Music Up Hood Down
Music is one of those things that brings people together—no matter where you come from.
Hey, I’m Jonny. Welcome to my corner of the site: Music Up Hood Down. I’ve been hooked on music for as long as I can remember. I got my first CD player after winning a challenge at church—but I didn’t even have a CD to play in it. A few weeks later, my brother and I convinced our mom to get us Happy Meals from McDonald's, back when they were giving out CDs. The one we got? Tina Turner – What’s Love Got to Do With It.
I played that thing nonstop. Read every lyric, studied the sleeve—everything. Up until then, music was just whatever my parents had on: mostly worship and country, with some old rock mixed in. That CD was the first time it felt like mine.
From there, it snowballed. Radio stations, music videos, and eventually Total Request Live on MTV. Then one day I found a scratched copy of Enema of the State by Blink-182 in a gutter. Took it home—most of it actually played. That sealed the deal.
Not long after, I saved up some money and walked into my local shop, Bionic Records. I could only afford cassette tapes, but I walked out with:
Nevermind – Nirvana
Social Distortion
AFI
I wore those tapes out. By then I had a used Walkman, so music came with me everywhere—skating, walking, whatever. Eventually I got a job that actually made money and started collecting everything: vinyl, tapes, CDs, demos… you name it. At one point, I even turned my bedroom into a mini record store. My dad wasn’t thrilled… but people were actually coming over to buy music.
Music had always been around growing up, my mom played guitar and piano, and we learned a few instruments—but it didn’t really click for me until I found it on my own. That’s when I picked up the drums and it stuck. I played in a few bands over the years, including The Shenanigans, The L-10 Project, and The Belts. We played all over Orange County, skate shops, backyards, clubs, wherever we could. With The L-10 Project, we even played two dates on Warped Tour. It wasn’t glamorous… but we did it.
Eventually life shifted. I moved to Pittsburgh, got married, had kids—and music took a back seat for a while (for all the right reasons). Now things are settling down, and music is finding its way back to the front. These days I’m a husband, father, welder, fabricator, and metal artist. My taste has evolved, but music is still part of everything I do. I still play drums (a 5-piece Ludwig kit), still collect records, and now I’ve got access to just about anything through Spotify, YouTube, and more.
There’s always music playing… whether I’m in the shop, in the office, or even in the shower (we put a Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom, so yeah… every shower’s a concert). And now I get to share that with my kids while they start discovering their own tastes.
So here’s where Music Up Hood Down comes in. It started as a simple sticker idea, something that really represents how I work: hood down, music up. Welding has become a huge part of who I am, and combining that with music just made sense. As I started paying attention, I realized something: a lot of welders are musicians. So I started making a list. That list turned into a playlist.
The Music Up Hood Down Playlist on Spotify is exactly that—a collection of music made by people in the welding industry. Not songs about welding. Not random tracks. These are actual welders who make music.
There are plenty of playlists about welding—but this one is about welders. That’s the gap I saw, and this is my way of filling it.
Welcome to the playlist. 🔥
