Check Out John Liwag’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Liwag.

Hi John, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
This has been about a 15-year journey of being in music and music embracing me back.

My first real break was working as a full-time in-house graphic designer for G-Eazy from 2011-2018. I did that for about seven years, and during that time I was constantly surrounded by images, typography, and storytelling. Working with so many photos and visuals eventually made me want to create my own works with a camera, so I pivoted into shooting photography and directing video after that.

That shift opened a lot of doors. I’ve had photos on billboards in Times Square and in LA, shot magazine covers, photographed artists, celebrities, and friends I love, became a commercial director, making/directing music videos, mini-documentaries, and branded content. I also spent time working at Australian music label Future Classic, which grounded me even more in the electronic music world.

After over a decade of creating work for other artists, I started realizing there had to be a reason music kept pulling me in so closely. I get along with artists because I have deep empathy for the opportunity and position they’re in, but I’ve also always seen myself as a musician.

So over the past couple of years, I’ve been focusing on creating and releasing music as myself, along with DJing.

DJing, in particular, has been the most fulfilling creative outlet I’ve ever had. Even after fully committing to graphic design, photography, or directing at different points in my life, nothing has felt as complete as sharing music directly as me.

Right now I’m focused on finding ways to fuse all of these worlds into one cohesive thing, rather than leading with any single discipline. I want it all to feel seamless, connected, and true to how I exist creatively.

Alright, 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?
Looking back, it actually feels like a smooth road, but while you’re in it, it definitely doesn’t feel that way.

One of the biggest shifts for me has been understanding risk. When I was doing graphic design or creative services, the math made sense. I could log hours, get paid for those hours, and there was a clear exchange of time for money. Being my own artist is completely different. You can put a thousand hours into something and there’s no guarantee the outcome will reflect that investment, and that’s been a real learning curve for me.

Over the years, working for other artists, I started to feel compounding unfulfillment because I wasn’t building an artist project that was my own. I am very grateful for the fact that working for others provided me stability and allowed me to live my life.

Pivoting into being an independent music artist, without a label or backing, has meant betting on myself in a much more direct way. It’s very DIY and very personal.

At the same time, I’m grateful for the skill set I’ve built over the years. Branding, graphic design, video, photography, web design, content creation. All of that allows me to keep costs low and stay independent so I can get all of my ideas out with very little to no friction these days.

I make my own music, I make my own visuals, and I don’t need a huge infrastructure to keep things moving, which puts me in a better position than a lot of people starting out.

I think the road has been exactly what it’s meant to be.

If it were easy, if it was only certainty, wins, and highlights, everyone would do this.

The reality is that being an artist means living with uncertainty and risk. I’ve seen that firsthand through artists I’ve worked with and learned from like G-Eazy, ISOxo, and Knock2. Watching how they handle pressure, how they stay consistent, and how they keep executing at a high level, even when things aren’t guaranteed, has been incredibly influential for me.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At the core of everything I do is my foundations as a graphic designer. I spent close to ten years hyper-focused on design only; it was the only thing I touched, and how the creative world knew me at that time. If a project needed photography, I worked with photographers. If it needed video, I brought in a team. That deep focus gave me a really strong foundation, and I see graphic design as communication design, which now informs everything else I do.

When I eventually moved into photography, video, and directing, I realized I was still thinking like a designer. The way I compose images, the way I approach narrative in video, it all comes from understanding how to communicate clearly and intentionally. Even the way I think about music feels connected to that.

I like the term “visual techno” because the music I make feels like moving design.

It’s all communication, just in different forms.

I’ve been hesitant to label myself a creative director, because I didn’t want to self-appoint a title. But over time, my name kept coming up for music videos, album campaigns, and full creative rollouts, and I realized a creative director is essentially the role I’ve been playing. For the past several years, I’ve become known in electronic dance music as someone who can think holistically about branding and world-building.

Because I had the time to hyper-focus on different crafts, I now understand how all those pieces work together. I can delegate, jump in, or do things myself because I understand what each pillar is responsible for and how it affects the bigger picture.

What I’m most proud of, though, is my relationships with artists I love. I grew up in the suburbs of LA with no real connections to music. Everything happened one conversation at a time. For a long time, I thought success meant just being in the same room as artists I admired. Now, a lot of those people are my friends and peers. It still feels organic, and I’m still a fan of the people around me, which I think matters.

What sets me apart is how I think about projects as whole worlds. It’s not just music, or visuals, or content. It’s culture, art, music, technology, and how all of that intersects. I genuinely enjoy the process of building something immersive and expressing myself within it.

I’ve spent years learning the technical skills, and the question for me now is how to use those tools to say something real. That’s where I’m heading with my music project. Using everything I’ve learned to create a 360 world, from sound to visuals to live experiences, in a way that accurately captures a feeling and feels unmistakably like me.

Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I think my relationship to risk has changed over time. Looking back, I probably could have taken this leap sooner. I could have started releasing music years ago, but I was really precious about it. I wanted to take the time to learn, to get better, and to feel grounded in what I was making before fully stepping into it.

The biggest risk I’ve taken is the one I’m in right now. Choosing to step forward as an artist and make this my plan A.

Everything else I’ve done had clearer safety nets. Creative work for other people is still risk, but it’s more predictable. This isn’t. This is personal, uncertain, and completely tied to my own voice.

I remember conversations with G-Eazy back in 2014, around the time he was about to release his debut album “These Things Happen”. I was hyper-focused on design, and he was locked in on music. I remember thinking about how people can feel something so deeply through a song in a way they usually don’t through a poster or a visual. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was so inspired by G’s connection with his practice (music). What I really wanted was to be communicating in that way too.

So in a lot of ways, this risk has been years in the making. I didn’t jump blindly. I spent the time learning Ableton, understanding my own taste, and building the skills and perspective I needed to support myself creatively. Even though it feels like a leap, it’s also something I’ve been quietly preparing for my entire career.

I don’t necessarily see myself as a reckless risk-taker, but I do believe in taking the right risks at the right moment.

This feels like that moment for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://johnliwag.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/johnliwag
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/johnliwagofficial
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/johnliwag
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnliwag
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/johnliwag
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/johnliwag

Image Credits
Eric Dew, Chloe Dinh, Kyla Rain, Mylen Makes