We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jeni Magaña . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jeni below.
Hi Jeni, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I truly believe that there is something out there for each of us that lights us up. It’s not necessarily something that we have to turn into a job; I really think that’s a myth. I see people get lit up by swimming, or home improvement DIYs, or making weird paintings for themselves. I personally am lit up by music and photography, but during the lockdown of 2020 I found a lot of new things that still filled that same space in my heart. I built tables and painted nonsensical watercolors paintings. I also started learning more about synthesizers and recording my own music. At that point I had more time than anything else and so I was able to spend time just following paths that held my curiosity. I wanted to see how a polyphonic synth would work. Then I wanted to see what it would be like through my pedalboard, and then I wanted to see how that would sound if I recorded it. Once I recorded it, I wanted to see how I could manipulate it and what would happen if I added layers onto it. Then I made a meditation record, and then a full length record. The pandemic shifted, the world opened, and I went back on tour playing bass, which is what I have always done. And in the spaces in between, I kept being curious about what would happen if I put this sound on other people’s songs. What would happen if someone else gave me material to work with? What if I put the stuff that I already knew about music on top of this new experiment? What if we added drums? I don’t play drums, so I started with a casio keyboard. Then I started cutting those beats up to make what I wanted. Then I thought, why don’t I learn how to make my own? Every step in the process of who I have become was steeped in small curiosities.
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?
I am a musician. I spend time on tour for myself and as a member of the band, typically playing bass or keys or guitar. Off the road I compose, produce, and record music for commercials, films, and other artists. I am in the process of releasing my second full length record under my solo project, Magana, and am finishing up a record to release with my duo project Pen Pin. Our second single is out at the end of September!
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?
1. Curiosity 2. Openness
3. Preparedness
A piece of invaluable advice that I have never been able to follow is to be confident. Fake it ’til you make it! That has never really sat well with me. I find it much easier to forget about confidence altogether, and approach life with a sense of “what will happen if I do this?” If I could never reach out to someone and say I want to work with them, what would happen if I just sent an intro email saying I really like their work? And what would happen if I started to share the stuff that I was working on with the world as if everyone was just a friend of mine? With curiosity and openness, I’ve accidentally opened a lot of doors that ended up taking me into new worlds. My first production opportunities, much like my first touring work, came because someone saw me doing something that I really loved and sharing it openly.
The next key is follow through. Opportunities are excellent, but if you are not prepared to leap on them then they aren’t worth much at all. I got my first long-term touring gig because someone saw me playing a show and thought I would be a good fit for this band, but I practiced every day before that first rehearsal. I showed up knowing the songs back to front, and I think that’s a key to a lasting career. Also, if at the end of the day it hadn’t worked out I wanted to make sure that I was proud that I tried my best and was myself. I show up to every session I have with at least some ideas already in my head, even if I am open to where the music is going to go.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I feel overwhelmed a lot! I think that’s my first response to stress. As a person that has many hats, it is sometimes hard for me to keep them all in my mind where they need to go.
The first thing I do when I am really overwhelmed is to write everything down. Part of my stress comes from worrying that I will forget something. So I just list out on paper every thing that I want to do, big or small, until I’m totally out of ideas. Then I go back and prioritize them. Maybe since I’m in a busy season I don’t need to worry about this project that doesn’t have a due date, but since I’m leaving in 3 weeks for this tour I should definitely practice those songs. It really helps to make things smaller when I can see it all on paper. And then I went and bought a big month calendar so that I could physically write things down. I take a look at the next couple weeks and put in 1-4 tasks per day as I think they should be completed. At the end I have a much more manageable task list, and I don’t have to worry about remembering to do something in 2 weeks because I know I already wrote it down.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jenimagana.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maganarama/
Image Credits
Andi Taylor
