MOSES LAKE — Local musician L.J. Polmateer said he’d just recently started to see his success build in his music career before the pandemic threw a wrench in the gears. Polmateer said before businesses closed their doors he had gigs scheduled for every weekend, but got to play just one of his scheduled gigs before the shutdown.

“I just started to gain traction, as far as my music career goes,” Polmateer said. “I had just released three or four singles, and those were my first ever songs that I’d released out online.”

Polmateer, who performs under the name “One Soulution,” said he’s had to cancel between seven and 10 gigs just in the last few months. Having just started to gain traction, he said, he’s now trying to regain it.

“I had momentum and it just killed the momentum,” Polmateer said. “Now I feel like I have to start back at square one again, when that is available, when that’s even a thing. I don’t know when we’ll be able to have live music again, have a crowd again, but hopefully it’s sometime soon.”

Polmateer said he’d just started getting calls from venues out of town to come play and calls from local bands to come and open for them. Now, he said, it’s difficult for restaurant or bar owners to justify bringing in bands or artists to play.

“They’re not really looking for people to come in and play for them because they’re not trying to pay musicians right now,” he said. “Also, with the capacity deal, that kind of throws a loop in the whole situation too.”

Polmateer said he started playing guitar around 13 and wrote his first song around the age of 20. Thirty-one now, he said he’s not sure why he recently decided to step up his pursuit of his music career.

“I don’t know why or how, I kicked it into high gear and started doing all the legwork, all the research, booking gigs, and putting in the effort to record my own music,” Polmateer said. “Just recently, I just released my first single back on, I think, January 1 of 2020.”

Polmateer said he comes from a somewhat musical family, with his mother playing guitar, piano and flute. Polmateer said he remembers growing up with his mother playing music, sitting down at the piano for an hour or two, once or twice a month.

It was around the age of 12 or 13 that Polmateer was introduced to his biggest influence as a musician, Bob Marley. He was immediately intrigued by both Marley’s music and the message of spreading peace, love, and unity, he said.

“I think that had a lot to do with it because of the message he was trying to say, kind of opened my eyes to how much is going on in the world, how much I wanted to write music in the hopes of making a change,” Polmateer said.

Marley’s and other reggae artists’ influence can be heard in Polmateer’s music, in both tone and message. He said the name “One Soulution” came from the idea that there is only one solution to the hatred and negativity in the world: love.

“All the bad stuff in the world has definitely influenced my music my whole life because I sing about good things, peace and love and unity,” he said. “Especially right now, it seems very prominent and important.”

Polmateer is currently working on a song that deals with the negativity and hate surrounding the protests and riots across the country, he said.

While he’s seen his slate of shows wiped away, Polmateer said the pandemic has given him time to spend with his family, something he hasn’t taken for granted.

“We have a new baby, he’s 7 months old, so it’s been nice to be with him every day, watch him grow up, be a part of that,” Polmateer said.

While it’d be nice to be able to travel around the Northwest and play gigs, Polmateer said, he still wants to have time to spend with his girlfriend, Jesse Marquis, raising his two children. He also has his regular job as an RV technician to keep him busy.

Polmateer said he doesn’t really care about “making it big” as an artist, only wanting to spread his message, and maybe a few smiles as well.

“For starters, here in the very near future, I just want to get back to playing live music and trying to spread that message of love and unity,” Polmateer said. “I really just love spreading smiles, that’s really what I do it for. Smiles are contagious.”

Polmateer said it’s spreading that warmth and happiness that got him interested in music as a teenager in the first place. While he doesn’t have any shows lined up at the moment, Polmateer said he’s looking forward to hitting the ground running again as restrictions are lifted.

“I’m hoping to get back at it because summertime is concert time, everybody knows that,” Polmateer said. “I’m hoping that the floodgates will open, and we’ll be able to play again soon, maybe in the next month or so.”