Meet Darrin Kobetich

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Darrin Kobetich a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Darrin, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I’ve found in keeping creative, it helps to focus on other artistic ventures such as playing a different instrument or learning to build a guitar, which the latter is a very recent thing for me. I’m also always interested in new music for inspiration as well revisiting old favorites and rediscovering musicians I might have missed in my early developement.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I play instrumental solo acoustic guitar primarily as a main source of income while hustling odd jobs to supplement as well. I compose 95% of the material I play in addition to music by John Fahey, Leo Kottke and Jimmy Page who have been major influences on my acoustic playing. I was late in discovering Michael Hedges but his style left an impression on me as well. What’s exciting to me is when I get to travel to beautiful deserts and mountains around the southwest and play a variety of venues including farmers markets, house concerts, hotels, cafes, etc. During my time out there, I take in the surroundings with my mountain bike or a soak in some hot springs in between gigs. I do all my own booking and have grown to prefer it that way over the years as I make my own schedule. It certainly beats sitting at a desk for 24 years as I did until 2010, working for a newspaper as a graphic artist/illustrator. Being laid off from that was the best thing that could happen. Total lifestyle change, which I was ready for. In addition to composing my own music, I’ve also done so for a host of productions for live theater primarily at Hip Pocket Theatre, a gem of Fort Worth, TX as a live music soundtrack. I’ve been involved in several bands over the years including thrash metal, bluegrass, jazz fusion, rock fusion and general hired gun stuff. Currently, I’m part of a 9 piece ensemble, all improvised jazz fusion called RageOut Arkestra dabbling in Brazilian, African and middle eastern rhythms, directed by our drummer, Eddie Dunlap. I’m also working on a studio album with the Yucca Men, a prog rock experimental thing mixing with no creative boundaries. Both bands borrow members from time to time. I hope to start work on another solo album in the coming year.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Patience, Persistence and the old cliche, staying true to yourself as an artist. Decide why you got yourself into this music thing in the first place.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Without question, my parents shaped my life with a record player to the sounds of Ventures, Chuck Berry and most of the guitar music of the 50s and 60s. Then, in 1977 at the age of 12 my Dad gave me his old late 50s Harmony LP copy and taught me 4 chords.

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