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

Collin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I don’t know that I ever made the conscious decision to pursue a life as a creative professional, it’s just something I woke up in the middle of. I was always a little ball of emotion and I rarely had a logical approach to anything growing up. I think as long as I can remember it was just understood that this was the path I was on be it for better or worse. In contemplation I’ve always come to rest on the idea that you can’t change who you are so why fight it.

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

Music has always played a huge part in my life. My mother made it abundant in the household. it was always a coping mechanism for me growing up but it never occurred to me that I could do it.

Aside from annoying my friends with my constant singing and spending weeks trying to pick the perfect song to sync over home videos of us skateboarding, music was in no way the forefront of my mind. Although, It played a vital role in everything i was doing, It was a necessity that I more or less took for granted. All I wanted to do was skateboard. I was completely obsessed. I was rowdy and disorganized. I couldn’t keep my grades together or get along with my peers. My teachers never knew what to make of me. I was struggling to either fit in or accept that I didn’t fit in. So when I saw there was a community of loud rowdy kids in rags who were covered in dirt and blood throwing themselves down staircases on skateboards to loud brash guitar music I was as all in on it. I didn’t have to be big, I didn’t have to get good grades, I didn’t have to have nice clothes, and I didn’t have to be a social butterfly. The way they dressed, the way they skated, the way they talked all captivated me, but nothing left an impression on me quite the same as the music. That was the thing that tied every skate video together clip by clip. This was when I really started getting into music. At the time the internet wasn’t what it is today. To find music that wasn’t on the radio you had to make an effort. Especially in the middle of Kentucky.

As I got older and started to get into trouble my mom would nudge me towards music. I was so immersed in what was already in front of me I couldn’t hear a thing anyone was saying.
When I was 14 I tore just about everything in my ankle. I was already struggling with substance abuse and I used the pills the doctor sent me home with to dig myself in a little deeper. At the loss of an outlet and my friends who were all still out skating I started Sinking further into depression and substance abuse. The time I spent with my friends revolved around partying. I started to drift further towards drugs and alcohol and further from my friends.

There was a first act drum set my mother had given me that had been collecting dust in my room for ages. It had never even been assembled. For whatever reason sitting in my room one day, bound to my crutches both literal and figurative, riding a wave of fomo, I decided to set the drums up. I had no idea how to play them or even where to start. I sat down and started trying to tap along to the Bob Marley song on the stereo. I was terrible. I was just sitting there, all high, mostly taking satisfaction in the fact that I figured out how to put them together. I don’t remember how I figured it out. I was just fumbling around high on pills weed and sneaking Booz all summer bc I couldn’t skate. Somewhere In the blur I figure out how to separate my hands and feet from each other and it all fell into place.
Word got out that I could play and though I didn’t know but a single soul in the scene and couldn’t talk without getting both feet stuck in my mouth I got in with the first band I ever auditioned with.
When I was 17 I shattered the ac joint in my shoulder skating and was forced to undergo multiple surgeries to get it all back together somewhat right. Again, I found myself slipping further into drugs and mental illness. Even at 18 I already knew I wanted to get away from the traps of substance abuse but given the back to back surgeries and recovery time I told myself it was impossible and leaned into it. I came back from my long layoff from skateboarding and it had just passed me by. Between the drugs, all the injuries, and the beating mental illness was taking on me I was strapped for inspiration. looking up at the things my friends were doing at the time and realizing where the bar was, it all just seemed insurmountable. It had been 2 years since I had the accident when I came back to close the gap, my friends had gotten so good. it dawned on me how difficult it was going to be for me personally to catch up.
in those two years I had started to take my first professional solo gigs. I had started writing my own songs now with the intention of playing them in front of ppl. I was even brought in to write music for a musical in which I insisted every single word of the musical be in song. I realized that all the time I had missed skating I had spent on music and all of those emotions I could never keep straight I had learned to do something else with. It wasn’t what I had told myself it was gonna be but I had truly learned to express myself musically in a way I had never been capable of doing in skateboarding. Not only that but I had found the confidence to take myself seriously at it. And just like that in one day In my mind I stopped being a skater and started being a musician. I like to think that if for whatever reason I couldn’t write or play music anymore I would find some other creative outlet to slide into bc while I’ve found that you can definitely change what you are, you can’t change who you are so again why fight it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The most we can be asked as a society is to support artists in the way that they request. I think the more pressing matter is how we as artists identify the best way for us to be supported. 23 years after file sharing set off the explosion of media piracy and we’re all still trying to figure out how to deal with it. Not that I like the idea of it but at this point it seems like it’s our responsibility to identify how we can best be supported and let it be known with as much relentless fervor as the corporations who are monetizing our labor.

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

The will of the people

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thewartoys.store/
• Instagram: @thewartoys
• Twitter: @thewartoys
• Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCu3Da9QhEKEHzN5-FEbHZwg

Image Credits
Lana Shaw