An Interview With @heymattsokol

Me: Thanks so much for accepting this interview. We all know you've got a lot of things on your hands. Let's make this short and sweet! First and foremost. Most of us know you as a musician, you play the drums and a few other instruments, tell us more about your background in music.

@heymattsokol: The first album I ever bought was Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band. After that I went through a progression of Nirvana/Foo Fighters kinda stuff -> Modest Mouse kinda stuff -> Tera Melos and Hella kinda stuff. The math rock phase lasted forever but now I’m over it, now I listen to more metal and hip hop.

I love all kinds of music. To be honest it is physically painful to me when other people say things like “I just don’t enjoy [X]”, whether that’s harsh vocals or autotune or whatever. I want it all. And that carries over into all of my music that I make, I just wanna explore the newest sounds I can.

Me: How did you discover Steemit and is this your first endeavour in making music and sharing it on the internet?

@heymattsokol: I’ve made music forever it feels like, but Steem was the first time I made any actual money while doing music that I enjoyed. I was desperate at the time, stuck in suburban connecticut in my dad’s basement with no car, no money, no job, no band, at age 25, seemingly “game over” for an aspiring musician.

I joined Steem when Steem’s price was $0.08, literally one day before the lowest price of all time. It’s lucky I was so poor and desperate, because it turned out that Steem is incredible and I was insanely lucky to find it in that moment, when I was so receptive to ideas for income and music distribution.

It took me about two months to go from “exploring” to “I’m fucking doing this.” Ever since then, March of 2017, I’ve been obsessed with Steem and I’ve worked hard on my blog here every single day except for Saturdays, when I try to rest.

Me: So you’ve been on this platform for quite a while now, you started in January of 2017. What has kept you here so far?

@heymattsokol: I believe that Steem can be the future of content monetization on the internet. If we succeed a building this blockchain as a sustainable platform, it will create new opportunities that do not exist right now, in any form, for musicians around the world. It’ll also help - not solve, but help - with issues of discrimination (race, gender, and beyond) in the industry, by decentralizing the power a little bit.

Me: From your personal finance blogposts I got to know about how Steemit is helping you with your debts. Tell us more about this aspect as usually musicians in real life are pretty poor. Is Steemit really feasible for the long term?

@heymattsokol: It has been a big up-and-down journey. In January 2018 I was earning $1,000 per week, the most I’ve ever earned, and it was honestly a dream. This week I’m earning $120 and it is less glamorous lol.

I think Steem is not a “silver bullet.” It’s not easier to build a Steem page than a YouTube channel — it’s equally hard — but the rewards are better. That’s all. Honestly, you need the same level of determination and effort here, as anywhere else, it’s just more worth it.

In my personal experience, I recommend building/maintaining at least one non-cryptocurrency income source (lessons or selling beats or whatever) for at least 50% of your income at this time.

Me: You’re involved in a few communities as well, such as @sndbox and @dsound. What is your advice to musicians, or even Steemians in general on how to go about on this platform?

@heymattsokol: For the record, I’m not involved with DSound other than uploading some songs there.

Sndbox is one of the most important projects on Steem, up there with Curie imo, in terms of cultivating a viable and sustainable long-term structure where talented people can get started on Steem.

If anybody wants my advice on how to succeed here, they should follow my blog on Steem. I post 5-10 articles per week that address that question and other related topics like finance, mindfulness, and business.

Me: Last but not least, a few quickfire questions where you must only pick one of the answers.

Live performer or recording artist? Ouch!! If I had to pick, I’d pick live.
Nintendo or Playstation? Nintendo.
DC or Marvel? TBH IM SO TIRED OF SUPERHEROES. I guess DC tho because Watchmen is cool
Apple or Android? Apple I guess but idc
Basketball or football? Basketball b/c football kills people
Beer or wine? -Beer now but wine as I get older and wealthier
Sunny side up or scrambled? Scrambled.
Steemit or the Ds (Dsound, Dtube, Dlive)? Steemit for now…

Me: Before we sign off, here's @heymattsokol's newest release!

Me: Thanks again for joining us on the show! Till next time!

@heymattsokol: Thanks for having me on, cheers Caleb!

Image source