We’re looking forward to introducing you to Esteban Flores Valenzuela. Check out our conversation below.
Esteban, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
now a days recording music really finds a way to eat up most of my day (if I have a day to myself outside of my schedule) and its sort of a moment of reflection whenever I’m in my studio room. I really do think art is a reflection of someone’s soul and I do a lot of reflecting when I’m in the midst of recording and writing new music. I put myself in situations and try to make a story out of it. Albeit, I’m not a great lyricist so I cannot effectively write up my feelings in song form but I think you can get to know a lot of my train of thoughts through the music Im playing. I consider myself an honest person but sometimes hearing a demo or a track I just finished makes me feel like, “man thats really me and I can tell if I’m happy, sad, angry, or feeling something at the moment.”
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Esteban Flores Valenzuela, a 32 year old musician from Los Angeles but currently based out in Salem, Oregon. I tour and recorded with a number of bands from all over the world. Currently with Matamoska!, JER, and Out Of Control Army but I’ve performed with groups such as The Steady 45s, Catbite, The Suicide Machines, The Interrupters, Rancid, The English Beat, The Aggrolites, The Suffers, Thee Sinseers, Tropa Magica, Western Standard Time and the list goes on… I’ve also participated in promoting and throwing in events in Los Angeles from 2011-2020 and gained some notoriety as a contributor towards my local ska scene.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
My mom and grandparents, they carried the sun and moon for myself and my siblings growing up. My mom had to brunt the entirety of caring for us while working at our family flower shop. At the time, we were just immigrants from Mexico with dreams of wanting to make a better living for ourselves. I was not yet aware of the path I would take with music. I’d see my mom work day in and day out to provide food and when things got hard she would alway provide a plate of food for us and place to sleep even if it meant she wouldn’t eat well or sleep comfortable. More than 30 years later, I see myself being a father to my 2 year old and thinking about what my mom’s thought process was when I was my child’s age and the parallels I’m experiencing. Granted, I feel fortunate to have a strong system of support but I’m sure the story of my mom’s is one of millions and I empathize and value single parents and even present parents. Parenting is not easy and adding your work and passions into it only make it that much more of a challenge which is why I need to work harder to succeed in whatever I feel is worth my time.
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
You need to make mistakes to learn and hurt from them.. Suffering are the borders that surround hurt, people usually try avoiding the process off suffering and go straight to “this hurts, I need this to stop hurting less as soon as I can” I think the power to sit with your hurt and suffer it is a great lesson in knowing yourself. If you cope with your hurt effectively, your suffering lessens exponentially. Applying this in my model of work would usually go hand in hand with level of gigs, money being paid, touring with bigger acts and such. Most bands on the local level would face an inconvenience and say, “we messed up on this tour/show, we are never going to play this again” or “we may not get better shows because of this” when the mentality should be like, “wow, this is just all part of the game, we need to learn from this but its likely this can happen again and we can move accordingly next time so it wouldn’t be that great of a loss”
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
Latino/as are very much community based people. I apply this to all my bands and small networks and I believe that it takes a village to make an operation happen and over all a mutual friendship within the group. I’ve played in bands where one guy says, “I’m the captain and what I say goes” and to some extent it helps relieve a lot of the stress but theres always an ego trip or there’s creative differences or a disconnect within the band and all of a sudden its an us vs. them situation. I think a band has to act like a singular entity and I think the latino in me very much resonates with that type of work flow where we can all do our part and its symbolic and without condition aside the fact that we have a great performance and in the end, we have a great time hanging. Those types of experiences I always find memorable.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What will you regret not doing?
Aside fatherhood, probably having the life I live as a wanderlust. To try new things, say yes to everything that involves my passion as a musician and see how far it takes me. The last few years of my life I went to places I never thought id go, play for people I never thought id play for, meet people I hold very dear to me, eat food I never thought id eat and the best part is that I’m still young enough to experience more. Having that in mind, the world is my oyster and have so many more things to explore.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/esteban.flores92
- Twitter: https://x.com/est3bn_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EstebanFlows
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1JYM4SBBdBBVInkQf1cSwp?si=l9iVKknoTQypvyhuF77tag
