During COVID all the cruise ships shut down and I found myself not being able to get my next contract lined up with my band. At the same time, all the local bars/clubs had shut down so doing any gigs was out of the question so I looked for a way to play music with people online. During that same time, Rust released the Music DLC Pack and it became the perfect way to practice drums and piano in a video game on the internet with an audience of hundreds of people!

I started by going on UKN lobby sometimes and playing piano for the angry pvpers, helping them wind down after taking massive Ls, but there are certain limitations there like getting disconnected after like 15 minutes of not moving around and the toxic voice chat that makes it hard to focus. But then I discovered other servers like Rust Reborn, Rustoria RTG and Tommyguns Frag or other server lobbies that were more fun to play in and had band setups.

I took a bit of time off of Rust music and went back to regular gameplay during the PVP update and about 6 months later I decided I was upset with the PVP update and wasnt really going to be playing Rust all that seriously anymore. I decided to get back to practicing piano in Rust making the game work for me and having my own fun instead of quitting.

One day I just ran to the Outpost on Rusty Moose and met a fellow musician there who appreciated my music and had a good jam session together. He played some MIDI files on the piano and I played real drums along with him and we actually got a crowd going and I found myself completely kitted out with coffecan and Tommy and enough scrap for a minicopter, all from playing music for a few hours. It was then that I started hanging out in the Outpost more and use it as a place to meet other players and entertain some gamers as they passed through.

I started making tons of friends and getting to know players wipe after wipe, going from Moose Main to Moose Monday, being one of the first people to Outpost on wipe and trading with other players, helping people out and skinning peoples items from my massive collection, and in general I became a person people knew and trusted, and word got around fast.

People would give me M249s to skin for them and traded with me without using the trading window and Outpost became home. I developed an entire meta of being able to make thousands of scrap a day there, wheeling and dealing and just goofing around. It was during this time that I started recording Rust music footage and making YouTube content and decided to start getting into making Rust music videos, and the rest is history.

You can check my YouTube channel showing my Rust music content here: DrummerJacob YT