The YouTube Metalhead

Rob playing his own signature Chapman guitar

Rob Scallon is a name that might sound familiar to you. That’s because he is a famous YouTuber, not only because of his personality, but also because of his amazing talent on the guitar. Rob Scallon is a multi-instrumentalist that lives in Chicago and has over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. He grew up in the Chicago suburbs and went to Arlington Heights High School where he played as a drummer for a death-metal band named Gas Mask Catalogue. Prior to this, he realized the potential of the internet and how it could help him in his musical journey. He created his YouTube account in 2007 and, although it was a slow process, he gained popularity through the years. Initially, he held random jobs to pay for this venture, but he eventually quit them to play for other YouTubers, such as Weezy Waiter. Currently, the only time he plays live is when he plays for Hank Green & the Perfect Strangers; the majority of his music is now on just on YouTube.

Rob and his signature
8-string Chapman

Rob is one of the most creative musicians I have ever seen. Now, metal is not my favorite genre, but the personality that Rob brings to his video performances captivates me. So, I continue to watch more and more. Personality is key to the creative process, and according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s “The Creative Personality,” Rob Scallon has the perfect creative character. The first of the ten dimensions of complexity is that of having a great deal of physical energy but being quiet and at rest the majority of the time. In an interview with Leor Galil, Rob is described as being gentle and affable when he is not thrashing about while playing music. The second dimension describes being smart and naïve at the same time. Rob constantly displays this trait in his videos. Anyone can tell that he is a master at the guitar and drums, but he constantly puts himself in situations where he plays an instrument that he has very little experience with. For example, he challenges himself to play other instruments such as the berimbau, Shahi Baaja, and even a shovel!

            It is hard to put into words the magnitude of Rob’s creativity. Many of his videos are off the wall, weird things that no one has done before. For example, he posts many videos that he calls “Challenge Videos.” These consist of Rob writing songs with a specific obstacle he needs to overcome. Some of these challenges include forcing himself to play a note on every note of a guitar in the duration of a song or writing a song with a capo on the 14^th fret. Other videos involve him playing a song and singing what sounds to be gibberish. He then reverses the video and it sounds as if he was singing normally. In addition to these entertaining videos, Rob writes his own music. Most of his music is either metal (no surprise) or folk and all of it will leave you breathless. My personal favorite is Rain. He put up a video of himself playing this song in 2011. The video is simple - he is just sitting on his amp in an empty parking lot as the camera pans left and right - but it is breath taking. Rob uses an extreme amount of reverb to create swells of sounds and emotion that pour out in a beautiful rhythm as he picks at the strings. Another one of my favorite songs is Anchor. This is the first song Rob wrote on an 8-string guitar and it has stuck with me and many other fans for years after.

Rob playing the banjo

            I think we can all take a lesson in creativity from Rob Scallon. Just like Rob stretches the limits of music, I challenge you to test your passion to the limits and see the immensity of your own creativity. 

Sources:

https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/rob-scallon-guitar-youtube-metal-scene-is-dead-slayer/Content?oid=26027285

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CScFO0bfGRU