We recently connected with Koda Dakota and have shared our conversation below.

Koda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

The time that you put into your craft will yield results if you allow yourself to listen and ask questions. I’ve learned from doing, as well as working with the colossal badasses that are around my circle. Practice makes perfect and camaraderie helps things to grow, so my advice is to say yes to a lot of different projects and obtain random skills, as you never know when they may become useful down the road.

Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process?
SEVERAL things, but if I would go back in time I would be more picky with who I let into my projects.  I’d like to be surrounded by like minded thinkers and doers that want to see a strong forward motion and take a big part in guiding the project on its way to producing a focused, creative, and mentally healthy work space. I believe that I finally have that now with my YouTube group.

What skills do you think were most essential?
One of the most essential skills you can have as an artist is your people skills. Networking and being able to work with other people is essential to the growth of your craft, and your team. I have a saying that I share with folks that ask me the same thing. “It’s not WHAT you know, It’s WHO you know, THEN it’s what you know.” So get out there and connect with as many people as you can that share your love for what you’re doing.

What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I’d be lying if I didn’t start by saying that I am the biggest obstacle in my life. There’s more worth fighting for than the problems that you make up in your head. Learn what is real to you. Surround yourself with who you aspire to be like. Start becoming the best version of yourself by making the choice to be it. It takes a long time to get things moving, so don’t become your own obstacle.

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

I had picked up several art classes on my way up the climb at my high school, participating in plays and short films, writing and running a live cut television show every Friday, all while also keeping the grades just high enough to pass. When I was not in school, I was focusing on making silly YouTube videos with friends under the alias “SliceFury”. I am still making content 17 years later under the same channel. Same silly content, just a different team of people.

I was given a guitar for my birthday, then it sat in the corner for a year, then I learned Breakfast at Tiffany’s for a girlfriend of mine, AND GOT HOOKED on playing it.
I graduated high school, and moved away from my hometown of Memphis Tennessee to go to The Motion Picture Institute of Michigan, where I lived in my car for a year and learned a lot about videography. I sold my original 151 Pokemon cards for a chicken burrito. Because of that, I found a way to get an acoustic guitar and busk for food and gas money until I moved in with my family in Hot Springs, Arkansas, where I took a hiatus from music and arts to get myself back together. In 2012 I moved to McKinney, Texas where I was working at a gas station. A random dude walks in and buys water and asks if I want to hang out later. I usually wouldn’t do this but I went with this guy after I got off of work and met an ayahuasca tribe, where I found a lot of peace of mind and started writing more meaningful lyrics for my music, and met a lot of brilliant, loving people. I live with them for a whole year in a run down space, but believe me when I say that I will always cherish these times.
Now we’re at the kicker…
One of my Aya friends brought me to a magical place in McKinney called The Open Stage, where I met Bret Crow (The Bret Crow Show), a Denton-local Bassist playing in the Stage Left Band. One week I signed up to show some of my sketches and Bret approached me and said “I’M IN!” We started making silly YouTube sketches and I was able to couch surf with him here in Denton. Thanks Bret! Now I’ve been here for over ten years, doing cool stuff, and I’m surrounded by like minded individuals and I’m grateful for it all. We’ve run several open mics and shows here, and the talent just keeps flowing through this city!

STRONG WORK! is one of the focuses of my journey at this time, which is my Punk-Funk-Rap-Rock band based in Denton, with musicians Bret Crow (Bass), Zack Haygood (Drums), Matt Cochran (Sax + Keys), and Myself (Vox + Guitar). I Love these cool-cats.

My YouTube channel “SliceFury” is THE main focus right now though. I have a team of several people who show up every Wednesday to make some goofy sketches, and recently we have been getting together more often via Google Meet calls. I just want to give a quick shoutout to my best friend Bret Crow, who works with me on this as well and helps to keep it fun, exciting, and moving forward. CHEERS BUDDY!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The best thing you can do for your digital presence is to consistently make content, and don’t stop. We started out by taking time out of our busy schedules to meet up every week for five hours, and word got around that there is a group of silly people that gather to make content for YouTube, so more and more showed up with skills and abilities we didn’t have before and made the content better over time.

My favorite way of promoting our stuff is to print out a bunch of random screenshots from our content and slap a QR code onto it that leads directly to our website. This has actually been doing pretty well for us. Haha.

My suggestion is just the same to you. Keep making content that makes you happy, and share it with others as you progress so they can see the growth in real-time.

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

There’s a certain feeling that I get when I’m working on a project with others who are just as invested as I am. You can’t beat it. The camaraderie, everyone teaching one another new things, and simply being able to laugh all day with your buddies while also being productive feeds my soul in the best of ways. I love my crew, and I love what we do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.strongwork.band
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/strongworkband
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/strongworkband
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/strongworkband
• Other: www.twitch.tv/strongworkband

Image Credits
KMWirth