Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Vasquez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
As a kid, all I used to do was find all the music I could in my house whether I was at mom’s or dad’s house. Being the only kid in a split family and alone for 8 hours of the day after school and on weekends allowed for me to like all sorts of music from metal and hi-hop to trance and house music, generally electronic music. I always got my taste from my parents or uncles which all had various tastes and vast collections of common and uncommon CD’s. My favorite finds as a kid was Daft Punk, Tiesto, System Of A Down, and all sorts of heavy DjIrene mixes. Later in my teens, I really wanted to spin because I thought it was the most interesting thing how Djs become practically wizards controlling people to dance to whatever beat they chose. This curiosity influenced music production and a long list of completely inaudible monotone sounding tracks.
Through this, I spent my late teens refining my music skill during which I saw was only a hobby and had to start looking for a means of income. I set aside music thinking I could shake it and joined the military. Now 19 and bored out of my mind on my off-time, I was bit by the production bug. This forced me to rack up my money, buy the most affordable starter music production program (Fl Studio) and get to it. Three years later and out of the military at 22, I was even more curious than ever still creating now audible but rough concepts of music. I enrolled into MI (Musicians Institute) completed the Independent Artist Program. This introduced me to a ton of concepts that I would then need to embark even further on. I had felt almost in between satisfied and unsatisfied with the knowledge I had collected in this period. I then decided that I was to enroll into another music program that was now 12 months and was being held at Icon Collective.
Through MI, I met a vast amount of talented people and got the chance to work with Tyler from Pretty Havoc on an unreleased remix of the band’s song “Goddess”. I also had the pleasure of working with Amy Apparis on her song “In My Dreams” on another remix. Another awesome remix opportunity was Saki Reno and his song “What Is This?” that is still in the process of release. After MI, I released my EP “JANUARY” under the name Adam V. with all the music that I had felt most proud of after attending MI. Now I am currently on my fourth and last quarter at Icon better equipped with music production knowledge and the sound I intend to start venturing into with my next EP with. I have plans to continue making remixes for anyone that allows me the opportunity and evolving as an artist.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Hell, no was it or has been easy, but now looking at it in a positive way, I have an awesome story to build even more upon. I come from a family with no musical background trying to learn something that takes years to master. However, this was new and exciting for me to embark into. Making it apart of my career paths makes that very challenging. I, like many creatives have a road or path that keeps calling upon me, steering me away from the common path carved out for me. The weirdest challenge has been attempting to stick to a cookie cutter life. It seems the more I’ve tried to get away from music the more it has found its way back into my conscious. An even bigger challenge along the way was committing to the discipline and determination it takes to learn the craft of music. I learned this very quickly along the way during my time at MI.
I had to wake up for at 5 a.m for a 10 a.m class everyday of the week since I had to commute from Lancaster to Hollywood everyday. Some days it was all that commute only for a mentorship session that was only for an hour, but there I was. Along with the commute was the nitty gritty of maintaining my grades and actually learning through such a schedule but hey, I somehow got deans list. The struggle I’ve seen the most has been from within. We can, at ANY time choose to quit, music life, work in general, sometimes there’s so many reasons pent up inside the mind TO quit. The challenge lies from within to proceed no matter the risk or internal doubt. So that’s why I’m still here eight years later with much more to work on and see through.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My heart will always be in electronic music. That’s all I love making. Music as a whole is a universal language but I feel that electronic music needs not any lyrics whatsoever to get a crowd of people jumping and chanting. I’m still in the trenches of figuring out the sound I’m trying to stay true to but I love making ALL types of house music ranging from bass house, tech house, to just plain ol’ house. That’s mostly what my EP January consisted of. I’ve also created a ton of synthwave which will be in one of EP’s later in the future. Currently, I am making more two step old school rave trance music. I feel the sound that I will soon immerse myself in will pay homage to a lot of the music that I used to listen to which is all sorts of trance, breakbeat rave, and hard /Acid house music from the early 90’s. I’m currently most proud of my remix of Amy Apparis’s “In my dreams”. She and I realized that it came out far better than expected. I guess my specialty is remixing and reimagining someone’s piece of music. I love the idea of stripping down the idea and giving it a new meaning or sound. If school allowed more time, I’d probably be doing more remix competitions.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the vast amount of things to do and places to see. Elysian Park and The Museum of Death in Hollywood being my favorite. It was the Raves before covid *sad face. The least favorite for me is the rent and costs. Haha, other than that, life is beautiful here.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam.a.p.v/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVmY_bmfdgnDqL2Tlgb_8fg
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/adam0526
- Other: https://linktr.ee/AdamV
