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

Hi Demetrius, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I separate my job and music, to be honest my workplace is not what it use to be and I get very happy to just clock out for the day. When I get home, I usually try to cook my dinner early & eat so I will have time to either practice my steel tongue drums or go live on TikTok or Instagram doing sound bath meditations or affirmation meditations using my drums. When I don’t have to work on the weekends usually I am booked to play for a yoga class either indoors during the winter season or I’m outdoors at my favorite park, Belle Isle here in Detroit,Mi. I also play for weddings, baby shower, art shows, private parties, etc. I really want to make a name for myself here in Detroit, I know that they’re people out there who want me to venture out of Detroit because honestly, most people don’t think there is a yoga/meditation community here in Detroit, which it absolutely is. It is very important for me to make a name for myself in the yoga/meditation community because I like to believe that I am someone who is bold enough to do something different that a lot of people would never think or believe that a black man would either be interested in doing, 9 years ago I found a Meetup.com group known as Conscious Resonance. This was a place where I would learn how to do meditation and even learn about sound healing. One day, one of the teachers, Dilan Wade, let us try his collection of instruments from around the world, one of the instruments that I picked was a very small black steel tongue drum from a company called HAPI, once I started playing that drum, I was instantly hooked on it. I tried my best to save up for me getting a drum like that, and now 9 years later, I have 2 steel tongue drums from HAPI and 6(soon to be 7) steel tongue drums for another company called RAV Vast.
Recently, I accomplished a goal of playing for over 100 yoga classes here in Detroit and also in Ferndale, Mi & Grosse Pointe, Mi.
Honestly I’m not ready to travel out far, I just want to focus my efforts on Detroit!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Demetrius Thomas, friends call me D, and I have been playing steel tongue drums for 9 years now, I got into playing for yoga classes because of my friend Tina Iulianelli who started Motor Om Yoga, I have played for multiple classes with her and friends between The Ferndale Library and also playing for the biggest yoga classes I have ever played for at the Detroit Institute of Art.
I also play for Full Lotus Yoga for my friend Liz DeFour (fun fact about Liz is that my grandma was her babysitter years ago, small world sort of speak) and I would play for her yoga classes at Detroit ABloom, a large community garden near the Jefferson Chalmers area.

What I’m most proud of is that I was able to turn what was supposed to be a hobby into my passion, to be able to give people a cool experience with my steel drums whether I play for an indoor yoga class or I’m playing on Belle Isle for a sunset meditation, or even street performing with kids at Eastern Market Detroit.

People can follow me more on Instagram @dthomasX2010

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

To me, there is not a lot of black men in the yoga/meditation community, I myself do practice yoga from time to time, but I believe that I’m more suited to play my music for the classes instead, even though my teacher friends want me to be in a actual class practice yoga with everybody else. But it’s rewarding to be able to do this for people and to be told that I made them feel a lot better from whatever they were dealing with before coming to class or even to an event that I’m playing for.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Right now, my goal is to play more than just yoga classes, 4 years ago I had the opportunity to play & display my steel tongue drums for the Detroit Institute of Arts YouTube channel and that was very rewarding for me to be recognized that way. My goal is to also play for the Charles H Wright museum here in Detroit as well. I want to venture out that way in a sense of me just playing for yoga classes, I want to do more than that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dgthomas2010.wixsite.com/therapeuticsounds
• Instagram: DThomasX2010
• Soundcloud: https://SoundCloud.com/Demetrius-Thomas-19
• Other: TikTok @dthomasX2010

Image Credits

All pictures are by Demetrius Thomas