Today we’d like to introduce you to David Tribble.
Hi David, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Choose your own adventure books…I did like those. I’ve got one for you. You are a middle school science teacher, married with a 1-year-old baby girl. You just left LA to take a Red-Eye back home to teach your Friday morning class.
You just auditioned for The Voice TV show and a few weeks later you get a call to come back to LA for 3 weeks to prepare for the main audition that could be the chair turning one!
Turn to page? If you wanna say no and miss out on the chance to jump-start your music career.
Keep reading if you say yes and want to go back to LA to continue with the chances of getting on TV to perform and be chosen by a mentor.
This is the most lopsided question I know, but before you answer, take any selfish pride or boastful tendencies away weigh this out in your head and heart, and tell me there’s not a shift in the choice you would make.
Needless to say, my wife and I chose for me not continue with the Voice.
I know that was the right decision, but it was the most bitter sweetest thing that I’ve experienced, not to mention the most adult thing I’ve done.
I was able to be there for my wife, our new baby and to do my job that provided for them. Don’t worry; music for me never felt like it slowed down during this time. I’d say it even became more of a focus and passion.
I trusted what God had faithfully given me, and we kept going and rolling through life. Both of us teachers at the time.
A journey is a hike, and a hike is a journey. If you are gonna make it to anywhere that rewards you with a view or a summit to stand upon, it takes steps, jumps, leaps, cuts, scrapes, slips, falls, and rests to do it all over again.
I’m not sure anyone can say they are an expert on life because life itself is sculpting itself and what it looks like only by the inspiration of the next breath we take.
A statute that we want to lay out the idea for, but do we really have much of a say? Another no-brainer for ya.
So, what could consume 24 hours, minus a few for sleep, I assume that’s still a thing. I know my wife wasn’t thinking about how little sleep she would get when she said I do in her white dress inside a chapel of glass next to a tall, lanky dreamer that she would have to hear snore and buy earplugs from Amazon to drown out the noise.
See how easy it is to get off track, and did I mention I have attention deficit disorder? I mean, who doesn’t have a touch of that these days? Everywhere we turn a new thing or something we need or can’t live without, or we’re being led into contemplating the things we hate to be allowed or tolerated. Look, squirrel.
Let’s talk about growing up. Still working on the details of that. Maybe writing a book counts.
So, I saw my parents kiss in the kitchen every morning when I was a kid before my dad went off to work and mom stayed at home. This was a highlight of my childhood seemed to glue it together, with cruising around on my bike and catching crawdads in the creek with my friends. I noticed one day the kiss goodbye stopped, and my dad wasn’t coming back home, Mom said one day after school. So, my brother and sister, and I were putting puzzles together on the floor in his apartment a few miles down the road off Highway 1417 in Sherman, Texas, where I grew up after being born on the wrong side of Arkansas in Texarkana.
I picked the guitar after many years of letting it sit in my closet when I was younger, I took a few lessons, even piano, but nothing ever stuck like it did that day. I was 17 or so and I found a guitar book in my mom’s piano bench. I say there that afternoon and taught myself 3 chords and started to see the truth! I wasn’t much of an athlete, mind you, and honestly had some trouble knowing who I was and being myself for a while. Music changed all that. Along with God, who knew it was just a matter of time.
Mind you, I wrote down how my day went in a journal for a time when I was in high school, and lots of changes were going on in and around me. I found the pen first and learned how to express those feelings. Happy, sad, mad, girls I liked and days that I didn’t. Scribbling it down as fast as I could spot it out. Never wrote a song until I was almost 18.
My mom would get up and sing songs in church, my grandma too.
I can still remember to tone if daddy’s voice singing hymns in the back of the first Baptist Church. Singing has always been around me in sone of way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was a slow process for me on purpose. Music had my attention early in my adult life, but I fell in love, and that story was placed right alongside my love for music, and it didn’t choose one of the other. I wanted both and gave my best to each when I could to make it work. No matter what is going on in your life, I believe songs are always ready to be written, and maybe the runway isn’t open, but the terminal is.
It took a while to get used to playing live and climbing over my nerves to get to a spot that allowed me to connect but something in me kept pushing to share what I created in a live setting. I’m my college years, Open mics & talent shows were a common thing for me to be play as well as singing and leading worship in church at times.
At some point, you believe in what you are doing to a point of not caring if anyone else does.
Which sounds selfish, but really, it’s just allowing your art and creativity to bloom without bias or fear. To be honest and real so it does connect with who happens to be listening.
That kind of mentality and approach has influenced my whole music journey. Now adding husband and father to that resume of life that God has truly blessed me with along the way as an original artist and now full-time singer and songwriter… Dreams do come around, but sometimes just waiting on you. And they may even come true.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a performing and recording artist as well as a full-time singer & songwriter. I have had so many people help me along the way, and feel like that has been a big part of where I am now. I love people and meet new people most every week being a musician. Relationships have been something I cherish. To make this a bigger thing than music or playing shows has been so fulfilling and full circle for me.
I started a songwriter meet-up group inspired by the support shown by Hear Fort Worth, a branch of Visit Fort Worth that provides support and resources for artists in the Fort Worth area which is headed up by Tom Martens. I just wanted a place for songwriters to meet and get to know each other and build the community that was evident but not connected in the area. Plus, I’ve been meeting so many other artists while playing shows but never could have a decent conversation in a crowded venue. Singer-Songwriter Coffee & Collective (SSCC) started last August and is growing as we meet on Fridays at Common Grounds in Fort Worth near TCU, talking and sharing our passion for life, songwriting, booking, recording, etc., plus there’s coffee!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I am reading the Bible from to back at the moment for the first time. Feels way overdue, but helps my day start off better when I do. I use the basic apps really. Instagram & Facebook for promotion, no Tic Toc yet.
Canva and Adobe for creating promo media. Bands in town for shows as well. I’m sure I am way behind on this part of the game but I try to keep my head above water at the moment on the socials.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidtribble.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidtribblemusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502725906
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCacZIZyXjgguSs4dxu-VWfA
Image Credits
Nathan Grady
Price Waffles weekly
Natalie Embry
