Life & Work with Marco Lopez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marco Lopez.

Hi Marco, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Music was always a thing in my family; the piano was always a center of attention for the Lopez’s since my great grandpa, grandpa and grandma, and my dad could all play, but no one in the family was ever properly schooled in music. My brother and I grew up looking up tabs on ultimate guitar of our favorite tunes and would try to learn them by following along to the music on what I remember to be, quite possibly, the world’s worst acoustic guitar owned by anyone. My older brother was considered the musician in the family, and my dad bought him a new guitar. I got so jealous. I went to my dad after and asked where mine was, and he told me “Well, can you play anything?”

A part of me likes to think that my whole musical career started from that moment almost as an answer to that challenge when I was younger. I started playing the trumpet in elementary school, high school and somehow ended up at CSU Northridge as a jazz studies trumpet player. I slowly picked up the piano thanks to my wonderful teacher Gary Fukushima. There is most definitely a part of my inner child that is extremely satisfied with my skill level on piano since it was a big deal to my family. A core memory of mine is when my grandpa once looked at my hands when I was playing and he said, “Wow. You’ve got piano player hands.” As I’m writing this out, I’m grinning ear to ear because I guess I never realized how much that meant to me. I’ve been sort of dual-wielding the instruments as of lately.

Along the way, I’ve had amazing teachers. Paul Lucckesi, Gary Fukushima, Gary Pratt, Michael Mull, Dr. Howard, and Howie Shear, to name a few. Howie actually passed away recently, and it really had me thinking about how grateful I am for the teachers I’ve had in my life. I currently teach and direct a high school jazz program, and it currently is my biggest passion project. I grew up in Clovis, CA, and on paper, that town has no business being one of the greatest hot spots for jazz education, but it was. Why? Well, the educators in the area really care about it and have facilitated the area in order to host jazz music to happen. There’s no Dizzy’s, or Jazz Gallery, or Smalls, or Lincoln Center, but there are spots in the community that people have created to host music to happen there. Richard Giddens brought a lot of life to that area, so shout out to him.

I am the most inspired by Paul Lucckesi, who was passed the torch from his dear friend Paul Shaghoian, and created one of the best high school programs ever, bringing out some crazy cats like Ben Wendel and John Hollenbeck to the valley when they could have very easily passed Clovis on the map. The high school I teach at reminds me a lot of mine, and so I’m trying to bring life to the area as far as jazz is concerned. I’m so thankful for all the local restaurants and the public library for hosting my students to play concerts and make some money doing it to. My philosophy is that so often do kids put in hundreds of hours practicing, and I understand me saying good job or getting a “superior” at a festival is not really that rewarding for how many hours are invested. Sometimes it’s nice to get a couple of bucks in the tip jar because you played a good solo.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like everyone, it really hasn’t. I had struggled, and continue to, with my mental health especially when it comes to music. Gary Fukushima once told me that “comparison is the death of all art”, and it really is true. As much as it is a motivating factor, for me, comparison made me overthink a lot. At some point in my life as a musician, I had equated my music with my own self, a reflection of who I was. And at some point after that, I thought that must mean our music determines our own worth. For me, that thought process created a figurative pair of “drunk goggles” for me. A lot of my interactions with other people and or musicians were really shaped by this idea that they were interacting with me one way or another because of my playing or my music. And so for me, I really thought I had to be “perfect” or else people wouldn’t wanna hang with me. Looking back on it, it is kind of silly but it felt very real for me.

I pretty openly see a therapist because I heavily value the importance of mental health. My therapist is the GOAT. One of our first sessions, she said, “Hmm. Here let me link you something.” And it’s the Rick Rubin and Andre 3000 interview. And my first reaction is like “Ayo, who the hell is this woman, why is she so hip?” But honestly, it really unlocked SO much for me. I highly recommend checking that out.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
So I’m primarily a music educator, but I also work as a music performer, recording artist, producer, composer, etc. I tend to wear a lot of hats, and I try to hide some of those hats from my kiddos. I guess if I’m “known” for anything, it’s actually just that; I wear a lot of hats, and I do all of those things at a fairly high level. I’m proud of my ears, composing, production, lyricism, improvisation; everything. Now to be fair, it’s rough to do that, and it can breed a lot of perfectionism, but I’ve come to peace with my skillset.

I’m most proud of my students. I feel like that might not be the answer that fits the bill, but that was my first reaction. Something about seeing the same light in their eyes as I had in mine makes me smile (like I am currently).

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
Hmmm, I feel like they might not know that I am really big into cars. Not like, a car guy or anything, I don’t know anything about modded exhausts or what a 2jz engine is, but I am obsessed with the idea of them. I feel like I get that from my dad and his dad and my brother as well. I love working on my own car and it brings me a lot of pride even just doing my own oil change. I’m not crazy about supercars or anything either. For some reason, economy cars are like, what I look at daily on the internet. Dream car right now is a 2023 Camry XSE. Beautiful, beautiful car.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://romeiou.bandcamp.com/album/the-expedition-xlt
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iwritejazz/

Image Credits
Jonathan Yung