Spencer Bailey

So I actually, I'm left-handed and I set up a right-handed kit and I taught myself how to play drums left-handed on a right-handed kit, which is called open hand.

There's a few drummers who do this, but it's rare.

And finally, by the time I'm like meeting with a drum teacher after a year, he's like, Oh, you play open hand.

That's cool.

And, and yeah,

For me, that was this sort of realization of, wow, I'm doing something my own way and kind of carving my own creative journey and path.

Fast forward to high school, I was still playing drums, and that continued to be a part of my journey and still is to a certain extent.

But it was actually poetry, writing, literature.

I kind of just fell in love with storytelling period.

And that, interestingly enough, only full circle later did I realize that in becoming a storyteller, I was able to take my story back.

Yeah.

Your twin brother, your identical twin brother, was not on the plane with you.

But your older brother, Brandon, was two and a half years older than you.

He was.

You said that your brother Brandon's recovery was physically much longer and more difficult than yours.

Yet he later became a Division I athlete.

What did watching his resilience teach you about survival?

I mean, it was everything.

He was my model in a way, kind of like a second parent figure, the way older siblings sometimes can be.

But in our sense, I think it was even more extreme because we had a dad who did his damnedest, tried his best, but he lost his wife at age 36.