Meet John Thomas

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

John , so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
Finding my purpose is something that took a lot of loss for me to uncover. At first, I thought my purpose was to entertain people and inspire them to follow their dreams, but after my grandfather passed away this last year and my long term relationship ended it really changed my perspective. It was actually these losses that inspired me to start writing my upcoming EP “Inner Peace” as all the songs detail what I did to cope with the trauma of it all. After everything that’s happened in the last year, I now understand that my purpose isn’t to just to entertain people and inspire them to follow their dreams, but it is to help people heal from similar situations and traumas that I have felt and dealt with myself. There are too many instances of people feeling alone in this day and age, so my purpose is now to make music that helps people heal. It definitely took a lot of soul searching to get to where I am today, but I’m here now and this version of me ain’t going nowhere.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’ve been a musician for basically my entire life and it’s what I personally think I was meant to do with my life. My dad is a musician and my mom is friends with a lot of musicians in the industry, so growing up I was always surrounded by music of all genres. I started my musical career playing drums in a Seattle based thrash metal band called Salem Knights for years, but left the band in 2016 when I went to college at Central Washington University. During my time at CWU, I was looking for a new way to express myself. I was still playing instruments (mostly the drums, but along the way I also picked up learning the piano and guitar), but it wasn’t enough. One day in 2019, I went through a really bad situation that I personally didn’t know how to deal with and at the time. I was both too scared and too broke to go to counseling, which is when I decided pick up making Hip-Hop as an outlet for the stress and anxiety that I was feeling at the time. This situation led me to record my first EP “Life of an Oddball” in my friend Gavin’s room (he also makes incredible music by the way. He goes by gavn! You should definitely go stream his music). The rest is history.

Throughout the next four years, I would continue to release music and make a name for myself. I also went on to start a collective comprised of artists from my hometown of Kent, Washington called the Kent Boyz. This is why you always see me saying #KB4L (which stands for Kent Boyz 4 Life). Music has both changed and saved my life, and I mean that quite literally. Music has led me to places that I used to dream about as a kid and helped me get through the most traumatic time of my life. Within the last year I lost my grandfather and went through a pretty bad breakup, which was a lot to deal with at one time and was something that I really struggled with this last year. Even though I was now in a position to go to counseling (which I finally did end up doing and it did help), it still wasn’t quite enough for me. This is what led me to start writing and recording my second EP “Inner Peace”. Inner Peace is a retelling of the various coping mechanisms and mental struggles that I went through in the last year. The project tells the story of how I hit rock bottom and managed to climb my way out of a very dark place.

Ultimately, I hope that people can relate to the music that I’ve made. I hope that my music can help pull somebody out of a dark place and help them heal from whatever it is they’re going though. I also hope that my music inspires somebody to pursue their dreams and keep pushing. The music industry can be a very cut-throat and fickle place, so I just want my music to serve as encouragement to upcoming artists to keep going and following their dreams.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I’d say the three most important skills that have helped me along the way were definitely…

A.) Knowing how network with people and make connections: You wont go anywhere if you’re not making connections, as unfortunate as that may sound. My advice here is to meet and talk to everybody. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there, but also stay humble while you’re doing it.

B.) Staying true to myself and the goals/mission that I established for myself when I first started: The moment I compromise my core beliefs and stop making music that is meaningful to me is the day that I don’t need to make music anymore. Also, the moment when I stop being humble is a sign that I need to check myself and take a seat.

C.) Learn how to play the game: While I make music to help myself and others, I also know that my music wont be heard if I don’t learn the business side of it all. I’ve invested countless hours in looking at analytics, promotional options, and learning how the music industry works to even get the point that I’m at now. Think of whatever it is you’re doing as a game of chess, and try to stay numerous steps ahead so you can come out on top and secure your W.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
In the last year, I think my biggest area of growth has actually been learning how to open up and be vulnerable. For a really long time I was very mentally and emotionally closed off to the world because I had a lot of trauma that I had never properly dealt with. However, I can proudly say now that I’ve worked very hard and am still working hard every day to overcome that obstacle. Going to counseling was the first step. Counseling is a resource that I don’t think enough men utilize (especially black men). So, it was a big step for me to take the leap of faith and finally open up to somebody about my past traumas. It was one of the hardest, but most beneficial decisions that I have ever made and I don’t regret it at all. In fact, I intend to go back soon just to continue to keep my mental health a priority. The next step, was writing, recording and releasing “Inner Peace”. This project was the first time I really opened up and let listeners get to know the raw unfiltered version of myself. This was also a big step for me. It almost felt like going to counseling all over again, but instead of my counselor being one person, the world is my counselor. I’ve grown exponentially in this area, and if you asked anybody close to me, they’d most likely tell you the difference is night and day.

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Image Credits
Photographers: Sonny Svay & Heysuavphotography

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