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Travis Michael Anderson grew up in Yakima, WA more than 2 hours from Seattle. A classical brass player, Travis moved to the Bellevue WA area and applied to Tower Records Bellevue. He was turned down because he didn’t have enough retail experience. For the same reason he was turned down at Barnes & Noble and ended up working for Wherehouse Records. After dealing with Wherehouse's bankruptcy horrors and now having experience under his belt, he was hired at Barnes & Noble in Bellevue to work in their music department.
A move to Austin TX with his partner who was going to graduate school led to Travis applying to Tower Records. He washired almost immediately. Travis was a Night Supervisor and eventually the Classical Buyer among several other sections. Moving back to Seattle, a transfer was worked out and Travis spent the next several years at both Tower locations in Queen Anne.
During our conversation Travis touches on the work cultures of Tower, Wherehouse and Barnes & Noble, the differences between the Austin and Seattle stores and music scenes, building the first Tower Records pop up store at Seattle’s fabled Bumbershoot Festival and working with a group of Tower All Stars at the inaugural Bonnaroo Music festival.
