Origin Story: The Truth Behind the Tunes

by Bethany Stobbe

Written December 4th, 2019
Updated September 2024

As with all big dreams and ideas, there are often twists and turns on the way and it’s hardly ever a straight line to the end. Many things had to come together to prepare us for the journey we were about to embark on when we decided to make music. We probably wouldn’t have been ready to take on such a challenge if we had not gone through all these twists and turns. Here’s our Origin Story.

Back to the Beginning

Let’s go back a few years on the story train, shall we? Trevor had been playing guitar for a few years in his high school band along with Wade on the bass. After he graduated, the opportunity arose to submit a song in a contest for a scholarship to Musicians Institute. He needed to place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd to receive the scholarship. He told himself that he knew that he was meant to do music for a living if he won. So he wrote an entire song and shot a music video for it. He got a lot of traction for it, but sadly, he placed 4th place. Trevor was crushed. He felt so defeated that he put playing guitar and writing music on the back burner for a few years, believing that he wasn’t meant to do it. 

(Read: Trevor’s Musical Journey – The highs AND the lows)

It wasn’t until about 2 or 3 years later that Trevor’s love for guitar got reignited one night. He and Wade had been hanging out playing video games, as they often did. Jokingly they said to each other “we should jam again”. They went to the garage, plugged in, and stumbled their way through all the old songs they could remember playing. “I remembered how much I loved playing and I instantly fell in love with my guitar all over again. So I decided to give music another shot from that night forward.” Trevor said. They continued to play together, sipping on a good whisky, every opportunity they got.

Where Bethany came in

When Trevor and I met in 2013, one of the main things we bonded over was our love for music. I had loved singing in the past and was in Choir every year of school. But I had never been confident in my solo singing and was terrified of anyone hearing me sing. No one really knew me as a “singer” because I never let anyone see that side of me. 

(Read: About Bethany: What’s Shaped my Musical Life)

After a few years of being together, Trevor said to me “hey you should join us jamming some time. It’ll be fun, just come and jump around”. I was really hesitant at first, but eventually, I conceded and joined them. I’m so glad that I did join that first jam sesh, because it ignited in me a new love for singing. A love I had as a child but had put away, much like Trevor. From then on, I sang with them every chance I got. 

The Day that Changed Everything

Trevor & I’s faith is very important to us. It is the driving force for what we do. It’s what’s gotten us through a lot of hard stuff and is also what has brought us to where we are today. Needless to say, we can’t explain the whole picture or how we got here without talking about it.

I so clearly remember the day we knew we had to write music. We had been struggling to make a small business we had started work (Read: Failure to Success: Behind the Inspiration for BLOOM Album cover). So we decided to take a step back and spend a day just praying and trying to hear what God wanted us to do. In a quiet moment, I closed my eyes and asked God to show me what he wanted me to do. An image of stepping onto a stage with a mic in my hand popped into my head. I opened my eyes, shook off some disbelief, and said “okay God, for real, show me what you want me to do”. I closed my eyes and again, the same image popped into my mind. It was like a smack-in-the-face sign and I couldn’t deny it.

Trevor had always had an unshakable feeling that he should be making music despite the aforementioned situation. He’d even had random strangers tell him that he will be playing music for thousands of people one day. When I told him “I really think we should be doing something with music” and explained what I saw, it was a turning point in our lives. 

Actually Starting the Band

We had talked about starting a band in the past. We had even brainstormed some silly names that we could use. But we never really took it seriously – or more accurately, we were afraid to take it seriously – because of what had happened in the past. You hear all the anti-success stories and of course, truth be told, it’s a hard business. But when we felt this overwhelming call to make music, we could no longer ignore it. 

Just to be sure we weren’t going crazy, we asked a few trusted people if they thought we should be doing something with music. A big resounding YES came from everyone we asked. We took that as another sign that it was time and we dove headfirst in. We asked Wade if he wanted to join us on this crazy new journey and without hesitation, he agreed.

(Read: Wade’s Story: Discovering The Bass)

Just one Thing…

We had previously purchased an extensive business course for our last endeavor that didn’t work out. So we were reluctant to invest even more money in something completely new and different. The entrepreneur struggle. Luckily, we were able to return it and get a full refund. Coincidentally enough – except I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all – the money that we got refunded was exactly the cost of the equipment we needed to buy to record and produce our music. On that day, we realized that we were denying what we were so clearly supposed to do if we weren’t making music. We just felt like we had to. 

Within a few months, we released our first song, My Affliction, followed by another single the following month, and our first album, BLOOM, in the fall of 2020.

In the End

We may have gone through some setbacks and struggles but I can honestly say that I don’t think we would have been ready to write music and put our all into it if we hadn’t. Had our first business not failed and we not spent time doing other things before coming to music, I don’t think we would have the dedication and commitment to pursue music. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and our everything led us to make music. We may not know how it will end, but it’s far less about the destination; it’s a journey.

You can read how we decided to name the band HERE: