We were lucky to catch up with Jeff Thorslund recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeff, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parent’s got me started with music at a young age, maybe ten years old, taking piano lessons. However, I never got very good at reading music and would play by ear, sometimes adding in a few creative extra notes, much to my music teacher’s dismay!

My dad played acoustic guitar around the house, and sometimes played with a band singing and playing bass. When I was little I thought I would eventually join the band as the keyboard player, but soon I started picking up the bass that was around the house and learning simple rock songs, like Green Day or Nirvana. This led me to asking my dad to teach me guitar. He showed me five or six of the “cowboy” chords, which I practiced diligently for several weeks. I then wanted my first electric, which my parents said they would help me afford by paying for half. We went to the local music store in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada where I got my first Godin electric and a small amp.

I formed some early bands with friends from school. Eventually I worked on recruiting my younger brother Tom to play drums so we would have a reliable drummer. He’d be stuck with me because we are related! Even though his interest in playing with toys at this age (around 9 years old) somewhat outweighed his interest in drums, our parents made him the same deal, that they’d pay for half of any instruments, and he got started with his first drum kit. As time went on, he came become more and more obsessed with drums to where it became his main passion. We can thank our parents for helping us get our first instruments and for putting up with all the loud practice needed to become proficient!

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

I have been playing music and writing my own songs since I was about 13 years old. I’ve had several bands throughout the years, spanning different genres of rock, with the latest being THORSLUND. This new band is comprised of me and my brother Tom at the core, and plays an original interpretation of 70’s rock n’ roll with some flavors of 90’s grunge. We just released our first album less than a year ago on digital formats, and it is about to come out on limited edition 180 gram vinyl in November. We play live around the L.A. area, with some of our favorite venues being Good Times at Davey Wayne’s, The Viper Room, The Redwood and Maui Sugar Mill Saloon. We are currently working on writing and recording our next album and planning shows outside of the L.A. area.

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

Most people are good at something or have a special skill. I feel that mine is creating art, writing music and performing on stage. Music is a powerful art form, that can be fully positive, uniting people at concerts, or making people feel connected when listening to music and lyrics at home. I think this is the most unique thing I bring to the table as a temporary resident of planet earth, and I want to share as much as I can while I am here. I joke and say my tombstone will be a QR code with a link to my music on Spotify! That is my idea of life after death.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Like all professions and skillsets, artists need to be paid, fairly. When artists aren’t paid, they can’t devote the same time to their art, and the quality of art in general suffers. In the past, artists would be signed to five album deals. The labels would support them as they honed their craft and grew, even if their first albums weren’t successful. Today the attitude is that music should be free, or that money cane be made by venues or by streaming services, but they don’t need to share that with the artists. This is not only unfair, it is damaging the quality of art in general. If we want to live in a world of art, we need to put our money where our mouths are! You can support your favorite artists by buying their CDs and records and T-shirts instead of streaming everything for free online.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thorslundmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thorslundmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thorslundmusic
• Twitter: @thorslundmusic
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thorslundmusic?si=MDeMQt4B5BzZD_wc
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/thorslundmusic
• Other: http://thorslund.bandcamp.com
  open.spotify.com/artist/0Nqksz9O9sRFsOqPiZPz4U

Image Credits

Will Cook, Bertran Harden, Michael Haight, Mikayla Khramov