Many of us go through life thinking we want to pursue a certain job or career path, and often times we find out we made the wrong decision. However, as long as you have something else you’re passionate about, and have the right support system around you, a hobby or passion can become a successful career. Nothing is more rewarding than that. This is the case for Aden Forte and Josh Soon, better known as Australian producer/DJ duo, Feenixpawl.
For Aden and Josh, music was not on the radar growing up in Melbourne. Aden wanted to become a professional athlete, and other than Ed Helms’ character in “The Hangover,” Josh might be one of the few people you meet who legitimately wanted to be a dentist growing up.
Josh: “When I was really young I just wanted to be Batman, which is still a possibility I suppose. When I got a bit older, as I was growing up in a family full of dentists, all I wanted to be was a Dentist. Which I’m sure pretty much no kid has ever said. Music was always a passion, but it was more of a hobby. To be honest, I didn’t really see it as a career, but I’m extremely glad it turned out this way!”
Aden: “All I wanted to do was play sports professionally, but as I grew older, I realized I wanted to have a job that I loved doing. I never wanted to be stuck in a dead end job that I dreaded going to every day. That’s how I got into music. I loved making music so much that I would rather be poor and still producing music than rich and stuck doing something I hated.”
While both members of Feenixpawl are happy individuals, and clearly not without a sense of humor, they have both overcome their share of adversity. For both Josh and Aden, their fathers were not there to see them grow up and attain success. However, both of the guys took a negative and honed it into motivation to achieve the positive outcome they are currently enjoying.
Josh: “For me it was definitely when my father passed away, and to be honest music got me through it. It was late 2010, and I was devastated. We decided to take a little break, and we travelled over to Europe to really just escape from everything. Then during that trip was actually when we met Ivan Gough, and we talked music, and he really helped inspire me. Only a few months later ‘In My Mind’ was written and it changed our lives forever.”
Aden: “My greatest struggle involves my father as well. The divorce of my parents at 13 and then being abandoned by someone who was there my whole life was extremely hard to deal with. With very little money and nowhere to live, my mother, two brothers and I were forced to move in with my grandparents and often struggled to pay the bills. It was in this situation that I learned how important family is. When you have people in your life who support you no matter what, you feel like you can achieve anything.”
Watch Aspire to Inspire Live featuring Feenixpawl here:
