Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Victor Ribas. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Victor , appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Well, the shortest answer to your question is yes. I’ve made a living from my creative work and I enjoy a career within the music and entertainment industry. However, it was not always this way. Like so many others out there, I struggled for many many years to find creative work and was unable to support myself financially for much of my late teens and early twenties. I initially went to school with the hopes of becoming a music therapist. I’ve always believed in the healing power of music. But, somewhere along the way I had been introduced to the manager of a Capital Records band and was invited to audition on drums. Once I found out I made the band, I essentially threw all my plans of becoming a therapist out the door and began touring the world relentlessly. There were many legs of tours that I would be gone for 8-9 months at a time. Sometimes longer.

It didn’t take long for me to discover that just because you tour and just because you play for a major label artist, this does not mean that you are automatically financially set. Even in spite of the fact that I became a sponsored drummer, who has charted billboard, and even performed in front of crowds of tens of thousands of fans many times over. There were many times I would come home with almost no money to my name. It was like this for probably the first 3-5 years of my “professional” career. I was the pinnacle of what has come be known as a “struggling artist”. As time went on and I became tired of the continuously arduous journey I was on, one day I decided enough was enough. However, I knew giving up music wasn’t an option for me. So, I decided to learn how to make money in the music and entertainment industry for real. The single greatest lesson I’ve learned is that putting all your eggs in one basket, as they say, would never get me where I wanted or needed to be. If I wanted to make a real living, I would have to diversify my skill set and learn how to apply myself in more than one way in this industry as well as be willing to break outside of my comfort zone as a “rock drummer.”

So I stopped thinking of myself as just a rock drummer and started thinking of myself as a performer, entertainer, and professional. There’s an even longer story describing how I got to where i’m at now today. But I wont bore with those details. What I will say is that as of today I am a drummer, actor, pilot, music event producer, festival designer, and business operator…. just to name a few. Any one of these professions doesn’t make me a millionaire. But all of them combined……. still doesn’t make me a millionaire….. Hahaha. But, I’m now beyond happy with my financial situation and I live comfortably now. I get to do all the things I like and I enjoy all that life has to offer.

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

I don’t really enjoy talking about myself that much. However, I know that at the same time in this industry you have to be comfortable sharing what it is that you do. My elevator pitch is that no matter which of my skills I have the opportunity to be able to provide for you, be it live or recorded drums, producing, acting, modeling, event management, festival design, piloting, or anything else…. You can count on me to be easy to work with, you can count on your expectations to be exceeded, you can count on having fun, and you can count on the process being easy and smooth.

There is no question that I have gotten more repeat work as a result of these key factors. I take a lot of pride in being very easy to work with and, especially as a drummer, I love allowing non-drummers the ability to “speak drums.” I like to view myself as a conduit for others to work through. To explore their ideas.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Well, without a doubt the most incredible struggle I’ve had to overcome in my life is being paralyzed in one side of my body in 2021 and having to relearn how to walk and even relearn to play drums to some degree.

Even though this happened in 2021, the story actually begins in 2019. We were on vacation in Cancun and on the very first night I had come across a woman who drowned in a resort pool. I pulled her out of the pool and began giving CPR. I ended up performing CPR for nearly 25-30 minutes before an ambulance arrived. I didn’t know it right away but in the process of trying to save this woman, I severely herniated a disc in my lower spine. I woke up the next day with both debilitating lower back pain and excruciating nerve pain that traveled all the way down my left leg to my toes. When I say this pain was debilitating, I don’t believe there are words to accurately describe nerve pain to someone whom has never experienced it. This is the type of pain that changes you as a person. Even in thew face of that, I avoided surgery at all costs for as long as I could. In fact over a year, I suffered in truly terrible pain. But after trying everything else to get better, nerve blockers, PT, Chiropractics, injections, opioids, acupuncture, meditation, deep tissue massage, etc…..surgery was the only option for me. And in the end i’m glad I chose to do it. In fact I woke up from this surgery in 2020 and all my pain was immediately gone.

I lived nearly pain free for a year until one day, on stage, I was helping another band move gear off stage after their performance, so that we could perform and I picked up a keyboard case. I didn’t know at that moment what I had done. But I knew it was very bad. That was Sunday evening. I woke up Monday morning and my entire right leg and side of my torso was both paralyzed and experiencing nerve pain beyond explanation. One hundred times worse than the previous injury. I called the office of the surgeon who performed my first surgery, and he adamantly told me to get to the hospital ASAP. He then admitted me to the ER. and an emergency MRI revealed that I had completely blown out a different disc in my mid spine. Pinching every single nerve in my spinal column from that point down.

After one overnight stay in the hospital with IV morphine, he moved other patients surgeries around and performed an emergency surgery the very next day. I awoke from this 2nd surgery 1 hour later and while much of my pain was gone, much of it was also still very much there. Not to mention, the paralysis persisted. This post-op experience was not like the first one. After 4-6 weeks of recovering from surgery, which consisted of absolutely no bending or twisting at the waist, and no lifting anything over 5 lbs. I started Physical Therapy 4-6 days a week, three hours at a time, and continued PT for 8 months. Essentially relearning how to walk. That surgery was May 11th, 2021. As of today, it feels so great to say that no one can tell that just 8 months ago I could barely stand, let alone walk. I still have almost no feeling in my right foot and sometimes my lower back pains me. But, i’m back to being myself. I’m back to being the drummer I used to be.

This experience has humbled me in ways I don’t know if I can fully describe. At first, the pain is what changed me as a person, and admittedly, not in ways I want to remember. But now, the overall experience I’ve endured has changed me in ways i’m proud to say have made me more into the man I truly believe i’m meant to be. Ever since learning to walk again, I’ve approached my daily life truly thrilled to be able to get up out of bed, asking myself “whats something I have always wished I could do or learn but haven’t yet?” This is why I’ve recently gotten my pilot’s license, for example.

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

By far, at least for me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is having the opportunity to start with absolutely nothing, create something from that nothing, and then take a step back and appreciate what you’ve created. Especially as it relates to recording music, every time i’m in the studio I tell myself, “when you’re dead and gone this recording is what will will remain. It’s literally part of your legacy.”

Contact Info: 

• Website: www.victormribas.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/vdrumv
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/victorribas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victormribas/