Meet Stevie Garcia

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stevie Garcia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stevie below.

Stevie, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

The ability to take risk can explored in all areas of life. I like to refer to practicing music, as a way to learn important life lessons. When you’re learning a new passage, you’re going to make mistakes. This is fine, but you want to learn how to lower your risk of a mistake, through careful attention and precision. Maybe improvising over a crazy complicated chord, is risky at first, but eventually becomes second nature. Over time, risks becomes smaller, until they are basically not a risk anymore. By constantly taking small risks and succeeding, you become more skilled overall. Risks don’t have to be a dangerous thing; take the appropriate steps to build your skills. Nevertheless risk is necessary. Being a professional musician involves constantly taking risks. by making literal bets on yourself with others. This happens when you say you can complete the goal in the timeframe required. Now, that requirement might be: to successfully sight read a piece of music in 30 seconds, or to learn 40 songs In three days, or to create a fully produced track 24 Hours. Developing the ability to take risks is about taking as many opportunities as you can, to meet the limits of your abilities, and pushing yourself to succeed, which ultimately stretches the max limits of your abilities. You need to be comfortable with assessing your limits, while also not being afraid to push them further. In a way, learning how to take risks becomes a lifestyle. You can become fearless by developing yourself in all areas. You should challenge yourself to talk to that cute girl you’re really interested in, to wear that crazy outfit that makes you feel good, to stand up for yourself and your beliefs, even if you may be the only one to hold them. Just start with small calculated risks and build your way up to bigger feats. Eventually even the biggest accomplishments to others, may not be much of a risk to you at all, but never shy away from the opportunity to face a great challenge, and push yourself to the next level.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a full-time Music Performer, creator, producer, as well as overall enthusiast of science, philosophy, nature, and the arts. I feel like music is a special opportunity to imbue the thoughts and feelings of myself and the world, into a language that is bound by no single culture, religion, or land. My brand is one that connects the past and the future together now; the retro future. I love the artistic accomplishments of all eras of humanity, so I take influence from the greatness of all eras and make them a part of me, so that I may rediscover the truth, and reflect it now, in a way that could only exist today. Classical, Baroque, Future sci-fi, Psychedelic, Soul, Rock ‘n’ roll, and Jazz are some of my favorite expressions. If you want to catch me at a live show I will be performing soon in the rock musical, Tarantino: Pulp Rock, Live At the CineVita In Hollywood Park by Sofi Stadium, February 11 – March 9.

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?

I think you need to have tenacity, the desire to constantly learn more, and the commitment to do your best work. I think it’s good to look up to examples of people better than you at what you want to do, and study their lifestyles, so you can become successful. I think many people successful people have these three qualities. When an opportunity arises that would be a good fit, you should apply, and don’t be too concerned if it works out or not, because you know you’re going to keep applying, keep seeking opportunities, and keep practicing no matter what happens. That’s the tenacity you need to really succeed at anything. You’re gonna keep doing it no matter what anyone says or does, or tells you. With repetition you will improve and your opportunity will come. I feel like there are only two directions to go, better or worse, so I choose better. The way you become better is to learn something new every day. You should walk away from every “practice session” better than you started. Read books on subjects you want to improve on, learn songs that have passages which intrigue you, listen to interviews from masters in your field. You should even learn from people who are masters in other fields. Being around greatness rubs off on you, so why not also keep great company with books and audio, as well as in person. The world is constantly changing, so your long-term survival depends on you being able to change with it. You should strive to do the best job that you can do, because otherwise you will cheat yourself of the opportunity to grow into your greatest potential. Maybe instead of doing the job in one hour, you spend four, because you can afford the time, and the result will be better. If you keep doing this, eventually the job that took you four hours will now take you one hour. You can keep repeating this situation and become even greater multiple times over. Eventually you won’t have four hours to get the job done, and you’re going to be grateful you put in that time before, or you’re going to regret it, because now you can’t keep the job.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

When I become really overwhelmed with a lot of things, something that really helps me is to just write it all down in a list on a piece of paper, and just start tackling them one at a time, in order of urgency, crossing them out along the way. It’s really simple but it helps me. Try to write all the things you need to do, and then separately write the things you can fit in one day. Even if you don’t finish all the things in one day, it’s still better to make progress than just worry about everything. Just get to the rest, the next day. If one of your points seems too complex to conceive of, make sub bullet points and tackle those individually. I definitely wanna work out a more effective system, but this has gotten me out of my most intense jams. Another point I wanna talk about separating yourself from yourself. Like when I’m driving all over the place, or traveling, and I feel exhausted and have to go perform music, I try to look at myself like a soccer mom taking the kids to the game or practice. You do the hard work because you love that part of yourself and want to take care of it, and when it’s time, let go of all of that stress and just enjoy the joy of music in the moment. Learning to protect the joy of music, or whatever you love in your life, is one of the most important keys to longevity and success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://steviegarcia.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/steviegarciamusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steve.garcia.98284/