Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Martin Gonzalez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Martin, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
As I get older I continue to question what is the source of my happiness and always come to the same conclusion – to make music.
It sounds very simple, but is way more ‘complex’ that what it seems. As a kid you have dreams and as an adult is your responsibility to make them happen regardless of whatever obstacles you have in your way.
Reading a book called ‘Ikigai – The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life’ helped me realize that my purpose in life was to keep busy doing what I know I love, to continue to learn and to always try to better myself
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Hi! I’m a 25 year old composer, guitarist & music producer from Bogotá, Colombia currently living in the US. After graduating Berklee College of Music in 2019, I started my career writing music for anime, which led me to becoming the lead composer for the Rooster Teeth / Warner Bros viral hit series RWBY (Season 9) at Age 23.
I’ve always loved to write music, and everything I do revolves around creating it! from Metal to Orchestral music, or from Drum & Bass to Electro Swing, I’ve been producing and writing for multi-media, my band Atomic Guava and my former band Ok Goodnight.
In 2022 I decided to release my original music, and since then my life has changed for the better. I birthed collaborations with Richard Henshall (Haken), Elizabeth Hull (Atomic Guava), John Benoit (Resilia), Zac Zinger (League of Legends / 8bit Orchestra), Casey Lee Williams (RWBY, Ok Goodnight), and most notably garnered praise from Ex-Guns n’ Roses guitarist Ron Bumblefoot Thal.
Music has allowed me to meet incredible people that besides being incredibly talented I can call friends. I’m currently working as a session guitarist for AAA video games, collaborating with top tier video game composers & songwriting / producing for the metal band “Memory of a Melody”.
I wish I could talk more about the games I’m working on, but for now let’s just say I feel incredibly fortunate and excited to be where I am, and with so much more room to grow!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Desire to keep learning (there’s always room for improvement) 2. Ambition (nothing is too big – just keep pushing)
3. Extroverted (I genuinely like to make friends, to socialize and to go out of my way to trust people)
My little piece of advice is to stay true to yourself, believe in your vision – artistry and to don’t be afraid to ask for help when feeling lost in your journey. Good musicians help each other!
If there’s something standing in the way of your goals, act upon it and change it as fast as possible (easier said than done obviously). Let go of the stuff holding you back and help people along the way.
Lastly, let your skills speak for themselves when socializing with musicians. We want to work with skilled people but also (and most importantly) with good human beings.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
This question is very important for Musicians in my opinion.
There’s a short and a long answer:
Short: no matter what you do, whether is playing an instrument, songwriting or producing, your skills have to compete with the professional world if you want to make a living out of it, and that requires an insane amount of effort and sacrifice into whichever skill you choose to pick and work on.
Long: I think as a musician nowadays you have to be skilled in many different things. Maybe you’re very good at one particular thing and people recognize you for that one thing, but the reality (in my opinion) is that you need more than that.
For example – if you’re a great guitar player who wants to be a session guitarist and play on different records, you have to know how to record yourself properly, how to arrange your parts to fit in a mix, etc…
Or if you are a producer with no mixing/ mastering skills how are you supposed to present a product that will get professional people excited?
the concept of going all in on our strengths should encompass working on the important things we’re not very good at!
Composers need to be good at writing music, but also orchestrating, producing, recording and even mixing. It’s a massive skillset in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://martingonzalezmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martingonzalezmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martingonar
- Twitter: https://x.com/martingonar
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MartinGonzalezMusic
