It’s very hard to write, put to music, release and later perform to people who you don’t personally know.
Musicians in general don’t bother me to perform in front of or share music with, they have the same struggles any artist face, so I know we’re coming from similar places.
General public who don’t play or create scare me to death, you never know what they think of you or what you do.
I always have a ton of self doubt that hangs in the back of my mind, worrying if what I’m doing will matter to anyone.
I’m sure many artists feel the same, I’ve heard many tell me they feel the same.
It’s a very good feeling to play and perform for a crowd, finish and have them come to you afterwards saying they enjoyed your performance and asking the stories behind the songs.
It’s a labor of love to do this, those who don’t do it really don’t know what it takes to get out there and leave a mark no matter how big or small
For those who have thought about giving it a shot, I would say do it by all means, it’s the greatest challenge I have ever done, and the most rewarding when you get it right.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For me, keeping a band together has been extremely hard.
I think everyone has heard the term “starving artist”, when doing original music, that term is extremely accurate.
It’s hard to find venues or places that are willing to pay good for artists to perform music to people that have no idea who you are or heard any of your songs when starting out
Many musicians who play in bands do it full time, needing a good pay to pay their bills and take care of their family.
Starting out, it’s hard to pay people what they deserve, I’ve worked with some really good folks who have moved on to better paying bands leaving spots to fill and schedules to meet.
I’ve wanted to throw in the towel at times stressing myself out whether I’ll be able to meet my commitments and find the right individuals to fit in with what I’m trying to do.
Nothing has been easy, but things always seem to fall in place which has always amazed me and inspired me to continue creating and working.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.travis-reid-ball-music.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/troublerooster?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Soundcloud: Check out Travis Reid Ball on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/H8AQD