We’re looking forward to introducing you to Mauricio Pineda. Check out our conversation below.
Mauricio, 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?
To go to the music studio is sometimes a struggle because life takes over. Between friends, work, family and whatever else, it keeps me away from the studio. When I finally get there it becomes a sort of magical world, because I’ve created a space that is a no drama zone. If other musicians talk about life’s dramas I tell them to take it outside because the studio is for music, rooted in fun and happiness. Besides creating and recording my own original music I am the drummer for two cover bands. I rehearse with each band once a week. Gigs are hard to come by but we are always ready. When I am in the studio, time seems to drift on by. All of a sudden 3 or 4 hours have passed. If I ever feel a little lost, down or just twiddling my thumbs, I just head out to the studio knowing that I will feel great there. It’s like recalibrating my mind and body. Either way I put in the time so that I am ready to rock at the drop of a dime. The studio has everything I need to lay down tracks or just rock out. It is a solitary type of environment when I am in there alone, mixing and recording but the outcome is very fulfilling when I let everyone hear what I have done. Since I have made music my primary focus in life, this place, the studio, has become a secondary home. It sure feels like home when I get there. I do lose track of time because there is so much I could do and I absolutely love doing it. The unwritten rule is that every moment in the studio must be associated with music. It is not a place to scroll through social media, it’s not a place to build a birdhouse or do my taxes. The studio is set up to be fun and exciting but at the same time very serious about the music. It has a cool vibe that helps you focus on making great music rather than the dramas of life. If you’re stuck in a rut on finding the right lyric, ya just have to look around the studio and you will find some inspiration. Some of the songs that I have written were directly influenced by art, pictures and things on the walls. It’s a place to go think, relax and then rock out. It’s true that time flies when you are having fun.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello everyone, my name is Moe and I am currently working on playing and creating music for my band MOTO and for other artists. My bandmate and I work on the melody and rhythm of the song, then I write the words to the music, not necessarily in that order. My recording / mixing and mastering style has been a work in progress over these past years and so far I am very happy with the outcome. I am still working on better ways to record, mix and master and I feel I am very close to the sound I want to hear. My ultimate goal is to also record other bands’ music. I have recorded a couple of one-offs with other people (mostly friends and family) and have had positive results. That would be the next level after I record some more of my own songs. Besides all of that, I am keeping busy rocking out in two cover bands. I get my fill and it keeps my motors running for the next gig. As far as gigs are concerned, those are hard to come by for more reasons that I know. But when I get a gig it is the greatest feeling. There is nothing like people dancing and rocking out to what you’re putting out. “Rock band for hire” is what I tell everyone, but to get hired ya gotta bring in lots of people, and that’s where it gets sticky. That doesn’t stop us from getting gigs and trying to pack the joint. It’s not only a lifestyle, it is a full time job. To get where I want to be takes a lot of effort and a strong backbone. The future of my recording studio holds big promises, the future of my rocking out on stage is inevitable, the future of my music depends on me. So far so good as long as I keep up this momentum, and that’s what I intend to do. My brand is MOTO, It’s my vehicle to express what I hear in my head. MOTO is an extension of me and is a culmination of my whole life, from the lyrics I wrote when I was 16 years old to the roll I did around my drum set yesterday. The WAREHOUSE RECORDING STUDIO is where the magic happens. It’s where MOTO was created and lives. It’s where I rehearse with my cover bands. It’s everything to me. This studio was built from scratch with a lot of blood sweat and tears. Over the years it has transformed from a rehearsal space to a full blown recording studio. I look forward to what the future brings.
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 were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I have always been associated with building construction in one way or another. I have worked in Architectural, Structural & Mechanical Engineering firms. I started with hand drawn plans and progressed to 3d Computer aided design. After that I was a superintendent of construction for a development company for about a decade building 400 unit complexes. In six months we went from a big dirt lot to a luxury complex. After that, we would go do another one, and so on and so forth. I went from town to town every six months. After the recession of 2008, when construction stopped, I became a Service Technician for those same complexes for five years (in other words, a maintenance man. Remember Schneider from “One day at a time”). Now, I am a Home inspector and have been for the last 12 years. I have always been part of this world but in 2017 I had a sort of breakdown where I realized what I really wanted to do. I’ve been in bands as a younger man, but it was never a serious endeavor, more like jam sessions. This time it was different because time was not on my side. I decided to give it a go knowing full well that I may be on a decade long journey. And as everyone knows, to create and perform music is 100% a passion project. This is the moment where I shifted and told myself that construction is my hobby and that music is my full time job. So in 2017 I made this rehearsal studio and little by little it has become a recording studio. In those years I have put out 8 songs from 3 different bands that I have been in. In a previous article I wrote about how I was working on some original songs. And so, since then, my own band called MOTO has put out a 4 song EP, called ON THE RUN, available on over 250 platforms. When I was recording the EP I spent a lot of time with the vocals. Since I am playing drums and singing at the same time, it is like juggling. I am very proud of that accomplishment. I try to go to the studio every day, when I can, to keep honing in on my craft. To construct a building and to create music, I would say, requires the same amount of care, determination and resilience. In both, attention to detail is crucial. Both are fulfilling when all is said and done, but the music is much more personal and expressive. I can’t point to a building I helped build and say, “I built that. Do you see me in that work?”. But I can say to someone, “Listen to my song. You can hear what I’m all about, it’s in the lyrics, it’s in the music”. I was a dedicated person that sacrificed my passion for music to be the best employee possible in the ruthless and brutal profession of construction. Construction took me away from my family, friends and regularity of life for years at a time, living on site. During those times I always kept writing and I would go to the local music store to fiddle on the drums. That is who I was before my musical epiphany. I was the guy who went above and beyond with a perfectionist attention to detail for companies who didn’t really care because more was never enough for them. I’m not bitter at all. I had a blast and learned a hell of a lot. I just realized thst I needed to go in the direction my heart and soul was telling me to go, and that was towards making music.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I think every other week I question myself and my decision to push forward on my musical journey. To promote my music, sending it off to radio stations, going online, emailing, making signs and flyers is a daunting task against the world. Also, asking to have your music reviewed by industry people is just asking for a letdown. It is discouraging to read a negative review but I try to brush it off. In those times you doubt what your doing is even worth it. I figure many bands, like KISS and GnR have gotten horrible reviews and look where they ended up. It really helps to hear other successful artists overcome those initial bad reviews. I take the positive from it and I say to myself “I’ll show ya. It does light a fire in me where I now want to create a song that is undeniable. I take it as constructive criticism. I can take it or leave it. Simple. If you let it bug you, it will consume you. Ya, I know my work needs to be a little more polished, sure, but in my mind I think it sounds alright. I mean I could keep on tweaking it, mixing it, recording more parts, but I decided to keep it simple with two guitars, drums, bass and vocals, that’s it. I pride myself that all the tracks are one takes. That means that I played the drums from start to finish with no punches. Usually the first or second take is good to go. I don’t like to redo a track too many times. Tiny little mistakes give the tracks life. This goes for the guitars and bass too. It takes an enormous amount of time and effort to create a song from nothing, from the first word to the last note. Sometimes it could take up to a month or two, or more. Emotions run high sometimes when nothing goes your way and you just want to give up for a while. That will not happen now or any time in the future because I have put too much in to give it up. This is part of the decision I made years ago, even when we played dive bars with very few people. I would tell myself and my bandmates to play as if the place was packed. It was years like that, but I knew I had to put in the hours to get better. It’s in those times I would also question if it was worth it. I look back at those times and cherish them now. We were cutting our teeth on the circuit. Loading in, playing for 4 hours, and then loading out, with no cheers. I remember on our worst night where nothing went right, and we thought we played horribly. In my head I was ready to give it up and quit the band when a patron came up to us and said “That was the best show I’ve seen all year”. It was November, and so that really pumped us up. We laughed about it. What we thought was our worst gig was the best for her. That different perspective really changed the way we played live gigs to make it more fun than serious.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
The belief that I can make it in the music business is often laughed at. Many have told me that I am wasting my time pursuing it and that the odds are against me. I have even been told that it is a young man’s game and that I’ll never really make it. I was told this even as a younger man. I am not delusional about it. It is hard work and that is why I am putting in the hours. I have been playing drums since I was 13 and it has been a hobby up until I turned 45 where I took it more seriously. I’m 58 now. I told myself when I embarked that I would put in the work and gave myself 7 years to do it. I joined an original rock band called “Austin Jons & The Immortals” and we rehearsed 3 times a week and played lots of gigs and eventually put out three songs. It was going so well until the pandemic of 2020 and suddenly there were no more gigs available, and no work as far as my profession as a home inspector. Everything slowed down to a halt. In 2023 our bandmate, Austin, passed away. We could not go on without him because he was the songwriter, singer and guitarist. He was the heart and soul of the band. It was and still is devastating. My bandmate Tommy and I decided to keep going on and created MOTO. (Moe & Tommy, hence MOTO) In these two years since we have hunkered down and managed to record an E,P. called ON THE RUN. At the same time I have written with and recorded other artists. I am also the drummer for two cover bands which has introduced me to a wide variety of styles and genres. One cover band is called, “The 3rd Rail” and the other is called “Guilty As Charged”. Between both bands I have learned over 150 songs. I made a promise to myself to learn everything I could about music from creating it, recording it and distributing it. I have spent this time learning the drums at a higher level. I’m nowhere near where I want to be but I am better than I used to be. I am committed to music and will never give up on it. Music has given me far more than I can ever list. I will keep on rockin’ and making music no matter how difficult it is or how long it takes.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
Now I am doing what I was born to do. Everything for years now revolves around my music, rehearsals, recording sessions and gigs. As a younger man, it was a hobby, but now it is a vocation. Everyday I dedicate my time to music to progress and be the best I can be at it. As a kid I would wonder about music and why it had a profound effect on me. I would find myself daydreaming about being on stage jamming. I must have been about 10. Now when I’m on stage or in the studio I still get that feeling but now I’m living it. Even when I’m just chilling listening to music I have always paid attention to the way things were recorded. So when I am recording I spend a lot of time with the microphones to get the perfect sound. The way I set up the studio, down to the paint I used, affects the recording. The whole process from the initial idea for a song to its final mastering is what I live for. It is such a satisfaction to release your creations out into the world hoping that someone out there will relate to it. It’s exciting to know that I put out an E.P. and now am working on other songs to put out. It’s gonna take a little time. I have the songs written with the melodies, and so what’s next is to start recording tracks. I got four songs ready to start and that really gets me pumped. It is incredible for me to hear a simple acoustic song turn into a rocking jammer. To bring in the bass, the guitar solos and the drums transforms the song and me, for that matter. I’m proud of my band MOTO and what we have done. Tommy and I have a great collaborative partnership. He Rocks and I Roll and vice versa. So, ya, music is what I was born to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/motomusicland?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motomusicland?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moto.618352
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTerLieDPeRvAUHpjpYfckAOdXCnRDclc&si=f9-qzlDf8FziMjA7
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/album/40Dq8mLLI1nAnADmQB10pG?si=UY8v7DXYST63hy0vGP0qqg
