Today we’d like to introduce you to Travis Hagan
Hi Travis, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I was born in Dallas in September of 1983. Mom was a music teacher and opera singer; Dad worked for Southwestern Bell, “entertaining customers” as he often called it. Our family moved twice while I was young, first to the St. Louis area, then back to Plano in the early 90s. These moves most likely play into my penchant for nostalgia and sentimentality, having uprooted a few times as a kid, adjusted to a new neighborhood, made new friends, then had to do it all over again. Each house had its memories, and each represented a new phase of my youth, along with its musical associations. St. Louis was the Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart era, late 80s – early 90s. My brother and I hosted our own Grammy show in the living room and made my parents watch. (I think Phil Collins won nearly everything.)
My mom tried to teach me piano along the way, but I never got much further than the basics when it came to reading music. That didn’t stop me from thinking I’d be a rockstar, though! We had this portable Magnavox tape player with a tiny, built-in microphone, and I would grab whatever acoustic guitar or toy keyboard was nearest and hit record, having nothing but maybe a vague idea for a song lyric in mind. And it was terrible! Like, absolutely blackmail-level, laughingly bad music. I had no idea what I was doing; the cart was miles in the distance, and I had no idea how to steer the horse.
By the time we moved to Plano, I was getting into heavier stuff: Pearl Jam, Megadeth, Dream Theater (always what I thought at the time was a pretty eclectic spread, not yet realizing the vast world of music out there that lies outside of the rock genre). It was around 4th grade when I picked up the guitar. I think the intro to “Come As You Are” by Nirvana was the first thing I figured out how to play on my own.
Some of the same frustrations I had with piano began to arise as I took my initial lessons; I almost quit, but something inside wouldn’t allow me to. Once I learned a few songs from start to finish (“Blackbird”, “Dust in the Wind”, “Glycerine”) my confidence improved, and all at once there weren’t enough hours in the day to play as much as I wanted to. Once I stopped worrying so much about how to read music, the instrument suddenly made more sense to me. Reading sheet music was like trying to make love and read a book at the same time. If I could hear a song and figure it out within a few minutes, what did I need all the black dots for? Once I set aside the sheet music and stopped thinking so much about it, I actually became a musician.
From middle school, all the way through college and into early adulthood, I was always in some kind of band. Most of them consisted of different combinations of the same five or six people, we just rotated whose songs we played and which genre we were going for. In high school, we were “progressive alternative” under the name Shylocke; then we were pop-punk as Juliending; then garage-rock-meets-Radiohead-like arrangements as Brainframe; then a space rock band called, well… SpaceRock. In hindsight, I believe that any one of those bands could have broken through, had we just made up our minds and stuck to a particular long-term aesthetic!
Whether it was ego, identity crises, or just no one in the group wanting to deal with the business side of music, none of those groups survived. I spent about 4 years helping to run a comedy club, and another 4 working short, contract work for Pearson, all the while writing and recording bits and pieces, either into a portable Tascam or basic DAW. It was on one of those Pearson projects when I met my future wife, Phoebe.
There is maybe a perspective that says once you get married and have a kid, “it’s all over” for things like playing music or chasing your dreams. I have to disagree. Meeting my wife and raising my daughter, Lucy (now almost 6 years old), and the life we have created together has given me more to write about and reflect on than anything else. And my current profession as a teacher gives me long periods of time throughout the year to home in on music and writing in a way that other careers perhaps do not. I am in a place to truly enjoy the whole creative process, no matter the pace. The work that I do designing lessons and helping young people to write complements the creative work I do by choice outside of my job, and vice versa. One constantly informs the other, and there is no shortage of real life experiences that are worth writing about on any given day.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s never a smooth road when you have kids. There is always a missing shoe, or a meltdown over not getting to eat Chipotle for the fourth day in a row, or a refusal to comply with even the most basic requests on Earth. “Don’t leave chocolate milk on the table; the dogs will get it.” “Can we listen to something other than the Muppet Babies Theme Song? Daddy’s tired of that one.”
Let’s see, though… earlier obstacles.
A couple of years after we moved to Plano, my parents separated. I was still in elementary school. Needless to say, I was frustrated and rebellious: I grew my hair out, I got into heavier music, I intentionally got into trouble at school and did my best to emulate my older brother’s aggression. I even quit guitar for a few months, not because I didn’t like it, but because I wanted to upset them. That was only a brief phase, maybe a year or so, and they got back together. Coincidentally, I renewed my interest in school and doubled down on music thereafter.
I hit some more bumps in my college years, sampling 3 or 4 before deciding it was something I could actually commit to finishing. It took some trial and error for me to realize that my musical ambitions did not have to exist in a world separate from academic pursuits. If I had it to do over, I would go into college with the strategy of developing more music-related connections while simultaneously earning my course credits. As it played out, because I felt the need to make up for past semesters of wasted effort, I stacked so many classes in my final semesters of college that I barely stopped to enjoy the experience.
With all the evil in the world, these problems seem pretty miniscule. I count my blessings for sure.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
For the past 5 years, I have been releasing music under the name Painter Fingers. I create every piece of it – the writing, recording, mixing, singing, producing – and I do it all completely at my own pace, whenever inspiration strikes. I pay for zero studio time because I use only the gear at my house, which I’ve acquired over the course of roughly 30 years as a guitarist. Everything from the placement of the microphones to the amount of reverb on the final track is a choice I get to make. Sure, I make mistakes, plenty of them, but I learn and grow and always have something to show for it in the end. I don’t have to get approval from a label or meet any kind of contractual obligation or spend months away from my family at a time touring. This is a project solely about the joys of songwriting and recording, and the art of musical creation.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
Best: To quote Ben Kweller, “The neon light from the building lets you know you’re home.” After spending 17 years living in the Austin area, I grew to miss the Dallas skyline. For virtually my entire residency in Austin, the skyline consisted of construction cranes that seemed to multiply exponentially each year. When I was making trips back and forth this past summer as my family was undergoing its move to Melissa, I enjoyed times when I would pass through downtown at night. The lights of the Reunion Ball, that weird little white bridge thing, the rainbow lights from the Omni — now that’s a city. It’s not perfect, but it knows what it is, and it does a fine job of it.
Least: We could use more wide open, kid-friendly, green spaces. It would also be nice to see more of a music scene transcend outside of Deep Ellum. All of these nice-looking communities springing up in the suburbs — it would be so cool to have more spaces for music among them. Maybe I just haven’t found them yet.
Pricing:
- Painter Fingers is on Spotify, Apple Music, and virtually all well-known streaming platforms. If you would like to purchase an album or song, you can find my releases on Bandcamp, and many of them are free or name-your-price on that platform.
- If you would like to book an acoustic performance, I will play for tips or a small fee, depending on the event. For my last acoustic show, I think I got $150 for three hours. Alternative, Indie, 80s, 90s, and classic rock covers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/painter_fingers
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/painter_fingers
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/travischarleshagan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-hagan/
- Twitter: https://x.com/travis_hagan
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@painterfingers
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/painterfingers
- Other: https://painterfingers.bandcamp.com
Image Credits
Travis Hagan, Phoebe Hagan, Dusty Hagan
