Meet James Delgado of TWNSHP

Today we’d like to introduce you to James Delgado.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started DJing in 6th grade on this mashup website, and I’d just make mixes for my friends and family until eventually, my parents bought me my first deck six months later. From there, I made it a business and was a decently known DJ, because of my age, and did college parties, graduation parties, weddings, etc. Fast forward to 8th grade, I was burnt out of DJing but still loved music so I just googled “music industry jobs” and the one below artist was music producer, and I bought FL Studio that night.

For the next few years, I just posted my beats on Instagram and just put my head down and worked. My first placement didn’t come until my sophomore year when Sam Lancaster, who’s my manager now, asked me to work with him on his artist Yung Pinch. I produced four on his debut project and it all did extremely well. I was still in school while his career took off, so I didn’t get to reap those benefits until two years later after I graduated.

I moved to LA as soon as I graduated, and I just so happened to see Sam at a show I was at coincidentally a few months after being there and he asked me if I knew how to engineer because he had a new artist he was working on. I had never seen Pro Tools in my life, but I lied to Sam and said I been engineering for years and I’d love to work with him. A few days later, I was watching tutorials on the way to the studio on how to record vocals, and that was the night I met Guapdad 4000. I was his engineer for a few months and he had no idea I made beats, but one night he ran out of beats and I offered to play some of mine. The first beat I played him was the beat for Flossin, and then Bitch I’m On, and then Red Flags. From that point on, I became Guapdad 4000’s main producer and engineer. I oversaw a lot of the production/ post-production for his debut project, Dior Deposits. I also recorded the whole album and mixed half of it along with Mixed By Ali.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The biggest obstacles were definitely once I got to LA. I never had a job out here, so I was homeless for a while, maxed out credit cards, taken out loans, ate once a day, etc. All of those nights eventually pay off though, I think they’re necessary.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
I’m a record producer first, but I also record and mix for exclusively my artists. I take on new clients when I truly believe in their music, but it’s often just the camp I work with for now.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I think that my career with based on fate more than luck. It’s easy to say “he got lucky by getting DM’s from Yung Pinch’s manager”, or “he got lucky to meet Guapdad” but the reality is that I believe that the sequenced in which it happened was something way bigger than luck.

Contact Info:

• Email: jamesdelguapo.gmail.com

Image Credit:
@paulxmiddleton, @coldhotwings

Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.