Meet Zachary Basurto

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zachary Basurto a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zachary , thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?

I learned to be successful as the only one in the room who looks like me by embracing what makes me different as an advantage rather than a barrier, or a shell that keeps me enclosed. I approach it in a way of this is me, this is what I like and this is what i’m about. From there, at least off of my experience, is when you’re able to move forward and even meet YOUR people.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

So my music story starts from way back when I was a kid. My dad, uncle & cousin were all Dj’s when I was growing up and still are to this day. Growing up being surrounded by their 90’s hard house / house music really struck me and my interest as a kid.

When I was about 12, my uncle gifted me with my very own vinyl dj system ran by Serato. At that age i wasn’t much of a vinyl scratcher and wasn’t really something I wanted to learn but I knew I could learn the basics and fundamentals of Dj’ing in my own bedroom everyday and that I did.

All throughout high school I would throw little raves and shows in my garage for sometimes a full house and sometimes just my 2 friends. When I was 18, I finally got my very first gig for a huge artist as well in Downey, California. From that show my career just absolutely took off. Venue staff, security guards, and people in the crowd asked for my socials and I started to grow my own fan base from there and my name started to get around.

At this time, I was in college studying business and learning about management, this I knew was something I could throw into my career and I did just that when it came to my social media, gathering photographer’s for my shows to capture media, learning how to use the social media algorithm and promotion.

As time went on, more and more shows came and at 21 I played my first Insomniac show at Academy LA for Svdden Death. That one show really started to bloom my career as I met my manager and some idol artists of mine.

At this time I knew I had to get my branding down as the brand was gathering much more attention. I’ve always had the music for DatTrak horror themed and I stuck to it as horror and horror music is a huge part of me.

I grew up to 80’s horror movies from my parents and grew up watching all of the classic black & white universal monsters as well. The one thing that got me with specifically 80’s horror is the soundtracks. Those nightmarish analog synthesizer 80’s sounds are some thing I ended up falling in love with and knew it was something I wanted to have in DatTrak. I make every song as if it’s a horror movie, the intro, the suspense, the build, and what I like to call the drops, the kill. If you pay close attention to my music, you’ll notice every song has a knife sound, that’s for my love of slasher 80’s films and is a trademark sound for DatTrak.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three things that were crucial for me at least were branding, having your own sound, and connections.

Your branding is important because it mainly makes people recognize you, your band, or your company. It also builds your fan base, for example, my brand is 80’s horror and some people listen to my music just because they also love 80’s horror and they can have that with DatTrak in the form of music.

Next is your sound, to me that’s the biggest thing. This is the biggest thing because this is what’s gonna make YOU unique. When you pitch your music to managers and labels, they look for uniqueness in your craft, not someone who sounds just like Diplo or Dj Snake, they want you for YOU and so will your fan base. This is what will separate you from everyone else in the scene, especially in your genre.

Lastly, connections. This is the thing, especially in today’s scene, that will make you get from point A to B, even if your music is amazing. Meeting people and higher ups in the scene is crucial to your brand performance. This is your main source of how you will get your bookings which leads to fan growth, brand exposure and social media reposts. This can open many doors for you and could make you next hit artist.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

The most common and at times worst obstacle to face as an artist is writers block. This is when you can’t produce any music and your mind can’t come up with anything for a song, at times this can last for weeks.

This is gonna be one thing every artist will NEED to learn to overcome and for me, it’s actually not making music and watching 80’s horror movies. Why? Well my branding and it’s also a thing I love besides music. From there your mind will feel at ease from not being forced to create a music idea and you’ll actually get ideas by going to your source of motivation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/DatTrak
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dattrakmusic/
• Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/Z1UeQzKCWu6WMEoVA

Image Credits

Cj Sters