We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tenesi Castro. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tenesi below.
Hi Tenesi, 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?
To start off simply, I found my purpose by sort of inevitably stumbling upon a concoction of three things for which I’ve grown love/already had love for in my life so far: audio engineering, lyric writing, and singing. Through these three things, and with the passing of a few years, I’ve come to realize that I’m a vocal-producing, songwriting, audio engineer! And I’ll shift the order of those three things around depending on the job that I’m currently working.
The decisions that I made in my youth led me to these things that I love. I was an awful student, I was mostly never really all the way there, and I didn’t fully grasp yet what it was that I’d eventually become, but I understood one thing: anything else other than something that had to do with making records or even songwriting would be impossible.
Audio engineering came around later (through a mentor, Mikal Reid), but it thoroughly fascinated and completely entranced me. For a while, because of engineering, I almost entirely shelved (vocal) producing, and even writing. That’s how enamored I was by it! Engineers like Barney Perkins, Phil Tan, Bob Brockman, Lew Hahn, Ann Mincieli, Donald Byrd (he engineered his own stuff! Aside from being his fan, and a fan of The Blackbyrds, his stuff is some of the best sounding I’ve ever heard [“Something Special” off of the album Action from ’77 is one of my favorite tracks, ever!]), Tony Maserati, Massenburg, and many others had joined the table of my heroes, at which I’ve placed people like Eric Seats and Rapture Stewart, Bud’da (Stephen Anderson), Static Major (Rest In Peace), Soulshock and Karlin, Philippe Saisse, Arif Mardin, Cynthia Biggs, Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff, Bunny Hull, Amy, Stevie, Mariah, Chaka, Hawk Wolinski, I could probably go on almost forever, haha.
Eventually, I managed to get an internship at Sound Factory in Hollywood, and that was sort of like divine intervention. I could literally go on forever about how much I love and appreciate that place, those people. I was extremely lucky to have had that studio in particular be my first taste of the working music industry. They truly took me in, they accepted and enjoyed who I was, who I am. They are so good at allowing for growth. In total sincerity, that place is among a select few. I can’t really put into words the goodness and greatness of the environment that they’ve fostered. Everybody that works there is extremely good at what they do. And they also happen to be good at passing on what they know to those that are willing to learn. You really have to go out of your way to have a bad experience there, haha. I would do pretty much anything for that place, which they do know; but they wouldn’t abuse that, which really says something!
Some time later, I was ready to professionally delve into solely playing with mic’ing positions, pressing “command-space” on the keyboard (yes, I was brought up by engineers that have been using Pro Tools forever, haha!), to perform punches and to comp vocal takes on the fly, and to just engineer records and mix them too for the rest of my life.
However, as soon as I dismounted into audio engineering, the feeling that I mentioned before, from my childhood, was gently brought back to me: it was not possible without writing or singing.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
What I’ve found to be interesting with the work that I do is how frequently the order of those three loves I have shifts around in the description I adopt while working.
For example, lately I’ve been lucky enough to be doing a lot of songwriting work! It’s been feeling like a dream come true, actually. Not only do I get to write to great records, and not only do I get to help with vocal arrangements, backgrounds, and vocal engineering/production, but I have ALSO gotten to meet really fantastic people with whom I love working (and with whom I’d happily work again); and on top of that, they believe in me as much as I believe in them! It’s such a great feeling, I feel like Bunny Hull, haha! (Of course, I say that respectfully and with no delusion of grandeur, because she’s Bunny Hull! I just really enjoy the feeling of rightness that this brings me.)
But something I love is how flexible the three things that I’m good at make me when I get to make records. I get to do one thing I love, and then whenever I need to swap around my hat, I’ll wear the other one, getting to fulfill another role that I adore!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the quality that’s been the most impactful for me in my journey so far has been aptitude: for record engineering, for writing, for music in general.
Some people are born with a gift, like Whitney, or Jazmine Sullivan, or Stevie; some are born with several gifts. My gift was not just writing, but it was also aptitude (and furthermore, inclination). Because I was inclined towards music, and because it was all that I had ever planned on doing (in one way or another), and because I wanted to do this more than anything, I was granted the ability to never stop trying to do what I felt a calling towards, no matter how bad I ever was! I literally never cared about anything anyone had ever said about me, despite how true some of the things that were said were. I used to be an AWFUL singer, I had never really taken any singing lessons, I learned everything I know now from experience and from other (better) singers! Not only people I know in real life, but people who I grew up trying to sound like, too; people like Chaka, Amy, Mariah, Whitney, Keith Washington, Phyllis Hyman, Donny Hathaway, Will Downing, Stevie, Luther, and once again I could go on forever. I didn’t get anywhere close to good until I was 21, and I had been trying since I was 14 years old, haha. I’m sure I would’ve gotten better sooner by taking actual voice lessons, but honestly I feel like I earned my current voice, and I’m only going to learn more about it as the years pass (which I’m grateful for)!
Some advice for someone that’s at the beginning of their music industry journey: if something feels right, it probably is, and you’re going to want to grab hold of it like a mechanical bull in a rented hall, never let it go! Even if you suck at it, if it feels right, just keep at it. One day, you won’t suck anymore!
Also, you don’t need to feel intimidated by anyone. I’ve learned that I can let go of that sort of feeling because it stems from things that are not true, like anxieties, insecurities, and fears. I’ve come to realize that there is no longer anything that anyone at all could ever tell me that would make me doubt myself, throw me off, or make me not like myself, and I learned this when I started to let go of those things that are not true. I’m truly grateful for this development, and I urge whoever may be starting out to let go of things that are not true too! It takes a lot of practice, and it’s never going to be an eternally constant state, but once you let go of those unnecessary, false things, you don’t just operate more effectively, but you also grow and appreciate yourself more as a person.
Be sure not to think your work is infallible: there is always someone who knows more than you, and there will always be someone who is better than you. Embrace this, accept it, and understand it! This is true freedom, once you realize that other people are not there to tear you down, but- inversely- are there to lift you up, to do great work with, and also along-side with to grow, you’ll enjoy yourself a lot more!
Some more things: don’t take yourself too seriously, learn how to take a joke and accept criticism, and NEVER be the one who steals the work of others. People talk, it’s a small world, plus it’s just not cool!
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking to collaborate with others! Particularly, people whose ideas I can help finish/bring to fruition. My ideal collaborator is someone who enjoys what they do/finds wonder within it in general, someone who will be open to my input, and someone like me who will adapt their own ideas into something that serves the record in the best way possible.
I always appreciate people that can appreciate someone like me; I usually say what’s on my mind, I’ve got my father’s sense of humor (usually no holds barred, my father has said some of the wildest [never outrightly malicious] things I’ve ever heard in my life). Everything is a reference to me, I see and hear the records that I love in everything, I’m a big nerd when it comes to producers and engineers and music history in general (people that I know have labeled it “Dork-for-Dork,” and they’re not necessarily wrong! If someone is as into rnb as I am, that’s always a blast!).
If I can work with someone who I can be really productive with, whether it be in vocal production, songwriting, or engineering, I will always be happy, and will likely come back to them with more work in the future!
I can be reached via direct message on Instagram, or by my email, which is accessible on my Instagram page (@tenesicastro)! Hit me up and we can talk business, or even just geek out about music we love! If you talk to me about rnb, particularly stuff from the early 70s to the late 90s, we’re going to talk for a while, haha!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenesicastro
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-castro-240300180/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/tenesicastro?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/37nciWVK7EnvZBW22shWdO?si=hj2h5Ym4TIOHFe2WNVjnpg
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