…so I’ll spare you the long winded details, and just give you a brief overview of who I am. I grew up in the small town of Poteau, Oklahoma. I had a pretty rough start with music. I actually hated it. Growing up in the Midwest, most of what I was exposed to while I was top 10 country and pop, and that wasn’t really my thing. I found metal and post-hardcore as a preteen and finally fell in love with music when I discovered Linkin Park. My parents bought me a Hamer Slammer strat copy for Christmas when I was 13. My two neighbors, who were around my age played bass and drums, so naturally, we jammed quite a bit. I started a YouTube channel where I would post guitar, bass, and vocal covers under the channel name fenris0041. I also began experimenting with recording music. I gained a decent following, peaking at around 950 subscribers by the time I decided to stop posting videos.
After high school I went to college and studied music theory, and also took voice and piano lessons. While I was studying I played guitar in the pep band and got a full scholarship. There was a student led church on campus as well where I played in the worship band. I have also played in many other worship bands around Poteau, usually filling in for one off events.
I finished college, got married, and joined my first serious band, The Othello Syndrome (or Othello as it was called at that time). When I joined the band I played bass, but switched over to guitar a few months after joining. We played nearly every local metal show there was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. We did a small tour together through Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Missouri. We were even able to get on a show at a mansion in Malvern Arkansas opening for Beartooth and My Ticket Home. They are currently still going strong as I write this.
After a couple years of being in the band I decided it was time for me to move on. I moved to Oklahoma City with my wife. While I was there a recorded and produced a few albums for local bands and artists as well as started a project that I called Morning Sun. I intended to write instrumental music and eventually form a band, but could never get it off the ground, despite working with people whom I consider to be world class musicians. The busy nature of the city started to affect me negatively, and so my family and I decided to move back near my hometown. Shady Point is a very small community just minutes away from Poteau, and it is a very peaceful, and quiet place. Which is exactly what I need at this point in my life, especially after the birth of my son.
When I first moved back, COVID-19 was in full swing and the shutdowns were strict, so finding a place to work was difficult. A few months into searching for a job, a friend contacted me about a job as a line cook in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I love cooking, and was eager to take a break from management, so I accepted. After working there for a while, we hired another line cook named Stephon. While I was training Stephon we began to talk about our hobbies and I mentioned that I had just started making guitar pedals, but was struggling with creating the graphics. Coincidentally Stephon went to college for graphic design and was familiar with the software that we would use to create the designs. We decided to collaborate on a few projects that were clones of popular pedals. We tried to focus on pedals that are interesting, but very hard to obtain. These pedals filled a gap in the market by providing musicians with an identical circuit to the pedal they have been chasing, but with custom graphics and at an affordable price. We quickly realized that we were on to something and wanted to start creating original pedals. We decided to form our own company and see if we could pursue our passion while creating tools that help musicians realize their vision.
So that’s where I am currently. Seventeen years into my guitar playing journey, four years of music theory education, and nearing one year of pedal design and production. I can’t wait to see what we’re able to accomplish, and even more so excited to see what all of you create with our products.
-Tristan Alexander