While in college, you have many different opportunities to go to different concerts and parties. Me personally, I will pick a concert over a party every time. Especially when a friend is performing in the band. On October 21st in the year 2016, I went to see my friend perform in the band A Burden To Bear. The members in the band are from all over Indiana and one from Ohio. I got the opportunity to interview A Burden To Bear on Friday October 28th. I was happy that they had agreed to interview with me for this article. A Burden To Bear was created nine months ago and played a live show just recently at Rhino’s All Age Club in Bloomington on October 21st. The show was awesome and the energy coming off of the bands that performed was amazing. Just to see how proud everyone was and to see all the hard work accumulate into one amazing show was awesome.
What is your name? “My name is Wyatt Traxler.”
How old are you? “I am 19 years old.”
When did you get your first guitar? “My very first guitar was one of those little cheap first act acoustic guitars from Walmart. I got it when I was like seven or eight years old. I got it for Christmas one year. It was the coolest thing.”
When did you learn to play guitar? “I did not actually learn how to play guitar when I got that guitar. I thought it was cool but I never did anything with it. It was probably four years ago when I decided that I wanted to actually pick up the guitar and learn how to play it.”
What made you want to learn to play an instrument? “I think the moment that I realized that I actually wanted to play an instrument was in the year 2012. I went and saw Killswitch Engaged and Five Finger Death Punch in concert. That was the first concert I ever went to. I just thought it was really cool to see them up there just doing what they like to do. I just thought it was awesome. That was when I decided that I wanted to play guitar.”
How much time do you dedicate to playing your music? “I try to put forth at least an hour a day. If not more. It all depends on homework and what is going on in my life. But I’d say whenever I get the chance to.”
When did you start playing in front of other people? “The first time I ever played in front of other people was with my first band, Terracadice. But I didn’t play in front of a crowd until last weekend (October 21, 2016).”
What is it like to play in a concert? “I can’t really speak as a wide example since I’ve only played in front of one crowd. It was a surreal experience. It was very unique. It was something that I had never done before, and have always wanted to do. I just got up there and played my stuff and I had a lot of fun doing it. It was just really cool to see everyone getting into it.”
Who is your most favorite musical Idol? “It has to be Caleb Shomo from Beartooth and Attack Attack.”
Who are your other musical idols? (Top 3) “My top 3 favorite musical idols are Synyster Gates from Avenge Sevenfold, Dan Jacobs from Atreyu, and Michael Padge from Bullet for My Valentine”
Who is your favorite band? “I have a lot of favorite bands. Recently I discovered the band Concepts and they’re really good. But I think title of favorite band has to go to Beartooth.”
What is your favorite musical genre? “My favorite music genre is definitely metal. There is no contest.”
What genre of music do you play? “We play a mixture of a couple of different metal sub-genres. We play some hard core stuff. We play some metal core stuff. It’s whatever we feel like playing.”
What are the names of bands that you have performed in? “Right now I am in A Burden To Bear. I have been a band from Fort Wayne Indiana called Auroriace, and before that I was in a band called Terracadice which means land shark in Latin.”
What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? “I see myself playing music with my friends and just being on the road. Having fun doing what I like to do.”
What do you see yourself doing in 10 years? “Pretty much the same thing. Hopefully we’ll be on bigger tours playing bigger shows with bigger bands. It would be really cool to be signed to a big record label.”
Do you see yourself working with or in music for the rest of your life? “For sure. There’s nothing else I could ever picture myself doing. There’s nothing I’ve wanted to do more. It was something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I was 12 years old. At one point I tried to be a vocalist and that didn’t work out. It kind of discouraged me but ever since I started playing guitar, that’s number one.”
Is being in music your dream? “Yes. That’s the strongest word I can think of. Yes.”
Are you happy to be following your dream? “I am very happy. I don't really have any words of them happy like I just I don't want to be doing anything else and I love it.”
Has there been a lot of heartache along this road to be following your dream? “Yeah I think I'm kind of lucky in the fact that I haven't really had much go wrong. Per se. I’ve been in two different bands besides A Burden To Bear. Sure I had to kick out two vocalists from my old band terracadice but luckily I was not very good friends with them so it didn’t really hurt me very much. It was one of those things where you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. In Auroriace we had to kick out our bassist but that was it.”
Have you had to make a lot of sacrifice to follow this dream? “Once again, not really. Everything has just kind of fallen into place for me luckily. I have to give up a lot of free time I have to write music and to practice.”
Do you have any words for anyone who wants to pursue music but is too afraid to? “Just do it. Just being able to write something and play it and see people enjoy it is just such a good feeling. You’ve just got to take a chance and do what you think is what you want to do.”
Have you been injured in a concert? “I can say that I have not been thankfully.”
