Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Thornton
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
From a very young age, I have always been interested in all creative arts. Whether it is movies, songs, or even dancing, I love them all. I remember when I was probably in the first or second grade, I used to put on a “show” of myself as Michael Jackson, where I sprinkled baby powder on the floor and put on socks so I could do the moonwalk for whoever was around the house, or even nobody. It was fun, haha….
Having been raised in Indonesia, I experienced different perspectives between Asian culture and Western culture. My first passion was movies. I had a tower-high collection of Betamax cassettes back then and a huge, never-ending collection of DVDs. I love how movies can affect our emotions and entertain us at the same time. Going to the movies was and still is my favorite thing to do.
Around third or fourth grade, I wrote short stories based on arcade games. I sold these stories to my friends at school and then used the money to play more arcade games. I guess that was the first journey of my interest in creative pursuits.
After high school, my loving parents agreed to have me go to college in Los Angeles. Hollywood had always been a dream of mine, and I was so grateful and lucky to have it became a reality.
While I didn’t major in film, I still made time to write short stories for fun and made a few no-budget short movies with my friends. During that time, I also had the opportunity to write articles for The Jakarta Post and Rolling Stones Indonesia on concerts and interviews with artists such as Nicole Scherzinger from the group Pussycat Dolls. More on my “journalistic” venture later..
After college, I started to have an interest in electronic music. My friends told me that I had good taste in the songs on my playlist, and perhaps I should become a DJ. I immediately went to learn the craft, using free software. Soon I was confident enough to DJ at my friends’ small parties.
After a year or two dabbling in DJing, I was really lucky to met a promoter at Avalon in Hollywood who gave me an opportunity to perform on their small side stage without pay. I didn’t think twice to accept the offer, and played the different stages at the club for about two years until I finally made it to perform on the Main Stage.
Since then, several promoters, including from Insomniac, also invited me to perform on the main stage of Create, which is now called Academy LA. I still perform there once every several months. The pandemic was a hard time for everyone, full of boredom and pent-up emotions and emptiness, so I decided to fill my time with something useful.
During the lockdown, I taught myself keyboard and music production – things I had always wanted to do but never really had the patience for. I then decided to produce songs and release them, since this is much easier to do myself than making a movie, which would need a lot of people as a team.
This past year, I also had the amazing opportunity to write coverage on concerts and events for Frank151, a media company based in New York. The events are mostly for electronic music events, and I am one of their main correspondents for the West Coast for these types of events.
This experience, which I am still doing, has been really exciting and pretty fulfilling, because I still get to do my first passion, which is writing. And covering music events, which I already love going to, is definitely a plus.
There are still very many things to learn about all of my creative interests, and I am really grateful and proud that the dreams I wanted, which I always thought impossible, have become a nice reality.
Ps: On September 7th, I will be DJing at a benefit event at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. If you live in the area, come by and check us out! The theme is Disco, so let’s get groovy! Hope to see you there!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Thankfully, for the most part it has been pretty smooth. But of course, as with any dreams and aspirations, I feel there would be obstacles. There have been people, even friends, who didn’t take me seriously or even laughed when I told them my far-fetched goals.
But this actually motivated me even more. I never let rejection, embarrassment or even the fear of them stop me from doing what I enjoy and am passionate about.
The dreams I had before, like DJing the main stage at famous clubs or having my own songs released on streaming services, may have been literally just my wish or hope, so when I finally got to that place, I often wondered how it happened. I never had step-by-step plans for any of this; it just came to be. I feel that consistency, loving the process, and not being afraid to do take action are some of the key ingredients to achieving what you want, however long it will take.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
DJ, Music Producer, Songwriter, Writer, Music Journalist, Artist
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I guess people who don’t know me personally wonder why I chose “E B T” as my artist name. Most of them think it’s a sarcastic play on those banners and signs in front of restaurants and shops, meaning “We take food stamps”. And when I tell them that the name is actually my real initials, some of them have their mind mildly blown.. Hahaha..
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/ericbthornton
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbthornton/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ebtlive/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ericbt?si=rSNOPH1NgtcPnEw3
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ebtmusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/48ZHuj1XX0AOo7wDFdCdiI?si=66LFlT7kRwyNaF5nnc9JUQ
