We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Travis Sprague. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with TRAVIS below.

Hi TRAVIS, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2013, after having a very fun time travelling around and playing metal music, I decided to step away from music altogether. I was newly married and being from the southern United States, playing metal in a band wasn’t exactly a financially stable career path. That, and being on the road away from my newly-wed wife, was not easy. I made a very great career out of retail management for a while and then decided to start plumbing, all the while, I still had the dream of being a professional musician.

In 2023, I helped build and worked as a head bartender for a wine and cocktail bar in my city. Being a bartender, I was able to engage in so many great conversations with the patrons, most of whom turned out to be musicians! I was happy to share my past and all of the fun times I had playing music before and one day, one of my regulars asked me why I stopped. I explained my want to be able to provide for my wife and music was not doing that for me, but I really missed it. This particular person encouraged me to follow my passion again.

That night I went home and had a long conversation with my wife. I wanted to get back in to music and do my best to make a career out of it, even if it was just for my own entertainment. I had achieved a lot of success in my plumbing career and I had a good bit of free time to pursue music again. My wife gave me the greenlight and in January of 2024, I ordered myself a bass guitar and an amp. As soon as they came in, I also enrolled myself in lessons, something I had never done before. For two months, I came home every day from work to practice for hours. At the end of February, I started trying to get acquainted with more people in the music industry to look for work. I landed my first gig with Etchstone, an awesome hard rock band. The gig went well and I was accepted as a permanent member for the project. From there, I started looking to do as much as I could stand. I started getting opportunities left and right. I have gotten to play with national touring acts that I listened to growing up that I never thought I would have gotten to share the stage with. In almost 80 gigs in 2024, I was able to financially sustain my music career with all of the opportunities I had. Here I go, full steam ahead in 2025, with two music video shoots, several shows on the books, and gracing the cover of one of the nation’s largest Independent Music Magazines.

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

My name is “Travis,” but people also call me “Dank.” I am a professional musician and plumber. I started my music career singing in choir in middle school. From there, I learned how to play guitar, and in high school, I was in marching band, playing percussion. That’s where things really took off for me. I started my very first band, playing drums, with two of my best friends. We wrote and recorded several songs, played tons of shows and festivals and had a great time. From there I picked up my true love, the bass. The perfect marriage between rhythm and melody.

After taking a long hiatus from music, I am back in the saddle, playing gigs, writing, recording, touring, music videos, and much more. I work both full time as a plumber, and full time on my music career. I have been able to expand my skillset, offering drums, bass, guitar, and vocals to my repertoire. I bring a lot to the table, and I intend to reap every bit of what I sow, bringing as many people with me as I can. I am always looking out for new connections, new opportunities, endorsements, and collaborations.

You are more than welcome to follow me and see my projects, or inquire about opportunities, or see cool and engaging content I am working on.

Instagram: @dankmemelord92
TikTok: @dankmemebassndrums
Facebook: facebook.com/etchstone

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, it is all about creating moments for people. I think sometimes as working musicians, there are a lot of times where you see people losing sight of what I feel is the most important part of our job, being entertainers. We are allowed the opportunity to stand up on a stage and make an emotional connection with people from all walks of life, through music. I have played to packed festivals as well as empty rooms where only the bar staff kept me company. Even in those small moments, I never forget that I am there to entertain. To weave a bond between each note, each lyric, to those listening. To be able to connect with anyone, through music, has been by far the greatest success of my career. It is euphoric, being able to play a song and you see the couple in the room get up and dance to the slow rhythm of their favorite tune. That song could’ve been very special to them. Maybe it was a song they danced to in high school. Maybe it was a song they listened to together on the ride home from their first date. I’ll never know, but I do know that in that single moment in time, you connect with them. Through the music, my soul can speak to them in ways that simple conversation could never achieve. And we share those moments, even if they remain unspoken, I will always carry those special moments with me.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

In my path, the biggest question I always get is, “How do you manage all of that?”

The answer is simple, I want to. It is not easy working full time as a plumber and then coming home every evening to work on social media for music, booking, calendar shuffling, writing, recording, rehearsals. There is a lot of work that comes to earning the opportunities that I have.

I tell this to people all the time, no matter what.

“If you really wanted to, you would.”

If you really want to do something bad enough, you will. There is enough opportunity out there for everyone, but it doesn’t just fall in your lap, you have to grind for it. And I will be out here grinding for mine every single day.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @dankmemelord92
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/travis.d.sprague
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/travis-sprague-18667212a

Image Credits

Dave Moto