Empathy is often described as the ability to quot;put oneself in another's shoesquot;. If the shoes belonged to Jon Troast, they would be red. The 28 year old folk rock artist from Wisconsin wears a trusty pair of red Reeboks whenever he performs. Literally putting on someone else's shoes might not make a big difference, but metaphorically speaking, it could have a profound impact. That's called empathy. quot;I think empathy is one of the greatest attributes of a songwriter,quot; Jon says. quot;If my goal with music is to connect with people, then knowing where they're coming from makes the distance between us a lot shorter. Of course, you've also got to know what it's like to be in your own shoes, and be willing to reveal that too.quot; So what is it like to be in Jon's shoes...? quot;Well, I grew up in a family of nine with four adopted siblings. My dad was an optician (he sold eyeglasses), and my mom had a few different jobs depending on schedules and such. Coming from such a big, diverse family definitely helped me see things from a lot of different perspectivesquot;. When did the interest in music begin? quot;I guess I've always been a bit of a songwriter. Just about any phrase of conversation can come out of my mouth attached to a melody. Many times I don't even realize I'm doing it. quot;As far as formal training, I started taking piano lessons from my grandma when I was four or five. I did ok, but the passion didn't really kick in then. I guess it was probably too structured for me at the time or something. quot;When I was sixteen, I borrowed my brother's guitar a few times and I got hooked. I spent hours in my bedroom in the basement, learning songs from the radio and writing some pretty basic lyrics. I had a pretty limited amount of experience then, especially because I was so shy. I didn't have a lot of connections to draw from. Thankfully, playing music has helped me get over a lot of that.quot; When did you realize you wanted to do music full time? quot;Like a lot of kids, I dreamed of being a rock star. Of course, I dreamed about a lot of things that weren't necessarily within the realm of possibility. But as I got more and more involved in music, I realized there was potential to do it full time. I tried it, and didn't die of starvation, so I figured I could keep doing it.quot; What would you do if you weren't a musician? quot;Well, I would like to do as many jobs as possible, staying at each for a couple weeks. Where would that get me? Probably nowhere, but the life experience would be invaluable. Before I committed to this music thing, I hopped around a bit as a garbage man, substitute teacher, airport valet, window washer and a few other things. You learn so much about people and their lifestyles by working with them.quot; What's next? quot;I'm real excited about the recent release of my sixth project, Second Story. It's my first major release. I recorded it with producer Mitch Dane (Jars of Clay, Bebo Norman). I hope to hit the road and do quite a bit of touring, as well as getting some internet marketing and distribution going. Where will it lead? I don't quite know. I'll just keep putting one red shoe in front of the other until I find out.quot;
