Meet Alex Coombs | Freelance Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alex Coombs and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alex, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I tend to think of risk in a personal way that is directly relative to a persons belief in themselves. Being a freelance musician and session artist, you are hired by means of recommendation or by an online presence but that doesn’t ensure that you will be called back even if you “do the job.” It’s always been extremely important to me that in whatever project or artist I affiliate myself with that I am able to put a little bit of myself into the art, not necessarily just play a part. In other words risk to me is like placing a bet on myself to be myself. In the freelance world people want to continue to work with the feeling someone can bring to them as opposed to just hiring talented individuals. There’s undoubtedly loads of practice I have put in over the years to have odds on my side, but in my personal life and career there is always a risk needed to be taken to achieve the reward that I would want to achieve.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have been a full time professional freelancing musician and session artist for the past 15 years. I basically play live shows, tour, and get called into studios to help other creatives bring their sonic visions to life. I feel fulfilled and proud every time I get called for work because I know that I don’t have to fake a part of myself or put on a mask to appease anyone. People hire me for me and what I can add to a certain function. It’s a lifelong process that continuously takes a lot of finding and rediscovering yourself. From spending hours shedding in a practice room to jumping into a crammed van to play gigs for little to no money not knowing where you’re going to sleep the next night, my upbringing definitely had its challenges. Ironically those are the times I look back on with a smile because those were moments that defined me. Then I remember getting better gigs and making more money but quickly getting burnt out or feeling unsatisfied every time I’d play music because I realized that even within your passion you can still have a “live to work” sort of life. It was an extremely challenging process to find the balance between having means to survive but also expending my efforts into something that fulfilled me. I’m in a much better place now but still working on it. If there’s one thing that I learned from all these struggles is that you have to remain true to yourself and your interests. Your “life’s calling” can easily become your hell when you are not being honest with yourself and when you’re not the one in the drivers seat. Keep going! Everything that doesn’t work out is just a lesson to take into your next venture. Eventually you will find yourself around people you love and grow synonymously with. No matter what you pursue trust me when I say that’s the jackpot.

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?
This is such a hard question to answer because me and my best friend are such “go with the flow” types of people but I’ll try! The beach is a must: preferably every day lol. Somewhere in there we would mix in some time to skateboard, play tennis, or just lounge out at a park. We’d definitely go over to Laggniappe to check out some live music and have a couple of snacks and drinks. I actually love cooking and my best friends do as well so we’d probably rotate a couple nights of the week to barbecue or search up whatever recipes we might be interested in trying out.

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?
I’d like to dedicate this to God for giving me the opportunity to serve and grow each and every day.

As far as a book, “The Music Lesson” by Victor Wooten served as a reassurance in breaking the mold as far as rubric and rigid systems people say you have to follow in order to be successful. You yourself are an individual and you have the power to define your own process.

Instagram: @alexcoombs_