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[22 Mar 2009|07:56pm] |
TRAVIS NATHAN WALKER was your average child growing up in New Jersey. He was an only child for about 5 years of his life, but then his parents brought him a little sister, which was okay with him at the time. He always got along with his sister, but was always protective of her. He spent most of his years trying to be the cool older brother that drove his little sister and her friends around and bought them tickets to rated R movies or whatever she wanted to do. Without being unreasonable, of course. He still had to be the male figure in the house after their dad had left them when he was 15.
When Travis was about 10 years old, he discovered the radio. He loved listening to music. It could've been classic rock, r&b, pop, oldies, jazz, rock... it didn't matter. Silence began to bother him. He even put a CD on repeat when he would go to bed. He saved his allowance and spent it all on music. His grandparents used to take him to Target or the mall every couple weeks, and he'd get a new CD. As he got a little older, he began to listen to mostly rock music. This narrowed down into the punk genre. But he was a sucker for anything with a good drum beat.
Which brings us to the day that changed his life forever: February 10, 1993. What was so life changing about this day? This was the day his grandparents and his parents bought him a drumset. It was his 12th birthday, and he had begged for a a drumset for about a year. His parents were convinced that he would get it, and soon - just like everything else - lose interest in it and forget he had it. They thought they'd buy it and it would start collecting dust soon after. Boy, were they wrong. He's been addicted ever since. The set they got him was just a no name brand. Something good to get him going. Eventually, he started upgrading and the majority of his allowance was being saved to buy different pieces for his set.
He used to be in a band. This band played shows and toured a lot. When high school was finally done, they did a nation-wide tour, and that had to be the highlight of his life. When he gets old and has grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, he will still be able to perfectly describe the tour, and everything about it. A lot of great things happened that tour. He made a lot of friends, had a lot of fun. His band, Future is Illegal, recorded and released one full length album after about 3 years of being together. They did a second nationwide tour and called it quits afterwards. That was 4 years of something Travis would go on to never forget in his entire life.
He went on to move to Chicago when he was 21, after Future is Illegal had broken up. His mother was having serious financial problems and sent his sister to live with him and granted him legal guardianship over her. With the money he made with his last band and the steady income of working retail management full-time, he could more than afford to take care of his 16 year old sister.
He joined another band while he was there, The Annihilation. They were a jam band and would do any style of music on any instrument or piece of trash that would make noise. Travis played a mixture of instruments, including occasionally singing. They were together 4 years, playing mostly local shows at first. They had a mutual friend that booked any nationwide shows they would play for them. By the time he was 24, Travis had developed a serious problem with alcohol. After about a year of him being drunk mostly every show and unable to perform, the band split up. Travis hasn't attempted to start or join another band since then.
His sister moved out while Travis was having problems. She didn't talk to him much after she did and eventually, their close relationship dwindled off and they stopped talking completely. She stopped answering his calls and then he stopped calling.
He moved around a lot between being 25 and now. He lived in LA for a few months in 2006 after the band broke up. From there, he moved around the Bay area, staying on several friends' couches and spare bedrooms. When he was 27, he went to NYC and ran into his father, who he hadn't seen in 12 years. He crashed with his dad for a while after he saw what a problem Travis had. He had run himself dry working odd jobs. He could no longer afford to live. His father helped him out, getting him straightened up and making sure he was sober. It took a lot of fighting at first, but he finally gave it all up. He moved out of his father's place after being there for a year and got himself a place of his own. He stayed nearby his father in Brooklyn, as a safety net, and moved to the Financial District in Manhattan. He lost all ties with his mother, sister, and grandparents since his alcohol problems started. The only member of his family, he keeps in touch with is his father.
He worked with the Vans Warped Tour last year, working at the Vans merch tent when needed and conducting interviews and recording footage for the Warped Tour DVD. He'll be returning year after year for this job. When he's not working Warped Tour, he works on the tour's website.
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