Throughout Austin, there are an innumerable amount of musicians, ranging from indie to bluegrass with every genre you can think of. One of the many hip-hop musicians in Austin is Thomas Chapman, also known as Smackola, who has created many projects throughout his career.
Chapman has a long history of being involved with music, as he has written poetry and rapped since the third grade. Eventually, he moved to Austin from California in the early 2000s to create rap and rock music, as well as DJ across the city. He created his band, the Dirty Wormz, in 2001, a hip-hop-infused rock band. Dirty Wormz is a hip-hop-infused group that also consists of the members Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko.
“I started off young as a DJ, and then I was a rapper,” Chapman said. “The rapping was taking off more, so I went with the rapping because it was stronger, and I put the DJing to the side. Then I had the Dirty Wormz, and that took off.”
Later, Chapman would decide to return to DJ’ing and become a stronger solo artist. This allowed him to explore outside of his band and reconnect with his roots.
“It gave me another life outside of just being the guy from the band Dirty Wormz,” Chapman said. “The Dirty Wormz are great, but there was so much more I could do.”
Chapman said being a part of a band is both difficult and enjoyable as many people struggle to find their place and the motivation to continue their work. He also stated that motivation largely determines the outcome and reward within the music industry.
“My hustle was different, so people weren’t really hustling like that. I think that because I was doing that, my work ethic was just different, I was just more like ‘let’s get it done today,’” Chapman said. “If someone is like ‘hey, we have a show next Saturday’, in the next two hours I’m going to have a flyer and everything already ready to go.”
Chapman described some differences between the music scene he knew and the music scene he is witnessing now. According to him, the experience of supporting local bands has been reworked and has become less involved for the community.
“Well when I was out here, it was more about buying tickets to go see a band you liked or your friends invited you out,” Chapman said. “This was before social media, and streaming so you had to go see it. You might have seen a clip back then, but you would still have to actually go see it, now everyone is streaming online so you may have already seen the whole show.”
“It gave me another life outside of just being the guy from the band Dirty Wormz. The Dirty Wormz are great, but there was so much more I could do.”
– Thomas Chapman, AKA Smackola
Chapman mentioned that social media and short-form videos have greatly changed how bands create their music and content. Now, there are many areas of the creative process and songs that matter more, like a chorus that sticks, and others that matter less, like the verses of the song.
“I think it makes it a bit harder for people to commit to what they’re doing in the scene. Because of how easily forgettable content online is,” Chapman said. “With the new age of media as well, it makes it harder for people to tell who you really are from your music, because of editing and small clips, instead of fully paying attention to the song.”
Chapman shared how he used to sell merch at all of his shows and that he plans to make an album that is only available on vinyl. He stated that he believes in fully supporting a band rather than listening to their music through streaming. According to him, buying physical copies makes the music more meaningful.
“I want them to have a good time with my work. I want them to enjoy the journey of it,” Chapman said. “They’ve seen it when they were young, and now they can see it all grown up. That’s what I like the most, I’ll run into people all the time, and they will mention how they saw me when they were in high school, and that I inspired them to make a band. That’s what’s most important to me, is that they were inspired to make their own work.”
Chapman thinks that if you want to be involved with music, then you just need to go ahead and start. Especially since the influx of musicians and artists in Austin makes it intimidating to want to join the local scene.
“I think if you’re a musician at heart and that’s what you want to do then you should do it.” Chapman said. “Because, you know, it’s fun, right?”
Chapman plans on continuing to do shows with Dirty Wormz. He is also working on a comic show called “The Vinyl Vendetta.” These works can be found online through Facebook, or Instagram. Every Thursday in Kyle, he DJs at the Railhouse, and every Friday, he DJs at Third Base in Round Rock.
