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

Derrick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Naturally, I do. My idols had spent their twenties creating rock & roll records like Appetite For Destruction and Nevermind. Instead of recording my own magnum opus, I spent most of my twenties living in the Asia-Pacific, where I worked as an English language teacher in Bangkok, Taipei, and Seoul. In a more perfect world, I would’ve spent those years making rock & roll. But prior to spending six years abroad, my band Mad Tea Party, in which I sang and played bass, had fallen apart after a year of gigging in Baltimore’s club scene. Whether I liked it or not, my life took a different direction. Thankfully, my travels in far-flung places like Thailand and New Zealand would later serve as the backdrop of my debut fiction novel, “The Year of the Tsunami” (Wandering Bohemian Press, 2022). And after twenty years apart, Mad Tea Party reunited in suburban Columbia, Maryland as Let Go Echo. Under the direction of guitarist Chris Henry, we’d also shifted from rock to EDM, which helped me expand my horizons. By now, I was in my early forties, back in music and back on bass. I feel very lucky to be able to live a creative life, and guess that it all happens for a reason. Sure, I wish I could have been doing music all along. But as a traveling teacher, perhaps I’ve enjoyed more variety in life than what would’ve been if I was only a musician.

Derrick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m the author of a fiction novel, “The Year of the Tsunami.” Most of the story is set in Amsterdam, a destination that I’m fortunate to be very familiar with. I spent five years going back and forth with several editors before publishing it on my own imprint. As that long process was finally winding down, in 2021 I launched a blog called The Bohemian Years, which gave me a chance to share stories about my intersections with friends in Baltimore’s music scene. These friends became featured artists on the blog. While sharing our stories of playing out or making music together, I realized just how much I missed being a gigging musician. Within a year, I’d become the bassist in an EDM band, Let Go Echo, who released the album “Hibernate” on iTunes in July 2023. But just prior to the album’s drop, I’d decided to leave the band to focus on other styles of music. Since 2015, I’ve been a bassist and stage guitarist in Baltimore’s modern rock darlings My Useless Self. Beyond bass, I am also a guitarist of over thirty years, and often perform my own songs as a solo acoustic act.

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

My goal with music has always been, quite simply, to live a musical life. Now that I’m in the middle of my working years, I’ve come to realize that my longtime day job as a college English professor isn’t going to provide for my retirement. I mean, nothing falls out of the sky. Music is what I want to spend as much time as possible working on. When I’m older, I hope to be playing music with the same energy and passion of the present. I’m in it for the craft, and I want to reach a level of skill in my bass playing that might blow people’s minds more and more as I age. I’ve only been playing bass as my main instrument for two years, though I guess my three-plus decades of guitar hasn’t hurt. At some point, I also intend to release a solo album of original material, and plan to play most of the instruments.

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?

I think non-creatives tend to misunderstand exactly what drives someone who has that creative seed. Creative people do it for the art first, and if money or accolades are the result then that simply makes it that much sweeter. Non-creatives might be more sympathetic to people who work hard and are rewarded for it in a conventional way. In the back of my mind, sometimes I’m driven to get paid for playing music because of the legitimacy that brings to my work, and it proves the naysayers are dead wrong. For many years, I struggled to make music my business. But after building some connections with book retailers, both in my hometown of Columbia, MD and in Amsterdam, I started approaching local music venues in the same way. Everything in the music business is about relationships between performers and businesses — I learned that rather late in the game, and it’s what helps me to keep everything in perspective. I wouldn’t want to depend on royalties or album sales for money, but thankfully I love being on stage. At times, I’ve picked up on non-creatives trying to pigeonhole artists and performers as fame or attention seekers. Fame and attention is the tip of the iceberg. While not everyone is lucky enough to reach the top of that iceberg, I consider myself lucky to at least be above the water.

Contact Info:

• Website: th305251506.wordpress.com
• Instagram: @derrickcreditomusic
• Facebook: @derrickcreditoauthor
• Youtube: @derrickcredito8026
• Other: An additional Instagram author page: dcreditoauthor The Bohemian Years blog is listed under ‘website’ at th305251506.wordpress.com

Image Credits
Chris Henry, Jimmy On The Run Studio (Amsterdam)