Today we’d like to introduce you to Julien Melgarejo
Hi Julien, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My mom is from California, my dad from New York, somehow I was born in Nevada and grew up in Minnesota. As far as getting into making music, my father has been a musician his whole life, funny enough though I never had any interest in creating music until the summer before my senior year of high school. I suppose I did have the interest, just no tools or know-how, having not grown up around my dad much. I started out by producing, making beats & instrumentals, trying to sell them online, but always found myself writing to them. I remember one day in college I decided to try to record vocals on something, I didn’t have any of the equipment or friends that knew how, so I literally used an Xbox headset with a built in mic to record. That ended up being the way I recorded my first few songs. I was already in love with the process of creating and music as a whole by this point, there was a mix up with schooling that meant I was going to have to take a semester off, and that was enough for me to leave and move to the Minneapolis area from Duluth where I had mostly grown up. Since moving down here around 5 years ago, I haven’t looked back. I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with some very talented creatives, and the music scene down here is levels above my home towns.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Nothing ever really goes exactly to plan, does it? After high school I went to three different colleges, over three years, for three different majors. After that, I left school and moved to Minneapolis with one of my childhood friends, I didn’t have a job for almost four months. I had wanted to use that time to really dig into creating music and I can honestly say, that four month period was some of the worst music I’ve ever made, and mentally not a great time for me. I’ve since been able to find what works for me better, but there are always highs and lows, even now I still have months that are great creatively and months that suck. The one thing that’s kept me focused is knowing how much I would miss it if I stopped creating altogether, I can hang through the rough, uninspired patches, because I know they always come to an end at some point.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When people ask what kind of creative I am, I generally say “artist”, instead of musician. I don’t like to put myself in any kind of box, yes I make music, but I might wake up one day and decide I want to dive deep into my photography bag, and then shoot a cinematic video and do the editing, and then spend a week creating digital art. I absolutely am connected to creating music more than anything, but being a creative in general is who I am. As far as what sets me apart from other musical artists, I put a significant emphasis on not being a one trick pony, you could take 8 songs of mine and every single one is going to sound very different in terms of genre, energy, mood, production, etc. I’ve been told my career might benefit from focusing on a singular style/genre, but I get bored, even of my own music after making too many similar sounding things. I wear just about every hat in the process of creating my music, I write, record, mix, master, shoot the photo for the cover art, edit it, deal with distribution, create & share content, and promote it. About the only thing I don’t do 100% of the time is produce the instrumental portions of my songs, I do on occasion, but not nearly as much as I used to.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Happiness for me is found in quite a few things. For a lot of musicians/artists, performing music is what they live for. For me, it’s the whole creation process. I love writing, recording, mixing, creating the entire package. Performing isn’t what does it for, and honestly once a song is released and out into the world, I sort of disconnect from the results. Of course I check my streaming metrics and want them to perform well, but at the end of the day, some will and some won’t. And I’m okay with that. Part of what has brought so much fulfillment to me in music, is the fact I’m making music for myself, that I enjoy. I hope other people like it as well, but not everyone will. Happiness is a rainy Thursday afternoon when I play back a song I just finished and dance with my dogs.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://unitedmasters.com/a/julixn
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/___julixn/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9PHeQ8puHM9bPx5DZE_IGQ
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/UUgNBwFqf17YQF2b6
