We were lucky to catch up with Taylor Friesth recently and have shared our conversation below.
Taylor, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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.
I think learning a craft is kind of everything when it comes to “being successful” for whatever that may mean to each person. I believe I have been uniquely fortunate in that my parents saw that I had a certain kind of spark in my eye when I started learning drums and they carefully made sure It became something that I didn’t give up on. That consistency that they taught me eventually turned into me, at least I think, becoming good at drums. That in itself is one of the biggest lessons that I or anyone could learn, “learning a craft” or really seeing how much time and effort it takes to truly get good at something. But it was learning that which showed me how that can be applied to many other things. If you look at any person that you admire, whether you admire them for their musical skill, social skills, skill in balancing a checkbook, whatever it may be, that came with a comically large amount of effort and time. So I think understanding the amount of time it takes is huge especially when you come to that very well-expected “failure” down the road. The understanding that in the grand scheme of things, the goal you’re working on is a much bigger thing than that one mistake, and that failure is actually there to help you. That pain can be a motivator.
The time it takes is very important, but variety is huge too. I believe that through becoming a drummer I learned this one as well, but In learning this it obviously lead to a lot of other things. In the pursuit of mastering drums I would meet with as many different teachers as possible and they would teach me all sorts of things. But it was once I started to learn from people outside of drums that I discovered I had a whole new set of lightbulbs that I had to turn on. Learning how the real estate market has helped me open my own recording studio (Garden Groove), learning from many different producers has taught me how to make my first self-produced EP this year, and trying to become better at running by watching talks by Olympic running coach Joe Vigil gave me philosophies to help me teach my drums students, and learning to love reading through Tim Ferris’s books drove me to write and publish my first book in 2020 (The Sly Hat). You don’t know what you don’t know, but oh boy, you really don’t know anything once you start looking outside your field of expertise, and once you do, there is a loooot to learn.
When it comes to some things that might have acted as roadblocks for me, I would say I don’t think of it that way, or at least Im choosing to not think of it that way. There certainly have been things that have happened on my path toward “achieving” things, they have been painful in some ways. But I think the way my buddy Charlie Kautz describes it is very fitting, “they’re all just growing pains”. I could also bring it back to that Olympic coach I was talking about, Joe Vigil. He says “There are two goddesses in your life, one of wealth and one of wisdom. The more attention you give to the goddess of wisdom, the more jealous the god of wealth gets”. If you teach yourself to learn from your shortcomings, they just act as those little level-up mushrooms in Mario while you’re on the way to save the princess.
Taylor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Taylor Friesth, I am the owner of a recording studio called Garden Groove, I am a drummer/ producer, and I am the author of a drum Instruction book called The Sly Hat.
The recording studio, Garden Groove, is actually opening here in East Nashville in just about 2 weeks! It is a fully soundproofed studio in my backyard for the Nashville creators that don’t have an affordable and quick place to record their drum tracks, produce their next podcast, or teach their next lesson. I also have a line up of speakers that will take a slot every other week in the fall to talk about a variety of topics from producing, to finances, to mental health. People can learn more at Garden-Groove.com and look to become a member for some select discounts at what I think are the best business in Nashville.
On top of that, I have my own “vibey, half electronic half acoustic” music out under the name TJF. This is a project where I am live looping drums, keys, vocals, and guitar with my buddy Connor Gehlert. We have a live video on YouTube right now along with my first EP that just came out in early July called “Never Know”. Im looking to grow this project as much as I can! I have always watch like a fat kid from outside a candy store at the producers that were able to produce these amazing pieces of music. For years this was something I always wanted to do in my own way, so I started to learn as much as I could from YouTube and a great online series called Mix With The Masters. Although I feel like my sound and execution with producing and mixing is just about at 65% I love writing my own music and having full control over what I make. I have a hunch that the years and years of playing covers as background music for some bar fights might have fueled this desire to make my own music, with people that I want to play with, when I want, and boy oh boy does it feel great to do just that.
As for the book, The Sly Hat, this is the only drum book that I am aware of that soly focus on incorporating the Hi-Hat foot (the two clingy cymbals that you close together with your foot) in to one’s drumming as opposed to having it just keep time. I was fortunate to have this published by one of the top music publishers, Hudson Music, in 2020. Then in that same year, I got to do a video series based around the book as well – https://hudsonmusic.com/product/the-sly-hat/- . This was a great experience for me because it threw me right into the wolfs with being able to do clinics for the book all around Colorado. I learned a lot about the time that takes to prep for a clinic and the amount of nerves you have to shake hands with to able to do it.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I would say this is a lesson that I am currently learning or reshaping in my life right now. When I first moved to Nashville I moved partially with this intent of “becoming somebody” which is a weird statement to make. To be philosophical about it, you’re always becoming somebody but I think that happens naturally by being in situations, ideally ones that you want to be in. But for me trying to “act” in a certain way has only shown to be unhelpful. So learning how and why to stop changing myself has been a useful thing for me recently. My dad has always said “learn to be really good at something and then the rest will follow”, I think that is very true. In the same way, learning how to be yourself or learning how to not act as something else or someone else is a super power, and with it will come confidence, consistency, a little more meaning to what you are doing.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Reading baby! Reading! I think reading is great. I was atrocious in school and I actually didn’t enjoy reading until people stoped telling me what to read. One book, in particular, is “Tribe of Mentors” by Tim Ferris. This introduced me to a lot of great achievers in this world that we live on and one of my favorites is Laird Hamilton. He held the record for surfing one of the biggest waves in history and he started Laird Superfood which is those turmeric coffee creamers you see that freaky little place called Whole Foods (which I love). But what I admire about what he preaches, is health is everything. His philosophy is that you need all the spokes on the wheel to be in tip-top shape, if one spoke is out the whole tire is screwed. If one of your relationships isn’t healthy or as good as it could be, the whole wheel is going to suffer, that means your work, your focus, and really anything throughout your day. I also like that he pushes the fact that you have to be physically healthy too. I come from a family of achievers and I always wondered what it was that made my parents and grandparents so successful, and I’m beginning to think it was their health. My grandpa was a national title holder for handball and a well-known priest, and my dad qualified for the Olympic trials and started a successful insurance agency, and there are many more. But the thing they have in common is they all, to some degree, talk about how important it is to exercise. So in that, I truly believe that if you were to take an accountant that doest run against an accountant that can run a half marathon with no problem, that second guy or gal is going to take the cake, because that health in their fitness is going to carry over into the rest of their life, and they’ll just feel better.
Contact Info:
- Website: Garden-Groove.com and TFdrums.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taylorfriesth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TJFmusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TJF_
Image Credits
Max DeVincenzo, Dylan Reeves, Nathaniel Clayton