Can you tell us about your background and how you got into music?
Hello Jens. First of all, thank you for the opportunity and the interview. To start talking about my musical interests, I have to go back to my childhood. I don’t come from a family of musicians, no one has ever played an instrument or belong to the music industry but I have to say that there has always been a lot of music played at home, especially by my mother. My father was the one who led the soundtrack in the car. My mother has always been the one who danced at home to disco, funk, pop sounds. My father has always been the most rogue part, more rock, blues etc.…
As far as I’m concerned, I’ve always been very curious about music, not about other things, but it’s true that I’ve always been passionate about music and I’ve always been more interested in my mother’s sound. The disco fever of the late 80’s caught me by surprise and since then it hasn’t left my life. As well as the sound of funk, jazz, R&S… More into my adolescence, I started going out to clubs in Madrid, I’m from there, and the electronic sounds began to take a great relevance in my life until today. The evolution and musical growth have been incredible. I’m super happy and grateful for everything that music has given me in my life both personally and professionally.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? Do you have any good tour stories to share? And what was the worst job you ever had?
Possibly the best and most impressive experience as a DJ has been having the opportunity to have a small 5 date tour in South Korea. The incredible thing about this is how the possibility of having a tour in Asia came about. One Monday night playing at KitKat in Berlin, there was next to the booth, an Asian guy with blond hair, shirtless, sweating like nobody’s business, dancing non-stop. Logically I noticed him because it was incredible the way he was moving. When I finished playing, he approached me to tell me that he was grateful for the sound trip I had offered him and told me that he was the owner of a club in Busan, one of the most important cities in the country. His club is called Output. He told me that he wanted to plan a tour for me in South Korea but since it’s not the first time it happens, I told him to send me all the information via Instagram and I would check it out at home. Well, everything he told me was true and although due to COVID the first attempt was cancelled, in 2022 I had the opportunity to visit that wonderful country and have 5 Gigs in one week. I always say that Kim, that’s his name, is my Asian soul mate.
As for an unpleasant situation, maybe in Chile, the first time I play. I was coming from Bogota but I had passed through Mexico before. The narcotics police were waiting for the plane coming from Colombia to search the passengers. They detained me, took me to a room and I spent almost two hours answering questions. In the end nothing happened but it was a tense moment before starting the dates in Chile.
Can you share some of the challenges you’ve faced in your career and how you overcame them?
I think the biggest test I have overcome since I started my career has been anxiety. I have suffered from it several times. Some more intense, others less, but they have always been a turning point in my life where I have had to stop, think about my next moves and above all understand the reason for that feeling that at that moment was plunging me into a very dark hole.
I have always liked to control my surroundings, to control the various situations that arise in my life and that has often caused me anxiety. With the passage of time, I understood that it is impossible to control everything in your life and that you should only worry about the things where you have scope for action. Where your decisions can really influence the final result. From the rest, wait and trust.
Meditation, sports and above all music have been my allies in those dark times. Maybe that’s why I value very much when I reach that balance of peace of mind and tranquility in my life. I know what the other scenario is and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Only people who have suffered from anxiety will know what I am talking about. I know I will have to live with it for the rest of my life but now I am more prepared and stronger when it visits again.
Can you walk us through your creative process when writing and recording a new track?
I have always said and I don’t mind admitting it, I make music or I decided to start producing music to grow in the industry. But there was never an artistic interest behind it, as there might have been with my DJing, or an interest in knowing/mastering the music production process.
I feel more like a DJ than a music producer. My habitat is the club and not the studio. I am a very social person and I need to be around people. It is from them that I get my creativity, from whom I nourish myself to experience myself artistically through music. It is true that I have had my good moments in the studio, making music, but they have been rare. Much of the creative process has been favored thanks to the number of Gigs I’ve had during the last decade which have allowed me to absorb all that energy that surrounded the night, the event, to later be able to express it in the tracks I’ve produced.
Right now, I’ve decided to stop, it’s true that I’ve produced a lot of music during the last years and I need to take some distance to sit down again in front of my machines and produce something that really makes me happy. Not to feel a slave to the market or labels.
What do you do when your equipment fails?
I am a very calm person, so I don’t get nervous. We work with technology and mistakes happen, so calm the public or the people around who are nervous, take a breath and look for a solution among all the professionals who are at the scene of the crime. Everything in life has a solution.
Which track would play during your walkout for a boxing match?
“Prince – 3121”. I think it’s a super sexy song and at the same time very classy, making clear the winner of the fight before facing the opponent. I hope, otherwise, see you at the hospital hahanah.
What advice would you give to someone trying to make it as a professional musician?
Many years ago, I left utopias aside and easy ideas like: “if you fight and don’t give up, you will achieve it” or “if you persist, your dream will come true”. It is not an absolute truth and I think people should be more careful to whom they say it and how they say it.
We are in a ruthless industry, an industry dominated by social media where music has taken a back seat. An industry where your physique and the likes on your Instagram post, are worth much more than the quality of your music aka 34242342 hours in the studio. That’s why I tell everyone starting out in the industry: try, enjoy what you can achieve and if in the end it doesn’t work out the way you hoped it would, that’s okay. The important thing is all the learning, the hours of flight and above all the people / experiences you may have had along your musical journey. And the most important thing: never stop being grateful and loyal to the people who are by your side for better or worse. The rest is just decoration.
Instagram:@freedom_b_
