Meet Michael Gonzales

We recently connected with Michael Gonzales and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I am the type of person that always has to have an active project or goal going. If I find myself without a project I will simply make one up. For example, when the covid lockdown went into affect, Everything that I was working on came to a halt. My solution to that was to release a cover song on Youtube every week for a year. So every week I would learn, record and master a cover song. Then I would shoot it, edit it and then release it every Thursday. On Friday, I would start the process all over again. I made it to 52 weeks. Thats the state I am the most happy in. My next personal project is to learn Willys part from ‘Death of a Saleman’. I don’t have a job that goes with it. I’m just going to do for the heck of it. I guess you could say that my default setting is “To keep creativity alive”.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Currently I am an actor. The twist to this is that I didn’t start acting until I was 50. I went to acting class at 50 and started auditioning at 52 before that I was a musician and film composer. With acting I do mostly television and create my own projects in between. For example, in 2020 I wrote and performed a one man show about my transition from music acting. The piece was called “The Ivory Thread”. This show did very well at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and won Best New York Premier at the United Solo Fest at Theater Row on 42nd street / NYC in 2021. At the moment my focus is on a short film I produced, wrote and acted in. The film is “Losing Faith – A fable based on the Night Stalker case.” it has just started to enter the film festival circuit and has achieved 4 Official Selections and has won 2 awards. One of them being best short. Getting back to editing and composing on this film was exhilarating. I feel that making my own films is where my heart is now. There are 2 films on the horizon that I am very excited about.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Quality one is that there is a love and passion for the things I choose to do. That is what that keeps me going. Whenever I attempt things don’t truly excite me , those things seem to fall away. Quality two is commitment. Commitment is a direct symptom of quality one. As a kid, my love for the piano was intense. I couldn’t seem to pull myself away from practicing. Leaning an instrument is a constant and repetitive practice that I have learned to apply to other crafts. Quality three is dwelling in the work of other artists in the fields I admire. From seeing as many films and plays as possible as well as attending music concerts from orchestral to other genres. Staying inspired is key. The advice I would give to one early on their journey would be dig deep into ones self to know if you truly love the craft of choice. The journey can be exhilarating but also challenging in so many way. it would be a disappointment to go through all that for something that wasn’t a true passion. Because the truth is, the key to success in anything is to never quit. Never. You want that passion locked in for a long ride.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
Not necessarily who but whom. And by that I mean, teachers and people that challenge me in a good way. People who inspire me to strive to be a better artist and just a better person overall. But if i did have to pick one person it would be my mom. She found me sitting at the piano one day when I was a kid crying at the piano out of frustration. She asked me what was wrong and I screamed, “I suck!”‘ Her response was, “Thats why you practice mijo. As a matter of fact, if you do ANYTHING a lot, you will eventually get good at it.”. It was then that I realized that I may not be as talented as other people but, I could practice a lot. That I could do. And that, has stayed with me forever. Thanks mom.

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