Travis Montoya
Drums
Travis Montoya has always been around music his entire life. He first received a small toy drumset when he was only three years old. His father, Sparky, then taught him how to read music and play piano. After this music only became a hobby next to his other love of playing sports. When Travis got into middle school at the age of twelve did he begin to realize that he had a very special gift in music. He wanted so badly to play the trumpet, but due to circumstances at the tryouts the class was already full. It was then that his father brought up the fact that he had piano lessons in the past. He was signed up to take percussion, and begin the long journey of playing drums. Travis excelled instantly and soon became one of the top students in the class and going on to become section leader in the following years. During this time he began to take his knowledge from class and apply it to teaching himself to play the drum set as a hobby. His father had bought him an electronic drum set to practice on as well as a blonde Tama Rockstar that he still uses today with Voodoo Blue. Travis joined up with fellow students to create various different rock bands throughout middle school. In high school Travis decided to continue with percussion and join the drum line. He became a 4 year snare line member, and served 2 years as junior and senior drum captain. During this tenure he competed once as a solo snare player at the national PASIC drum convention and finished 15th overall. He was also in another band called Virginia Dare that enjoyed its fair share of successes around DFW. It was in this group that Travis really began to develop his drum set and band playing skills.
Throughout his high school Travis remembers seeing his father, Sparky, join and play with Voodoo Blue as the keyboardist, “I remember going to watch my dad play one time, and he told me that I have to come out and hear this guitarist. At the time I wasn’t too aware of Stevie’s music, but I remember going out and seeing Tommy Katona for the first time in my life and my jaw just hit the floor! He was incredible! All I could do was sit and stare.” Travis remembers also getting to practice his drum skills with Vooodoo Blue through the years by getting to sit in for a few songs at different shows, “I was pretty nervous and would really focus on what I was doing and probably messed up more over-thinking it.” When circumstances came about within Voodoo Blue a few years later Travis was asked to join in with the band he had watched for so many years in the summer of 2009. Since then he has seen transformations with the band all for good, “You know, sometimes when the three of us hang out it almost makes me think that that is what Stevie and Double Trouble were like, they just loved each other on and off the stage. The stage performances were only the tip of the iceberg of the fruits of their labor.”
Travis’ musical influences include Travis Barker, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, his father Sparky, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. “I can’t play a lick on the guitar to save my life, but Stevie is one of my biggest influences because he one of the few musicians I have seen that gave one-hundred-twenty percent one-hundred percent of the time.”
Travis Montoya has always been around music his entire life. He first received a small toy drumset when he was only three years old. His father, Sparky, then taught him how to read music and play piano. After this music only became a hobby next to his other love of playing sports. When Travis got into middle school at the age of twelve did he begin to realize that he had a very special gift in music. He wanted so badly to play the trumpet, but due to circumstances at the tryouts the class was already full. It was then that his father brought up the fact that he had piano lessons in the past. He was signed up to take percussion, and begin the long journey of playing drums. Travis excelled instantly and soon became one of the top students in the class and going on to become section leader in the following years. During this time he began to take his knowledge from class and apply it to teaching himself to play the drum set as a hobby. His father had bought him an electronic drum set to practice on as well as a blonde Tama Rockstar that he still uses today with Voodoo Blue. Travis joined up with fellow students to create various different rock bands throughout middle school. In high school Travis decided to continue with percussion and join the drum line. He became a 4 year snare line member, and served 2 years as junior and senior drum captain. During this tenure he competed once as a solo snare player at the national PASIC drum convention and finished 15th overall. He was also in another band called Virginia Dare that enjoyed its fair share of successes around DFW. It was in this group that Travis really began to develop his drum set and band playing skills.
Throughout his high school Travis remembers seeing his father, Sparky, join and play with Voodoo Blue as the keyboardist, “I remember going to watch my dad play one time, and he told me that I have to come out and hear this guitarist. At the time I wasn’t too aware of Stevie’s music, but I remember going out and seeing Tommy Katona for the first time in my life and my jaw just hit the floor! He was incredible! All I could do was sit and stare.” Travis remembers also getting to practice his drum skills with Vooodoo Blue through the years by getting to sit in for a few songs at different shows, “I was pretty nervous and would really focus on what I was doing and probably messed up more over-thinking it.” When circumstances came about within Voodoo Blue a few years later Travis was asked to join in with the band he had watched for so many years in the summer of 2009. Since then he has seen transformations with the band all for good, “You know, sometimes when the three of us hang out it almost makes me think that that is what Stevie and Double Trouble were like, they just loved each other on and off the stage. The stage performances were only the tip of the iceberg of the fruits of their labor.”
Travis’ musical influences include Travis Barker, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, his father Sparky, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. “I can’t play a lick on the guitar to save my life, but Stevie is one of my biggest influences because he one of the few musicians I have seen that gave one-hundred-twenty percent one-hundred percent of the time.”