Hello and welcome to another week of music industry insight and advice here on the official blog of Haulix. We have a lot of great content on the way, and to kick things off we’re sharing the story of a young industry professional whose already miles ahead of his competition. If you have a site or journalist you would like to recommend for this feature, please email james@haulix.com and share your ideas. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Earlier this month we brought you the story of Tyler Hanan, a college student who has already become a well-engrained member of the music industry thanks to his drive, determination, and relentless work ethic. Today we’re returning to the collegiate world to discuss a similarly minded individual, only this time our featured talent hails from Florida and prefers to be called Adrian.
Growing up in a Mexican-American household, Adrian Garza was exposed to a wide variety of music from an early age. His love of music continued to develop as he grew older, but it wasn’t until Tooth & Nail Records randomly selected him to be a street team member during a stop on Warped Tour 2010 that he ever considered a life in the industry. Now he holds down the Editor-In-Chief position at his University paper while writing for multiple music publications (and working another part-time job) and finds that recent dream has already started to become a reality. Today he shares the story of how he got his start, and what he has to say may very well help other aspiring industry professionals find their footing in this crazy business of music.
Adrian no doubt has a bright future ahead of him, but the place he finds himself now isn’t so bad either. If you would like to stay on top of everything he’s working on, please take a moment to follow him on Twitter. Additional questions and comments can be left at the end of this post.
H: Please state your name, job title(s), and the publications you work with:
AG: My name is Adrian Garza. I spend a lot of my time as the Editor-In-Chief of The Southeastern Times, the student newspaper of Southeastern University. I also used to write as a staff writer for Christian Music Zine, and still work independently as a band manager and publicist.
H: When you think of your earliest memories with music, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
AG: Coming from a Mexican-American household, I remember listening to a lot of my dad’s mariachi music in the car, especially on longer road trips. There were several artists that he listened to, but one that comes to mind among those would be Vincente Fernandez. Even though I won’t listen to any mariachi nowadays, I know all of that time spent with the genre made me into who I am today between an appreciation for folk and country, as well as how I learned to play an acoustic nylon stringed guitar before any other instrument.
H: What was the first album you purchased with your own money? Do you still own it today?
AG: I still specifically remember the day that I walked through my local K-Mart and bought a copy of Switchfoot’s Nothing Is Sound on the day it released with my allowance when I was only 12 years old. It features one of my most favorite album covers, and it’s still one of my most favorite records. Sadly enough, it got lost somewhere over the years.
H: Having an interest in music is relatively normal, but deciding to pursue a career in music is a bit more rare. When did you realize the entertainment industry was the business for you?
AG: It was only about 3 ½ years ago that I realized I had a potential future in the music industry. Specifically, it was at the Warped Tour of 2010 where I was picked up by Tooth & Nail Records to be their street teamer for the West Palm Beach date of the tour. In the moment, I didn’t think much of it; I just thought it was great to help promote what was my favorite record label at the time. Throughout the day, I just had question after question come to mind while I worked alongside Micah Dean, their tour rep who also worked as an A&R representative when he wasn’t on the road. Somewhere along the lines, I mentioned how I really enjoyed reading HM Magazine, and he surprisingly offered to personally recommend me to Doug Van Pelt, the Editor-In-Chief of the publication. In the moment, I didn’t think much of it, because I really had no interest in writing for a living, but over the course of the next couple of weeks, I really grew to like the idea because I had always had a passion for sharing things with others. But I didn’t see myself wanting to solely working in writing about the bands who are already known, I wanted to be one of the people who gave bands that initial push.
With all of that said, a career in the music industry is just what makes the most sense to me.
H: You dabble in a few areas of music, but a lot of this interview will focus on your writing efforts. When did you first take an interest in journalism?
AG: I do remember enjoying this mass communication class that I had back in my freshman year of high school. But that’s really all I thought of journalism back then; one of many units in a mandatory class that I took in my freshman year. Until that offer came along back in 2010, I knew I liked telling stories, sharing the ideas that I believed in, and getting others to listen to the bands I loved, but I didn’t see any future in it.
So, continuing off of where I left off on the last question, I was basically given this opportunity when I was coming towards the end of my summer before my freshman year of college. At the time, I didn’t have much of an existing direction of where I wanted to go with my life; I planned on pursuing a degree in business management, but I really wasn’t all too thrilled about it.
I was in the music business program at my school for about a month, and while I liked the idea of getting a degree that allowed me to take so many classes that related to business and music, it was the requirement of performance related ensembles and mandatory lessons, along with the lack of classes that focused specifically on the different facets of the industry (booking, A&R, management), that led to me wanting to change majors.
When it hit me that there my college offered a major in journalism, I decided that switching over may have been worth my time. So I decided to take a shot at writing an article for the student newspaper to see how I felt about journalism before I made the switch official, and it was after submitting that first article that I realized how much I enjoyed it.
H: The obvious follow-up, when did you first combine your love of music and journalism?
AG: It was actually, my second article I ever wrote for the Southeastern Times, which was a feature story on Terra Terra Terra, one of Lakeland’s most widely known acts. It might’ve not been the best thing that I’ve written, and I may have needed a lot of help, but that was all I really needed to know this was the right path for me.
H: You’re Editor-In-Chief at your college paper, as well as a staff writer for online music outlets. Why take on multiple roles?
AG: I really like how I’m able to write and express myself in different ways through all of these outlets. I can add personality and emotion to my writing for UTG, but at The Times, I’m supposed to be more objective and not subjective. I will admit that I don’t like working on more than one album review at a time, and in that same way, I don’t like only covering events. Another interesting thing to take into consideration is the audience and the people I get to work with: On campus for The Times, I’m interviewing different faculty members and administrative figures, where my articles are being published and shared out to a campus population of 2000+ people. At UTG, I’m interviewing musicians, working with publicists, labels, and managers that operate on so many different levels, and sharing that out to a limitless audience over the internet.
H: Do you find working on music has influenced or aided your efforts in regular journalism (or vice versa)? If so, how?
AG: In my opinion, the two are more closely related than many would think. Both fields rely heavily on creativity, and both are done in independent settings. I feel that my work with journalism has given me the excuse to take the time to keep up with what people are into, and that allows me to put that into action with my work with music.
H: Like many, you make little-to-no money for your efforts in writing. Why do it?
AG: Like I said before, I started doing this just to see if I liked it. After that, I wanted to keep writing for smaller outlets (like the school newspaper and Christian Music Zine) specifically for the sake of building up writing skills. Not to say that I didn’t enjoy that time in my career, it’s just that back then, it was more about learning slowly than it was about diving into big and unique articles like I’ve done recently. Now I do it because I care that much about giving recognition to the bands who deserve it.
H: In addition to writing, you also run a management company. When did you launch this effort, and what can you tell us about your progress so far?
AG: I launched Torches Management & PR back in December 2011 when I was asked by two different musician friends of mine to help with their projects. The crazy part is that one of those bands, Eyes, was located all of the way out in Colorado Springs. On the polar opposite in distance, I also worked with another band that was located on my college campus, A Sound Asleep. Most of my work was dedicated towards the release of each band’s EPs, though I did start booking a summer tour for ASA that had eventually been cancelled early on. Some of the things that I’m pretty proud of is getting The Lakeland Ledger to cover ASA and getting some notable small-time blogs to review the Eyes EP.
Nowadays, I haven’t been as active with Torches as I wish I was, but who knows, maybe I’ll come across the next big band that I’ll just have to work with. But for now, I know that I got a lot out of those experiences and that I made a difference through them.
H: As someone working in many areas of the industry, what advice would you offer someone hoping to get their start towards a career in music?
AG: My best advice would be to not wait a second and start now. I know this sounds kind of weak, but we live in an age where there is so much free information readily available. Go online and look up articles, browse forums, check out books at your local library (I’m serious, you’ll be surprised at what you might find), then take in as much of that as you can. When you’re done with that, learn some practical skills, whether it’s coding, graphic design, excel, and anything else that could be relevant. Then go out and do something with it, even if it’s starting small.
H: The last decade has been littered with claims from those who believe the music industry is dying and/or otherwise crumbling as a result of piracy. Considering you’re about to leave school in pursuit of a life in music, what do you have to say to those who see it as a weak industry?
AG: This question’s always given me trouble in real life, because I will be one of the first to admit that in a way, it is. Yes, album sales have declined over the years, and yes, it feels like much of the bands that are playing so many of today’s biggest festivals are the same bands who’ve played them for the last several years, but there’s still a lot to stay excited about. The big four major labels have lost much of their coveted market shares to so many indie labels which have had the most humble of beginnings. It’s no secret that vinyl has been given a lot of attention lately, and that’s great, because it has opened up a lot of room for labels to go all out on the packaging, making for an experience that’s all the more unique.
H: What is your ultimate career goal?
AG: I wish I had one big and massive goal with my career, but I don’t. If I can continue to keep doing what I’m doing, but on big enough of a scale where I can be given more access to working on bigger stories and bigger bands, while getting some sort of sustainable income out of it, then I’ll be happy enough!
H: When it comes to receiving music for review and feature consideration, which services do you prefer and why?
AG: Haulix truly blows the rest out of the water in both function and convenience! I’ve never experienced any technical difficulties with that streaming service, and the fact that you guys offer downloads to those who are constantly on the go is a major plus.
H: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
AG: If I could change one thing about the industry, it would be less about the business itself, but the fans who keep it alive. I feel that in general, we as Americans are a little too spoiled between what we have available to ourselves and how much we decide music is worth. I would wish that when people make a claim about how one of their favorite artists releases one of the best albums of the year, they would all back that by actually buying said album. I wish that buying a t shirt wasn’t seen as a justification for stealing an album, because come on, sure you’re helping a band put gas in their tank, but don’t be in it for the fashion.
H: You talk a lot about the future. Before we let you go, can you tell us a bit about what you have planned in the months ahead?
AG: Shoot, there are too many things that come to mind! I’d really like to go out to SXSW to take in the full experience before I graduate and look into finding a full time job that would prevent me from doing otherwise. Seeing as how I’m only halfway through my tenure as the Editor-In-Chief of The Times, I still have more than a few ideas left in store. One thing that I’ve been on the fence about would be writing a script to a three minute short film for my college’s 180 film festival. Outside of all of that, you can still expect me be working on the best reviews, interviews, and news pieces that I could possibly put out for Under The Gun Review.
