We recently connected with Slimtronic5k and have shared our conversation below.

Slimtronic5k, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Growing up, music and entertainment wasn’t a choice. It was my mother and father’s profession. My siblings and I all had to act, perform, write, and play in her yearly productions (about one a quarter).

To be honest with you, I hated it when I was younger, but it was undeniable that could handle myself on a stage in both the biggest and smallest crowds. I was good at what I did, so I kept growing and learning.

I had two really big defining moments in my path to becoming a musician and artist:

The first happened when I was in the 5th grade. My dad, Mr. Jeffrey Zack Thompson pulled me into the kitchen where he had setup his record player and pulled out his vinyl collection. He said “don’t tell your mom you heard this song” and procdeed to play “It’s Not The Crime” by the band Tower Of Power (which went on to be one of the most prolific influences in my career). My jaw hit the floor. I was especially floored by the sound of a low-end instrument that had the coolest lines and runs.

Looking up at my dad, I said “what is THAT instrument!?”

“That’s a baritone sax!” He said to me.

“Well, I want to play that instrument!”

My folks signed me up for school band the next day and I spent the rest of my middle and high school career playing alto, tenor, and baritone sax, along with learning flute, trombone, and sousaphone in marching band and pep bands, in addition to guitar and bass in jazz band.

The second moment happened when I was a junior in high school. I was playing with the family band for a conference at a small arena in Spartanburg, SC for a few thousand people. We got to a defining moment in the performance: a solo/duet with my mother. She played piano and I played my saxophone.

Just her, me, and a spotlight center stage. Nothing to hide behind.

I’ve always had dreadful stage fright (and still do) so oftentimes I just close my eyes and let the music sweep me away (part of why I wear my signature Woodies sunglasses on stage).

As I had before, I stepped up to the front of the stage, put the mouthpiece of my sax against my lips, and shut my eyes. I don’t remember the rest of the 3-minute song. All I know is that when I opened my eyes the whole place—thousands of people—had erupted in applause and tears. That was the moment I realized that I could actually move people with my art, craft, and music.

That was the moment I knew what I was meant to do and I have been doing it ever since.

I never started with the purpose of making money. My only goal was to spread a message of love and influence people using nothing but my words, passions, and things available around me. The money just kind of came and I’m beyond grateful that I get to do what I love without having to worry about where my next check is coming from.

Slimtronic5k, 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?

My art is my life and my life is my message and my message is love and love is my art. Make sense?

My life is consumed with getting people to open their hearts and love each other radically and at all costs. That idea is REALLY hard for most people if not everyone.

I use music, poetry, visual art, and more to break that message down into bite-sized pieces in hopes that it’ll be easier to digest.

Fortunately, I’m able to use those skills to help small businesses compete with “the big guys” by providing high-end creative assets (photography, illustration, graphic design, videography, etc.) for us in their marketing efforts.

My day looks like this: I wake up, I express gratitude for the gift of facing a new day. I head into my studio to check email and social networks (gross) and do admin work (double gross) before digging into client work. My client list is amazing and I’m at the point in my career where I only work on the projects I want to work on, so it’s all super fun stuff.

After a few hours of grinding out art, I work on my own art (mostly music), before I close the studio down for the day and spend a couple of hours in the pool meditating. After that a quick shower before I head out to a gig, as I perform 4-6 nights a week 52 weeks a year.

It takes of lot of discipline to get up every morning and work and create, but the pay-off is so huge.

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

Love. Love is all there is. Literally. Like, for real. It’s all love. Just love. Love.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

My brain and life is consumed by my mission. To outsiders, that sometimes looks like I’m not interested in what they have going on or that I’m uninterested in spending time with them. But the truth is that I only have so many hours in a day and I try to maximize them the best I can, not knowing if they’re my last. It’s important to me that people see that love drove my purpose and that I lived radically.

It’s kind of like the saying “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

For nearly all creatives I’ve ever met, they’re all dreaming and scheming in their heads at all times and even in their downtime, they are doing work in their heads. I do wish that non-creatives understood that it’s not about them. We love them. We’re grateful for them. But we stay busy because it’s painful for us to not create—it’s absolutely not because we don’t want to spend time with you that we don’t.

Know we love you. Know I want to spend time with you. Know that I’m grateful you’re there and my friend.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.slimtronic5000.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slimtronic5k
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/slimtronic5k
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/slimtronic5k