Today we’d like to introduce you to Neujack.
Hi Neujack, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I started music really early on in my life. In grade school, my first instrument was the saxophone, which I was never really good at. Soon after, I started taking piano lessons, which I really enjoyed, I played guitar in high school but never found a passion for it, then moved to bass guitar, which was more of my comfort zone. Somewhere along the line, I also picked up the skill of learning harmonica. Till this day, I’m still not too sure how that happened. I remember I was given one and somehow kept playing around with it and looked up certain songs to play, I guess like we all do when we are handed an instrument we don’t know how to play. I was always into art and multi-colored psychedelic aesthetics or single-color temples with various shades. I used to draw a lot more in the beginning with still life and self-portraits of people with pencils, graffiti art, and watercolor blotch paintings. As a kid, I also used to watch things that I would try and match music to, like a music video, or play music of my own to scenes from my favorite movies, cartoons, anime, and sceneries. I guess I just always loved the art of storytelling with art and the accompaniment of music. I’ve always been a big baseball fan and played for ten years. That conflicted me with music and art, so at some point, I had to choose what I wanted to do more, and when sport became too much politics for me, I went to college and trade schools in which I thought would be the best option for me. Out of high school, I went to LASF (Los Angeles Film School), which honestly taught me so much about a lot of aspects of how the structures of film and telling a story come to life. I never completed the courses due to complications, so after leaving there, I registered for Mt. San Antonio Community College for musical theory and piano studies. Using those credits, I transferred out again to SAE Institute to pursue an education in audio engineering and music production. After finishing those courses, I used those credentials to finish my studies at UCLA’s musical studies for musicianship. (I know a lot of jumping around). Once I finished all that, I worked at various studios here in the LA county, mostly in the Burbank and Downtown areas. I also worked for various jobs that were music set-up related, for example, Black Pinks Spotify pop-up release for Pink Venom. There was a joy of definitely working with artists and seeing the magic happen in-studio sessions and being part of that experience of it all. Definitely mixing and mastering a lot of clients’ works at this point, but behind closed doors and in my studio apartment (that I also turned into a project/art studio), I was working a lot on my our music and visuals. I think from the beginning I did find working in the scene to be exhilarating but I always had this ambition to be the one preforming or on the stage rather than making other dreams come true I wanted to do that for myself. So, I started taking less job offers for recording other artist and started making more time recording my works and playing at little events around LA. But all of this was during the height of covid, so once that happened, the entertainment industry, including music, took a major hit, so there wasn’t much work anyways at that point.
Times were definitely tough at that point, and I was just locked in my studio apartment, which gave me a lot of time to ponder and work on new music and art. I would practice DJing and remixing songs that I loved or would dissect songs to see how they were made. During that time as well, I would watch other artist, and there was a thing since no one could leave their home: they would hold virtual concerts on YouTube or virtual raves, which honestly was such an enjoyment at the time. Witnessing that made me think about how I could do the same, I would study their visuals and their performances. How did they put this together? What song selections are they abiding by? Are they choosing to do so/ and so in what order, if any? Why did they choose these visuals and art panels? Are they just there as background, or do they actually mean something? Are they telling a story? I got weird with it, but what do you expect coming from someone that was locked in their apartment for a year? So, with that being said I picked up the trait of visual art and graphic display for my DJ sets. I’ve always been influenced by artist that do the same. Not just playing songs to keep you hype and play the singles along with only just vibin out. I wanted more, I always thought taking your audience through a journey and making you really harness your emotions to feel the music was just so much more beautiful to me along with some crazy art displays and visuals to go with it.
For example, artists like Justice, Daft Punk, Gorillaz, Mgmt, Pink Floyd, David Bowe, The Weekend, Miles Davis, Kendrick, Porter Robinson, Gizzly Bear, and Animal Collective, to name a few, really drilled that into my mind. I know that everyone has their own choices when listening to music, like wanting to headbang, wanting all the singles and hits, or just wanting to vibe. I get not every performance has to be a narrative, but I just wanted more, even when seeing other artist I liked. I always used every live performance as a learning experience. Right when COVID ended, and we were allowed back outside, I got in connection with one of my best friends, who is also my videographer, to help me with my first visual set and performance that we did in a warehouse studio downtown. It was the first time I did anything to that scale. Working on all the visuals, remixes, and music from scratch and syncing it to what I was playing was nerve-wracking yet exciting, and I knew it was only the first step.
Fast forward to now; currently, I am still performing around downtown and DJing gigs, but I am currently working on my EP and working on the visuals for that as well so I could perform that in its entirety. I wanted to take a step back from everything so I could let this be my main focus. Which means reworking my Spotify and setting a foreground for these works which I am really excited about. You can still find all my sets and live sessions on SoundCloud. Visual sets and performances you experience on YouTube, which I believe I have three up on there right now, along with some other little works I have made. I’m really excited for this year and the goals I have set for myself which I also I have another visual experience coming out this summer that I recorded summer of last year and EP to come out in October.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
OOOf definitely not. I think I’m what you would call a starving artist in a literal sense. There’s been a lot of trauma’s I’ve had to overcome from past life experiences, and I think a good deal of that healing started in 2020 when I was locked in my apartment. I always kinda had a financial struggle, especially from bouncing around so much with work and the cost of living in LA alone with myself to support myself. Bills, expenses, etc. Even at one point after the pandemic, when my rent became way too increasingly high for me, I was living out of my car at one point and in between couches, waiting on approval from other apartments. Plus, some jobs weren’t paying out, seeing they were low on funds or didn’t have the hours, so I had to keep doing what I had to stay afloat somehow, which always created stress. In all of this, my therapy and nurture was to make music and art. It’s my reliever and keeps me in focus on what I want to achieve, along with reminding me on how blessed my life is, not matter how big or small the troubles may seem. It takes a lot to be a human being, and that is a practice in itself. I think money always plays a big factor in people’s lives, especially nowadays with everyone trying to manifest this type of abundance in their life, seeing that life will feel more at peace if they have it to stay afloat and do the things they want to do which do get me wrong money does always help but I think the idea is to be at peace with your life currently and be thankful in the blessings you currently have, there’s a type of gratitude in that ya know? I know I play shows when the opportunity arises or get asked to which I’m gladly willing to do, and when you start from the bottom, you’re expected to basically play for free for a while or promote yourself for your own payout, which is understandable. Don’t get me wrong though you can definitely get paid well at gigs out here and that’s the art of it, you’re supposed to network and make connections to get you where you want to be. Out here, there’s a very big scene for DJs, and I definitely have met a lot of talented artists. There were so many big scenes like DNB, Darkwave, Synthwave, HipHop / Neo Soul, and Vinyl, which are all really cool in their own environment, but even though knowing people in these scenes, I always had this sense that I never belonged. I can definitely do all that style if asked, and never throwing shade at those scenes, those people are hella talented, but I think I always just wanted to stay true to what I wanted to play and do. I’ve played at events like that before and people have told me to just bite the bullet and play those things to get me paid and get more reach, but I noticed my heart was never into playing those sets or doing those types of events. It’s like I really haven’t found my crowd yet, but I still enjoy those people. Hence why I’ve taken my performances and music online, I figure it’ll reach who it’s supposed to while staying to true to myself and playing what I want to play. Practice that, keep working on new ways to expand myself till I reach what I want, and go beyond that. I think there’s a lot of struggles of being an artist but that’s kind of the bittersweet joy of being one. We get to transcribe what we are completely feeling or going through and putting it out there on full display. Our music and art are basically a journal entry everyone is able to have access to or read, and that makes us completely vulnerable in a big way; that takes a lot of courage, especially if a number of us are introverted (me), but yet you keep pushing towards the craft of it. It comes at a price.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My name is Neujack, and what I do is DJ / make music and make my own visuals and art to accompany that to make a setting of storytelling and journey through it all. I would say my genres of music that I play are electronic/melodic/heavy house/glitch and breakcore / psychedelic indie & sample things like movies/anime/video games. I’m known for having a narrative of having a child-like yet heaviness to my sets in the sense of being playful but also dark and hardcore heavy. Also, I’ve been told that a lot of the music I play sounds like glitter. (I’ll take the compliment)
What I am most proud of is how far I’ve came to open myself up to what I am as an artist. Finding my sound and style and showcasing that without judgment. I know I can go to back to every single thing I’ve worked on and fix it since I used to struggle a big deal with perfectionism. Yet releasing it, in general, makes me feel accomplished, showing that I can be proud of it regardless of its imperfections.
What sets me apart from other artist would be a simple answer really. It’s ME.
I know there’s a lot of talented artist out there that have a lot to offer, and I’m sure a lot excel at what they do, but I think what truly separates us from each other, no matter how closely related some of our art may be or who we get influenced by is staying true to who we are and being our authentic selves. I am me and who I am is Neujack the Demigod. I’ve got various things I would like you to see
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
Ah, damn, where to start.
Books wise to name a couple, would be Musashi Miyamoto’s The Book of Five Rings, Marcus Aurelius Meditations, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall, Zen and the Art of MIXING. There’s a whole list I can go on of small readings as well, but I’ll keep it simple
Podcast I’m a really into Rick Ruben and his interviews, there’s also various YouTube channels I tun into like Gravemind, Joseph Rodriguez, Deadmau5 music production teachings, Becky Saif Music, Sol State, Pyramind, Mind Motivation Coaching, Abundantia, Luminara, Shin Heng Yi. I study a lot, and I feel like these channels have helped me in so many ways
There’s a lot of philosophical teachings I study, along with ready documentaries of my favorite artist and seeing how they were inspired. Daft Punk, Tribe Called Quest, Beasty Boys, Freddie Mercury, Sublime, Black Flag (Henry Rollins) Led Zepplin, Tupac, Brian Eno just to name a few. If I want to see how they started I usually resource and see it from their pov or words per-say. As far as philosophers, I would probably have to list Musashi Miyamoto, Marcus Aurelius, Alan Watts, Esther Hicks, Earl Nightingale, Simone de Beauvoir, Hypatia, Carl Jung, also I’ll thrown Bruce Lee in there somewhere because why not right
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @neujackxla
- Facebook: facebook.com/neujackxla
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-guerrero-534b48143/
- Twitter: twitter.com/neujackx?lang=en
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@neujack9316
- SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/neujacktheartist
- Other: tiktok.com/@neujack_
Image Credits
@loganwardfilms
@kriskuganathan
@dumpling.wav
