Meet Matt Blankenship Jr: Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matt Blankenship Jr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matt, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
I stopped thinking of anxiety as “my anxiety”. I had a month of my life two years ago where I either had a panic attack every day, or took Xanax to stave one off. I was actively fighting it, and I ended up spending a ton of my time and energy in a fight I could not win. Any time I feel anxiety about having too much to do, or more to do than I could possibly accomplish in the given time frame, I first acknowledge the feeling. Usually it manifests in a physical way, in my body. I might feel like I can’t breathe. I might feel like my heart is beating off time. I don’t try and suppress any of it; I sit with that feeling for a second. I don’t identify with those thoughts. The phrase “my anxiety” has. as an anxious person, always bothered me. It’s not “my” anxiety – it’s just anxiety. I open the door for the anxiety to come in, and maybe give it a little boop on the nose, like “hi, it’s you again”. It wanders aimlessly through me for a while as I focus on breathing. It wanders out the back door. I acknowledge that moment, too. It’s important to note when an anxiety event ends – it’s easy to notice when one begins, but it takes effort to notice when it’s over. I can’t always control my thoughts or my body, but they are just thoughts and the body that I’m in. They aren’t me. I find I can accept myself when I realize that.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I perform both as Matt Blankenship Jr (my name) and as The Sometimes Island (my band). I love music, always have, and learning how to sing, play guitar, write and produce music has always been fun. In that way, things have been easy. The music industry however – the marketing, promoting, building a team and dealing with rejection – that part has been extremely hard. It felt like being a little kid dropped off at the mall with no money and no idea where to go, surrounded by bigger, busier people who knew exactly what they were doing and couldn’t be bothered to stop and help me. That’s not exactly how things are, but that’s certainly how it has felt. The most important thing I’ve learned is that nothing is possible without help. You need a team that believes in you and derives value from being involved in what you’re doing. Once I began to put that together, I’d always wondered if there was anything that I really, truly had to say. I’m a white male in a world full of white male stories. Right around that time I went through a whole gauntlet of traumatic experiences. It humbled me. It showed me that there is enough room in the world for all kinds of stories, and that I did indeed have one to tell. Mine has in recent months been that there is hope in all of the hopelessness we’ve seen the pandemic bring on. I’ve had to do interventions for friends when addiction began to take over their lives. I saved a friend who was attempting suicide. It’s been a lot to handle. If I didn’t have faith, and a team on my side – not just professionally but emotionally – I don’t know how I would have made it through any of this.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m such a food person, and I love to have a couple drinks, so I think the tour would be pretty hedonistic in that way. I’d take them to Crawford’s for some beer and fried chicken. Next we’d take a little urban hike around Silver Lake, and walk all the way up the Micheltorena hill and look out at downtown. For dinner we’d do Hama Sushi in Little Tokyo (I can’t even believe I’m saying this, please don’t blow up my spot), and we’d get after dinner drinks in the Arts District at my friend Alex’s place (he’s a master of tiki drinks) and maybe go by Everson Royce Bar and impress the bartenders by ordering Cocchi Americanos, and one of those magical burgers if we’re still hungry. Now it’s down to the beach where we get touristy and rent beach cruiser bikes and head through downtown Santa Monica to the bike path and see how far south we can get before biking all the way back up the beach. We’ll stop at Hinano Cafe and get another burger and some beer, because we’re monsters and this is what we do every day. We’ll go see a show, either live music somewhere or some live comedy at DeSano Pizza or Best Fish Taco in Los Feliz. The next morning we’ll see how adventurous we feel and hike up to Griffith Observatory, or even better, drive out to Altadena and hike up Angelus mountain before the morning clouds clear out. The hike up is a little overcast, but pretty, but by the time we get to the top we’re above the cloud layer and we’re looking out over a rolling white ocean of clouds. The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mom is a tireless leader who runs her own Juice Plus+ business, and inspires me every day. I wouldn’t have been able to create a living in music without her leading by example. My entire family has been loving and supportive of a crazy career choice. Shoutout to the Blankenships (and Wolfes)!

Website: https://thesometimesisland.com

Instagram: @thesometimesisland

Twitter: @sometimesisland

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSometimesIsland/

Youtube: https://bit.ly/thesometimesislandyoutube

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3SqtHH9uGzfm9UIc7veyuK