COLORSxSTUDIOS

What is your first musical memory?

My first ever guitar. I was seven-years-old and my dad brought it home from his job. He was strumming the strings—he’s not a player, he was just fingering them randomly.

Did you express to him that you wanted a guitar?

No, it was so random. My dad works as a garbage man: he picks up trash for a commercial government agency. When I was a kid, he would always find brand new things that people had thrown away just because they didn’t want them anymore. He would find toys for me, and furniture for my mom. Whenever I heard him come home, I would run through the door to see what he’d found. When he brought me home the guitar, I immediately fell in love with it.

My dad also picks up trash after festivals like Coachella now. When I played there, I got to take him with me. I brought him backstage and he had a great time.

How long did it take you to learn how to play the guitar?

I had this guitar, but I didn’t know how to play it. I started begging my mom to put me in guitar classes. My dad’s friend played in the church choir every Sunday, so during the week I would practice there. It probably took me around eight or nine months to get the basics. I was a little kid—my fingers were a bit too small! 

You grew up in Palm Springs. What was that like? I always hear about the city from a tourist perspective, but not necessarily from locals.

It’s really boring. It’s a desert. There are things to do if you have friends, but growing up I was mainly alone in my room. I’d go to school, soccer practices, or just play guitar. For my last two years of high school, I got homeschooled because I wanted to focus on my music. I finished all of my assignments in a couple months so I could leave school earlier.

What’s the music scene like there?

There’s a little bit of everything. There’s a lot of regional Mexican music. You can also hear some street performers downtown playing old rock songs.

While I think we’re past it now, there was a time where it seemed like you had to be from specific cities to make it big. Did being from somewhere with a quieter scene discourage you?  

It motivated me even more. I live in Desert Hot Springs, which is right next to Palm Springs. Unless you stay there for Coachella, nobody has really heard of it. I really wanted to be the first person from there who actually did something. I’ve always known that this is what I want to do.

When did you start writing your own songs?

I got to the point where there were no more songs I wanted to cover. I remember looking through my comments, and I saw that someone had written:“Why don’t you try to make your own music?” I’d never even thought about it before. The first song I wrote was a love song called ‘24:7’. I was so nervous because I’d never even been in a studio before. The song wasn’t that well received—there were a lot of hate comments. My voice is really soft and people weren’t used to that in regional Mexican music. I remember crying one night because of the response. My mom told me that I just needed to be patient. Now, whenever I even release stuff, I always try to be patient.

Did it take you a long time to write your first song?

When I was first writing my songs, I was trying to make ‘corridos’. In ‘corridos’, they don’t really talk about love or breakups. They’re more about going out, drinking, and having a good time. I’ve never really experienced that lifestyle, so I couldn’t relate to it. Love and break up songs came the most naturally to me. My songs aren’t even written from personal experiences—I like creating stories in my head. “If I was this guy in this type of relationship, how would I feel?”