Local country artist Troy Alan Thrash is set to release his debut EP in March of this year, which features country music that lyrically centers on Thrash’s faith, his family, and his friends. Credit: Courtesy of Troy Alan Thrash

After a seven-and-a-half year stint in nursing at Wexner Medical Center, local country artist Troy Alan Thrash left his nursing career in pursuit of his dream of becoming a professional musician.

Thrash started chasing his music career full-time in October. Since then, he has released his first single, “Edge of the World,” and recorded his first six-track EP, which is tentatively set to be released in March.

Thrash comes from a solo singer-songwriter background, having written and recorded some songs infrequently during the past decade –– all while working as a nurse and raising three daughters. Since becoming a full-time musician,Thrash has chosen to move away from stripped-down solo work, and hit the recording studio to make country music with a bigger sound and better production.

“The recording process has been really cool,” Thrash said. “It’s cool because I get to analyze myself in the studio and [I can] see if I’m pushing the right message in the songs and if the music feels right for me and for our brand and for our fans and the people who follow what we’re doing.”

At the core of Thrash’s music is his message, he said. Lyrically, his music centers on the major themes that his life revolves around, which are family, faith and friends.

“Those are my three F’s I guess,” Thrash said. “That’s pretty much everything that my life revolves around, and I want my music to match who I am, and not portray something that I’m not.”

Speaking of family, a big supporter of Thrash’s music and his decision to pursue it full-time has been his wife, Amber Thrash, a registered nurse at Wexner Medical Center whom Thrash met while working there.

“My wife is the bomb, she’s amazing,” Thrash said. “She’s always known my dream for music and she totally supports it. At the end of October I was like, ‘I can’t do this, I can’t do this anymore.’I was working, like, nine-hour days or whatever and [raising a family] … I was like, ‘I really want to focus on [music],’ and she totally supported.”

In addition to an EP scheduled to be released in March, Thrash is working on a full-length album, and has a set of tour dates booked through the year and into 2019 — including a Columbus show March 1 at Brew Dogs.

“Our biggest thing is to just get our stuff out there,” Thrash said. “You’ve honestly got to chase what you feel like you’re here for because we’ve got a limited time down here.”