We recently connected with Jarred Ratley and have shared our conversation below.

Jarred, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

At this stage in my life I’m mainly a drummer with a side hustle in graphic design and audio/video production. For me, it started with drawing. My grandfather got me a sketch book for, I believe my 6th birthday and from there, it never really stopped, just turned more digital at one point. I don’t really remember when the urge to play drums came to me, it seems like it was innate at this point but I got my first kit when I was 14. I went to college chasing an audio/video production degree but ended up dropping out to pursue my band, The Captain’s Son. For the last several years I’ve been studying more into the engineering and production of music and I’m starting to offer mixing/mastering services. I am still currently playing drums for The Captain’s Son, in early 2023 I started drumming for a band out of LA called, Desert Sparrow and I am working with a few buddies on a new project that I don’t have much to say about other than, keep your eyes open for that.

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?

Well, I started my musical career (playing drums) when I was 14 and as of this publication, I am 33.

It all began with punk music and that oh so devastating southern Missouri teenage angst. I never had much of a desire musically to pick up anything other than drums. I took a piano class once but dropped out half way through. At that time I was still very focused on drawing and digital art. The last 3 hours of my day during junior and senior years of high school were dedicated to a graphic design class. When I got to college, my high school punk band had dissolved and, due to a scheduling conflict, I switched my major last minute from graphic design to audio/video production. Shortly after that TCS formed. It was NYE of 2011 when we played our first show at a buddies bar in town and by the end of that year I had already decided I wasn’t going to continue with another semester of school, between work and music, it wasn’t a priority for me anymore. However, the last few years I’ve been delving deep into the world of audio production.

One of the hardest, yet, most rewarding times of my life was when Captain’s Son lived in a van for 6 months on the California. At that time it was myself, Paige on guitar and vocals, and Craig on bass and none of us had been this far out west before. Through all the highs and lows, it was during this time that I realized what music and art meant to me and ultimately for all the good it did to my mind and body. However, our bassist quit and we ended up back in Missouri. Long story short, Paige and I said naw we ain’t staying here. We found our buddy Will to step in and posted up shop in Long Beach mid 2016.

At the end of the day, being creative is what drives me and if it wasn’t for taking that risk and listening to that drive, I’m not sure where I would have ended up or if I would be near as happy as I am today.

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

Someone telling me how, whatever it may be, affected them or the emotions or thoughts it gave them. Connecting to someones being and them connecting to yours is the best reward by far.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Just go out and find the art. It’s everywhere. And you don’t always need to throw your cash at every artist or thing you see. We understand you’ve got your own life as well but say you see a band or a play or something you like, you go tell your friends, they go see it, they tell more friends and so on. Don’t go to the same theater or same club all the time, take the recommendations that your friends give you and go check it out.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @JurdDirt
• Facebook: @JurdDirt

Image Credits
Travis Prow Alex Celestial James