Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Torres.
Hi Juan, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story starts at the age of two, my father got me my first Violin. That was the beginning of my journey in music, I learned using the Suzuki Method for many years. After being a violin player for so many years I switched to the guitar at age 14 because of Metallica. My dad also introduced me to them once, I remember seeing the video of One and saying “What’s this? This is amazing! I want to be like James Hetfield”.Fast-forward I still play both the violin and guitar!
Now with Music Production and Audio, A key turning point was at age 13 when I got my first Macbook Laptop; it Included a copy of GarageBand. So I started just recording stuff in my room, nothing special. But for me was important, I really enjoyed it. That got me interested in recording, a while after I got into Mixing and Mastering.
My dream since I’m 16 was to become a Mixing engineer. I was in love with the sound and shape of so many records. I used to dig for hours the credits of my favorite records. I learned so much from just listening.
After graduating from high school, I moved to America at age 19. I attended the Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. Here’s where my California days started. I have totally fallen in love with the art of records. I had some amazing mentors that taught me so much. I did an emphasis on post-production also, this taught me so much about the different parts of audio in not only the music industry but in film, TV and video game audio. It was an amazing experience!
Imagine the picture of jumping from GarageBand to Pro Tools! It was an insane moment of growth for me; I learned so much. The beginning of my journey could have not started better.
After graduation I moved to Boston, I attended Berklee College of Music and I dual majored in Music Production and Engineer/Electronic Production and Design. Berklee was a personal dream of mine since I was 15 years old… I learned so much in my almost five years at Berklee, the experience of a lifetime!
It was a tough at times, but this taught me everything about synthesis, synth programming. One of my biggest obsessions until that moment was definitely Electronic Music. I’ve always listened to a variety of music, but I always wondered how you create and do certain sounds. It was during this time I learned about them. My mentors during this time, I cannot express or share how much I cherish my time in Boston, it was a unique experience
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?
It has definitely been a challenge in some ways. I think in some moments I find myself in frustrating situations, Learning a new skill takes time and effort. I had some hard moments, happily some of them have pushed me to grow! Mostly the beginning of a session or working in a difficult environment, at times we can find big egos in a small room. Everyone is opinionated about what they want, and that clashes with certain things.
Also having to be under pressure in general creates difficulties, I’ve been fortunate enough to be taught how to maintain myself in certain situations, however that can be discouraging at times. I try to always remember I’m a state of learning and so does everyone around me! This has helped me improve my road tremendously!
I’m a firm believer of not comparing yourself to others, I had situations where people try to compare skills or in cases, your career experience. Life isn’t really a race against people, and sometimes competing can be healthy, but I stopped from a while ago comparisons.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a Music Producer, Sound Designer, and Audio Engineer.
I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades, also I mostly adapt to whatever people ask me to be in whatever I’m working on. I definitely have changed my approach at times during my journey. Some of the people I work on, call me to create sounds and help them with their sounds, others just with Engineering. Alongside in the Film/TV Industry where I’m mostly an Engineer and Sound designer.
I’ve also sound design in many different areas. So many amazing experiences I’m very fortunate to say I worked in many different things!
It all comes with my role, I normally ask beforehand what is my role and how am I supposed to bring the project from Point A to Point B. I had some situations that my role was changing or morphing. More like an executive producer at times.
However, sometimes I get called mostly to create sounds and to develop the sound of a record, I do a lot of the synth work.
I recently worked in a Latin Jazz record, where I had the pleasure of recording several songs and I also did all the Mixing. The artist resides in Spain but we did almost everything remotely (for the mixing sessions at least) it was very fun to see the development of this record to what is now!
I also have worked in several campaigns in the world of advertising. With the likes of Papa John, Apple, and Nissan. This is another challenging part of my role, as is essential I maintain a degree of organizational skills.
The big difference between some people and me, I normally create every by scratch but also the different roles I can adapt myself into can be key in so many of the projects I’ve been involved into!
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
The amount of work it takes to make a project move from Point A to Point B, sometimes it isn’t that fun as listening to the final product. But I always put myself in the space and think of who asks me to get involved in the project. Also, the fact I try to always use unique and personalized sounds in everything I do, I create many of them during some sessions and I reuse them a lot!
And also I’m not afraid of experimenting with different genres and music in general, I’m always learning new things!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jtorrescamelo.wixsite.com/my-site
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-e-torres-camelo-159bb1154?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
