The Name
First, for those of you who may not know, I'll explain the name. "Bubbafong" is a name endeared to me by the artistic & creative Jamie Naqvi (Rick's wife) back sometime in 1997. (Until then, and since in certain circles, I was/am known as Brian Smith.) Forty Day Fast had just finished playing a gig at Parkview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge and were meeting at a local restaurant to eat & hang. When I got there, after most had been there for a few minutes, it was explained to me that somehow I'd come up in conversation, and Jamie, being the creative mind she is stated that I appeared as though a mixture of Asian and redneck, so she named me bubbafong. Well needless to say, it stuck, and now I'd say about 2/3 of people that I'm regularly in contact with refer to me as "bubbafong" or the abbreviated "fong".
In fact, funny story…
I was recently playing one Sunday morning at a church where I play a good bit, and the pastor invited the musicians up to take communion before playing while the rest of the congregation came forward. When he handed the elements to me he said, "bubbafong, the body and the blood…". He knows my real name, but is so used to calling me bubbafong that it just came out. It didn't bother me at all…in fact it kind of felt more normal than I would've imagined. But regardless I guess that should leave little doubt as to it being part of my identity.
Starting Out
Growing up - I was born in Baton Rouge, LA, and have resided here most of my life. I was the 3rd of 4 boys to my wonderful, Christian parents. From a very early age, or actually as far back as I can remember, I was taught of Christ as the Way, Truth and Life. I was dragged to church every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night, whether or not I wanted to go. Although there were times when I didn't want to go, and times when I gave my Sunday School teachers a lot of trouble, the foundation was laid at a very early age to know what was right and to know truth. That truth I accepted as my own during Vacation Bible School one summer, although my knowledge of what it really meant was limited by my age and short list of life experiences. My teenage years were filled with youthful insincerities in many areas, including school and anything spiritual. I wasn't the poster child for a rebel teenager, but I didn't take much seriously, including any relationship with the God of the universe. During my upper high school years, mostly because of examples shown to me by certain people in my life, I made the commitment to take more seriously what I'd claimed since childhood, my Christian faith. Not to say I've been perfect since then…far, far, far from it. There are areas in my life I struggle with on a daily basis to give over to God. However, I have learned that God is completely faithful, even when I am not, and that He loves us no matter what happens.
Music
I grew up around music all of my life. My parents met in college where they were both majoring in music. My father has been a Southern Baptist Music Minister for my entire life, and his father was a Methodist Music Minister and music professor at what is now the University of Louisiana, Monroe. As a young kid I was forced to take piano lessons as were my 3 brothers, but I hated it because I only wanted to play drums. One of my many regrets is that I didn't learn more piano when I had the chance, but at the time I wasn't thinking of how nice it would be to know some piano 15 years down the road.
My main musical love has always been drums. Don't know why or what happened to me as a kid, but I always loved to bang on things. I've been told that I ruined quite a few of my mom's pots and pans that way, but since I don't remember that, I firmly deny it ever happened. Just like I deny that I would pull off pieces of the plastic ring around my diapers and leave trails around stores as my parents shopped, to the point where relatives or friends could and would notice and come find my parents. Don't remember that at all, so it couldn't have happened.
Anyway, back to the music… So I played drums in various bands growing up, although it wasn't until my early college years, when I joined up with some guys and formed a Christian band called Forty Day Fast that I took drumming seriously. I mean I was a pretty decent player, but I'd long given up on the idea of being a rockstar drummer, and drumming had become something to do just for fun. Forty Day Fast forced 2 things to happen. First, it forced me to take my playing more seriously because of the caliber of players that were in the band. Second, it forced me to see a whole new world of opportunities for a Christian drummer. No longer did being a successful drummer mean that I had to make a bunch of money and play in front of crowds of thousands of people every night. All of a sudden drums were more than just something to do for fun; they were something that God had gifted me with, something that I could use to honor Him, while having fun in the process.
At some point, I guess probably upper high school, I felt the need to branch out a little musically, and I started messing around with guitar. I'm not what one would call a "guitarist", nor am I someone that anybody would ask to join a band to play guitar, but it has opened up doors for me to play and lead in churches and to write some original music. Just don't ask me to solo.
If I think of anything else worth mentioning I'll add it later. Or if you have any questions, feel free to ask me and I'll either give you a good honest answer or make up something that sounds really cool.