Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Soto.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up, I had an insane amount of hobbies and every time I discovered a new one I felt like I found my true passion in life. It was everything from painter to paleontologist (which lasted 3 years). With every hobby though, I would eventually get bored and outgrow it. Music, was something that sort of weirdly creeped up on me. My dad is a pianist and my mom are a singer, as well as my sister who will periodically sing on my songs, so, growing up I was surrounded by music. I learned to play the drums in my church and with all of that I slowly became interested in songwriting and music. I never knew what I wanted to make music with though, I loved rock but I couldn’t sing and then one day in seventh grade one of my friends showed me a Skrillex song and for the first time I was exposed to electronic music. With that, I dove into a deep hole on the history and inner-workings of electronic music and taught myself everything. I’ve been making music for about seven years now and have discovered that that, is my true passion.
Please tell us about your art.
I make music using Ableton Live. The songs I make are not your traditional ‘bangers’. Originally, I wanted to create that but my heart eventually was drawn to focus on more melodic music, mainly music with a message. I want to write songs that people can dance to but also identify with. The way I begin making music is usually by recording a cord progression and building off of that. One I begin to make the progression and program the sounds I want with that melody I usually end up writing the lyrics before progressing further. A lot of what I write about is about things I wish I had heard, words I know I once needed. I write for the 15-year-old me who sometimes felt alone, and the 17-year-old me who loves to blast music while speeding down a country road at night. What I hope people take away is inspiration to create themselves, and to know that they are not alone.
My music is also being released in a different way than normally done. I don’t like the idea of albums. Essentially, I don’t like the way albums are released with gaps of years in between. I love creating and sharing what I create immediately after I make it. There are some songs I have that I am releasing alongside others because they either go together or are part of a story. Essentially, the way I release my music is through ‘eras’. Basically, I’m releasing an album but slowly. Right now, the series I’m releasing is titled, “A Time for Harmony”. everything I’m making is centered around bringing harmony to myself as I am in a really crazy place in life right now, so my music is being used to bring harmony in everything I am experiencing. Everything I write about is things I am dealing with in real time, or things I need to express now.
The reason I’m doing it this way is to be able to have people connect with me in real time, and experience what I am experiencing at the same time, or writing things that inspire me in these moments. It feels more personal.
As an artist, how do you define success and what quality or characteristic do you feel is essential to success as an artist?
I define success as making my mark on this world or on a person if my music can touch at least one soul or save one life, then I have served my purpose. I know I need to make money to do the essentials like eating and owning a home but it’s never been about the money for me. I think as an artist, you need to put your art above money to be able to truly reach success and touch people. If you follow the money you’ll end up creating things that have no real soul. You can feel when music is honest and true and when it was made for the radio. besides that, determination and willingness to look absolute failure in the face and be willing to go on either way. A lot of times people only see the success, but never what that artist had to go through to arrive there. Determination isn’t enough, I believe you have to be a little stupid and willing to go all in to able to truly drive yourself to where you want to get.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Right now I released one single in what’s going to be a stream of singles, currently you can buy/stream that here:
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/S_HeavySummers
iTunes: http://smarturl.it/it_HeavySummers
Apple Music: http://smarturl.it/AM_HeavySummers
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/Amz_HeavySummers
Soundcloud: http://smarturl.it/SC_HeavySummers
You can support me by sharing my work with people, or following my social medias.
Contact Info:
- Website: soundcloud.com/victorsotoiii
- Email: victorsotoproductions@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialvictorsoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VictorSotoMusicProductions/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_victorsotoiii
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/victorsotoiii
Image Credit:
Breanne Wilhite, Richard Alvarenga
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