Okie from Muskogee
Musician Trent Scoggins hits the right notes with hobbies
Musician and stargazer Trent Scoggins often works from his house studio well into the night.
“I stay up pretty late,” he said. “There are a lot of distractions in the day when you're trying to be creative, like kids.”
Around 3 or 4 a.m., Scoggins might look through his telescope for an escape.
“If there's anything else I could do for a living, it would be astronomy,” he said.
Scoggins said he's loved music and astronomy since he was a youth. He lives in the same house, in the hills west of Muskogee, where he grew up.
He recalled that he or his brother had a telescope when he was 8 or 9.
Scoggins said his brother also was a young musician.
“As soon as my brother started playing snare drum and bells, I knew I wanted to play an instrument,” Scoggins said.
He played saxophone in Cherokee Elementary School's band class. He started playing
bass guitar, his main instrument, at 14.
Scoggins said he worked for different construction jobs before going full-time into music in 2013. He played bass with a three-piece rock band, hUGg, which had gigs in Tulsa and Joplin. He said they played entirely original music.
“I learned from the other guys in the band there are other ways to do things; I don't have to be so learned,” he said. “I can `unlearn' a lot of things, keep them as something to build off of instead of as something that's absolute.”
He went solo under the name Swollen Lord about two years ago. Scoggins worked through Ditto Music to get his music played on Instagram, YouTube, Pandora and other formats. He recently signed a development and distribution deal with Bentley Records.
“Now that I have a label doing that for me, hopefully I can get someone to listen to me,” he said.
Steps to make music
Scoggins learned to record and mix music through his band.
“We needed get our music out there, but it's expensive to go to a studio and have somebody else do it,” he said.
He makes some of his music from a home studio. One wall is lined with moving van blankets and panels, foam “egg crates” hang on other walls.
He also has a larger studio, Donkey Mountain Studio.
When mixing music, Scoggins said he begins with a basic beat, then add bass or guitar, which dictates which way the song goes. Bass would add funk while guitar would be more rock. Keyboard or guitar adds another layer, he said.
“Most of my music is going to be instrumentals, because I don't sing,” he said. “It's hard to get someone to sing my song for me, so I do them as instrumentals. I add the lead part, like the melody, with guitar or keyboard.”
Finding fossils fun for family
Scoggins says he and his family found many fossils and possible prehistoric artifacts around their rural home.
Scoggins said his children search creeks for relics as part of their homeschooling.
“There's tons of them there,” he said.
He said he even found some in his driveway recently.
“I don't know if it's the amount of rain we've had or the size of the puddle we have in our driveway,” he said. “We just kind of pulled them out.”
Here's what Scoggins had to say about Muskogee
How did you come to be an “Okie from Muskogee?
“I was born here. My parents lived here. My dad had a welding business for a good part of me growing up. I worked for him for some time. Both my parents always supported my music. I've moved other places, but I'm comfortable here.”
What do you like best about Muskogee?
“Lately it's been the amount of fossils I can find. It's where I met my wife, and I have a lot of friends here.”
What person in Muskogee do you admire most?
“My dad. He passed away in 2014. I admired his work ethic and the reason he did it, for us.”
What is the most memorable thing to happen to you in Muskogee?
“When I got to meet my wife. We had been talking for about four months, messaging and getting to know each other, but never seeing each other. I was friends with her brother because of the band I was in. I got to go over to her house for dinner with the band.”