An Interview with Hendrick Valera

0:00 Hendrick Valera because social media is making it really hard you know i have to be all up on social media whatever and his answer was like so wise i was like okay i'm gonna this is printed into my brain forever he was like you need to think back of the times where music was like something that was available for royalty you know these entertainers that would come like just to entertain the king or whatever those were the musicians that were getting paid because they were being loud they were

0:25 Hendrick Valera they were putting in a show that was kind of like their tiktok

0:28 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

0:28 Hendrick Valera so

0:29 Luke F. Walton yeah.

0:29 Hendrick Valera to speak you know what i mean Oh

0:34 Luke F. Walton What's good, everybody? Scoobert Doobert here for Love Music More. Just had a great conversation with Hendrick Valera, music producer, mix engineer, born in Venezuela, currently in Colombia. Had a great conversation about how he has been working cross-culturally and working in all of these different types of genres.

0:53 Luke F. Walton He's been on BBC Radio, Pitchfork, Billboard write-ups. And one of the things I loved about the conversation was just the way that he's navigating his career bigger and bigger.

1:03 Luke F. Walton and better rooms more and more impact more diversity in the genres and in the paths that he's taking the risks that he's taking the communities that he's building so a great conversation i'm really excited for you to hear it because i don't know it's a it's like just one of those moments where you just feel this guy's energy he's just so bright and so passionate and you can't help but feel it too when you're just listening to him so hopefully

1:30 Luke F. Walton this show will make you love music more because it's definitely worked for me and it's also the first time i've ever spoken spanish on an episode and i didn't do very well

1:38 Hendrick Valera Lo

1:39 Luke F. Walton so

1:39 Hendrick Valera siento.

1:39 Luke F. Walton look forward to that at the end before we get into the conversation i'd like to introduce our title sponsor distro kid distro kid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists get to keep 100 of royalties and earnings and today you can sign up with our code help support the show and support And support your career at distrokit.com slash VIP slash love music more, all one word.

2:05 Luke F. Walton I use DistroKid, that unlimited bit of all of the money and as much music as you want, that's music to my ears. A million plus artists rely on DistroKid to get their music onto Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, Tidal, Instagram, and all of the major streaming services.

2:20 Luke F. Walton And they have a nifty little app that you can have on your phone. You can actually release your music through it. I have done that. You don't need to tell anybody about that. But it worked well. It actually worked really well. You can do these things on the go now. That's the magic.

2:32 Luke F. Walton magic of the internet one of the other things that you can do is send splits or withdraw your money in the app which is great because if you're on the go and you're like hey i gotta pay my bills and guess what can do that my music because i uploaded it on distro kid distro kid.com slash vip slash love music more for your 30 off discount and enjoy this conversation with hendrick it was a really fun one

2:59 Luke F. Walton What's good, everybody? I'm Scoobert Doobert. Welcome back to Love Music More. I am joined with Hendrick Valera. What's good, my man? How are you doing?

3:06 Hendrick Valera How's it going?

3:07 Luke F. Walton I'm so excited to talk about production and your unique experience, too, in the different countries that you've lived in. You're currently in Colombia, is that correct?

3:16 Hendrick Valera I'm in Colombia right now. Yeah, correct.

3:18 Luke F. Walton Awesome. I'm so excited to hear about kind of the contrast in music scenes and what the recording cultures are like. But first of all, like, welcome to the show. I'm so excited just to chat and get to know more about you.

3:29 Hendrick Valera Thank you. I'm really happy to be here. Really happy to be part of the show. I think that when it comes to loving music. See, there's no one way to love in music, you know, everyone has their own story and everyone finds their own way to fall in love with arts. So hopefully what we talk here today inspires some people to either start with music or keep going with music because it's a great thing to do.

3:50 Luke F. Walton Oh yeah, I couldn't agree more. So yeah, let's start there. Let's start just kind of with your bio. So you're born in Venezuela?

3:56 Hendrick Valera I was born in Venezuela I lived there until I was 18 more or less I graduated high school and then I was like okay I want to study music but I want to study jazz music because I I started when I was 10 playing the flute and I was playing in classical orchestras and then I was like I don't really feel the orchestra vibe so I'm gonna switch to the saxophone which

4:16 Hendrick Valera which was the closest thing and I was like okay so what's the saxophone has to do for jazz first thing that pops into my head I studied jazz for a few years since like 16 and then I was like I want to go to music school but there's no jazz education in Venezuela so I was looking into Berkeley I was looking into the new school to two schools in the United States I actually applied to them I got accepted into both but I couldn't attend because my government Venezuelan government is a disaster for those that don't know

4:43 Hendrick Valera oh no look into it basically the government didn't let me go there and i still was like it

4:47 Luke F. Walton How did you feel in that moment? That must have just been crazy.

4:50 Hendrick Valera was really i was disappointed because like long story short it's kind of like the government gives you permission to access to the preferential rate of exchange for dollars you know so at that time

5:04 Hendrick Valera i'm making random numbers up because those numbers do not reflect what it is right now but at that time it was like 25 bolivars for one dollar with the official exchange and in the street market it was like 250 per dollar so it was like a lot more so i applied to get that preferential dollar and they were like this is not a career that is like a priority for the government so do you do whatever you want you gotta do and i had to reject the admissions and i was like

5:31 Hendrick Valera still looking i need to keep doing this and i found that berkeley has like these international schools that have like that teach you kind of like the first couple years of berkeley overseas and i found one in argentina i was like my mom has a friend there i'm gonna go there study saxophone performance in argentina i live there i think for almost five years

5:53 Hendrick Valera and i did the full berkeley degree like that and i did it with music performance and the saxophone and then i discovered production i was like kind of like this but i had it like kind of like as a minor thing you know and i was like i really like this what's about the plugins you know everyone's just like nerding out on plugins

6:11 Hendrick Valera i was like okay i do like the saxophone but i don't like performing live i knew always in the background that i wanted to do music forever i didn't find like that efficient to like i'm in love with this thing i could do this forever because i had as a reference when i was 10 my first flute music teacher she was a flutist and she was obsessed with music she would sleep with her flute she would like eat books of methods like in one day and i was like and if i want to succeed

6:37 Hendrick Valera 1960s music i need to be like her you know and that was like my north always but it wasn't with flute it wasn't with the saxophone and i was finding things as i was going and then i um oh my god

6:50 Hendrick Valera y'all are going to be hearing like a lot of like rejections but you're going to keep the constants that I kept going so I didn't get the Berkeley thing so I went to Argentina and after graduating from that Berkeley school I was like okay the next step as a jazz performer in Argentina you need to apply to the jazz conservatory and I was like hey let me let me see if I can do this I'm going that's the next step

7:08 Hendrick Valera and I go and I prepare for the audition I go on the audition that you have to do like some listening test first and then the last test was the instrument you know

7:17 Luke F. Walton And you're like playing the instrument or are they doing like a skills test like

7:20 Hendrick Valera no

7:20 Luke F. Walton running you through

7:20 Hendrick Valera no

7:21 Luke F. Walton the scale?

7:21 Hendrick Valera I'm playing you had to prepare like three standards something like that you know I think I was the last one to audition that day and I was listening to everyone playing I was like I can play better than this you know what I mean so I enter to the audition room with a lot of confidence which wasn't

7:34 Hendrick Valera it's a mistake so I I come into the room and I say some stupid stuff like something like would you have all the confidence when I say the stupidest thing I could think about and I was like something like okay who's ready to have some fun or some shit like that you know obviously I killed it I play really well and uh but I still like I was like why did I say that

7:55 Hendrick Valera few days go by I see the results I get like the lowest grade possible obviously I didn't get in I was like damn I really wanted to get in so I go and contact the guy who did the audition like the teacher I was like okay I really want to get better so let me get like a private classes with you so I can keep getting better at the saxophone so I got in the first class and he was like yeah I didn't like the comment you said he was like

8:21 Hendrick Valera it was like that comment you should have said it on your graduation not on your audition i was like okay i was humble yeah

8:28 Luke F. Walton that's a great thing for listeners too like somebody's somebody's coming up to the so much of the stuff that prevents people from musical success is not necessarily even the music

8:38 Hendrick Valera yeah it's like how you come across to people like you're not like by the the guy you're not gonna get in you know what it means i was like damn i got rejected i got i gotta keep going though

8:48 Hendrick Valera window so what else is around out here i hear a friend of mine got a gig at a cruise and i was like okay let me audition be a cruise musician see what happens i audition i get in i was like fantastic when i get in it was like what yeah

9:02 Luke F. Walton We're getting on the seas, we're sailing around the world, let's go.

9:06 Hendrick Valera yeah exactly so i'm like okay that was like it was departing from the states and i was like wrapping up my stuff in argentina my parents

9:14 Hendrick Valera I live here in Colombia where I am right now and I was like okay I need to leave everything here leave there and start traveling with the cruise I do all that it takes a lot of time so during that time I didn't even bother to check the music that they were sending me and I was like okay that's that's for rehearsal week because we have a week of rehearsal before going to the cruise we get there and I'm playing like kind of for two bands it's kind of like a pop band that's playing like Bruno Mars all these kind of covers that was okay that was good it was playable

9:40 Hendrick Valera well but then we had like a horn trio i think it was the first day i got there our rehearsal week they were like watch out for this manager like the day that you arrive he fired like three horn players i was like damn okay let me watch out for this dude a few days go by like a week or so uh no not a week but like five days or four and we rehearse with the horn trio some really hard like dixieland music you know like really up tempo and we're not playing good like

10:06 Hendrick Valera like not even the musical director which was the trombone player we were not getting the the music correct and the scary manager comes in his sisters play really badly he leaves and I'm like oh damn I'm gonna get fired the director's like no don't worry nothing's gonna happen nothing's gonna happen to you

10:26 Hendrick Valera and i'm like okay whatever we leave for lunch i leave my phone charging in the rehearsal room i come back for lunch and i have an email on my phone with the tickets back to argentina no explanation no nothing just like tickets sending you back home and i'm like wow yeah

10:43 Luke F. Walton Y'all got you guys should have called one of the dudes that you had like it was really good as the second he moved in just be like Oh, no, we're just doing a turn the

10:50 Hendrick Valera literally yeah no let's just let's just go this next song right you know

10:54 Luke F. Walton No. at that yeah let's move on

10:57 Hendrick Valera so yeah and i'm like well can you at least send me to colombia because i don't have anything in argentina okay we'll send you

11:04 Luke F. Walton yeah they're sending you to a country they don't have anything in how

11:06 Hendrick Valera exactly and i was like fuck what am i going to do and they send me back home to to my parents i go back to my parents while they're living in colombia and i'm like completely defeated i'm like two like so many else back to back you know what i mean i was like

11:20 Luke F. Walton fast how fast was that from

11:22 Hendrick Valera Like from getting rejected from the conservatory to getting fired from the cruise, I think it was in a one year span.

11:29 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

11:31 Hendrick Valera I was like. defeat it man I was just like this is so bad whatever so depressed this was I think 2019 I think it was before the pandemic and then they paid me for like the five days that I worked there they paid me like $700 and I used that money to buy my first set of speakers like a small Yamaha's HS5 you know and I was like okay you know I've been putting this to the side for too long I'm just gonna do

11:58 Hendrick Valera my main thing is going to be now production and i'm going to mix too and i was like okay that was in 2019 and since then i haven't looked back i finally found the thing that i could just be like 15 hours in front of a screen clicking you know what i mean just like my flute teacher sleeping with the flute you know i'm like going to bed and i'm thinking oh i should have eq this better oh this is why this is masking you know what i mean i found my thing you know that was around 2019

12:25 Hendrick Valera I mean and since then that's what I've been doing like full time I already had some like catalog before that because I had released my own music before and people could hear like a reference obviously it's not like all rainbows because you all have our ups and downs but like I think that nothing has made me happier all the instruments that I played all the experience that I have performing bands solo jazz whatever just like being on the computer and just like I don't know making things sound things sound better it's just

12:54 Hendrick Valera just like I'm obsessed with it you know what I mean

12:57 Luke F. Walton I totally know what you mean. Well, there's this crazy thing about, yeah, like. computer productions you have so much control and you can try so many different things you can go to bed or wake up the next day or go for a walk and be like i've got it i can completely rethink the way that i'm doing this and that's that's just so thrilling like you

13:13 Hendrick Valera yeah

13:13 Luke F. Walton have the

13:13 Hendrick Valera it is

13:14 Luke F. Walton one thing in your life you fully control you know

13:16 Hendrick Valera exactly yeah yeah yeah let it be just this one thing that i can control because it's just so amazing and like yeah and every interaction you have with people you know it doesn't even have to be

13:27 Hendrick Valera be music related it all inspires you to change why like you're wiring and be like okay i want to do this thing because it makes people feel this way or this other way you know what i mean it's been a while right with all those changes and taking all those else but like i always knew what the north was which is doing music but took me some time to realize what was it that i wanted to spend all my time on you know we all go through this that we see the jacob collier's and like

13:53 Hendrick Valera all the overachiever people you know like they're gifted i don't know like make you think that oh if i'm not like that i can't be a physician you know but that's not true at all like you you can just make it however you want at any level you want you know because it's just nobody's gonna make music like you're making it yeah

14:11 Luke F. Walton exactly exactly also with a lot of those people and this is i'm not shading anybody uh but they

14:15 Hendrick Valera of course

14:15 Luke F. Walton it's kind of a magic trick where like they have other stuff going on in the background or maybe they have a video have a video editor or maybe they have other team members you don't see but like none of that happens none of that works uh that's show business

14:29 Hendrick Valera exactly

14:29 Luke F. Walton right like there's

14:30 Hendrick Valera yeah

14:30 Luke F. Walton some smoke mirrors going on even

14:31 Hendrick Valera yeah

14:31 Luke F. Walton for super talented like granted

14:33 Hendrick Valera absolutely putting that talent inside it's just like for those that are hearing this and think that i can't play harmony or piano like this it means like i'm not good enough no just like sit down and do it every day you know one day you're gonna get so good at something that nobody else

14:47 Hendrick Valera knows how to do and that's basically how i got to where i am right now because like little by little i got to meet people that were like oh i i really fuck with his sound how is he doing this i like making music with him and like you you start getting your little you kind of like your little circle of people that like call you to make music for them you know sometimes it feels like it might feel like you're stagnant or but like

15:09 Hendrick Valera you know all it takes is just one little win for you to make it all worth it again you know what i mean for example like i i'm working on this song that is coming out tomorrow with another artist and it's like the first time we're delving into this genre it's like like electronic venezuelan type of music very obscure like not a lot of people know it and uh okay let's let's do this sound because like we're already we're already doing sounds that everyone is doing

15:36 Hendrick Valera and like we took the risk to make this song and we like we posted a little promo video on instagram and someone in the comments the basically the creator of this genre commented on the post being like this is brutal this is amazing and i was like what i would have never imagined this guy to listen to my music you know that was just like 20 minutes before i got into this one i was like jumping in the kitchen like can't believe

16:01 Hendrick Valera like he's listening to music and i'm fucked with it you know it's like and i would remember watching documentaries for this music like when i was like 18 and i was like that's so sick and right now i'm like i'm 28 now and i'm like 10 years later this guy is commenting on the stuff that i'm making you know little wins like that that just make it all worth it and makes you remind you that you're in the right direction you know that you're doing the right thing it can feel like you're lost but like

16:27 Hendrick Valera If you keep pushing, you're going to get these wins that like sometimes it's just going to be all wins. You know what I mean? Sometimes you're going to you're going to forget what it was like to be rejected left and right from like somebody that doesn't want you to produce for them or somebody that doesn't think you're ready.

16:42 Hendrick Valera like it's gonna start feeling like that was far away but like after a long time of working you know a long time of putting in the hours and like consistency you

16:52 Luke F. Walton Yes,

16:52 Hendrick Valera know yes

16:52 Luke F. Walton you alluded to two other things of risk taking, having people that you trust that you're working with, and then also putting it out there like so many people make music don't release it. It's like put it out the world like let people

17:04 Hendrick Valera put it out there just see what they think you know it might be the most amazing thing someone has ever heard and you thought it was but it was like lame because you it doesn't sound like this thing the things you've done before you

17:14 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

17:14 Hendrick Valera know made my day it was so cool to see that guy just commenting and like the song is coming out tomorrow so it just gave me a good feeling that people are gonna like it you know a lot about not giving up you know until it starts feeling like kind of easier you know what i mean because it's never gonna be fully easy you know

17:29 Luke F. Walton Well,

17:29 Hendrick Valera yeah

17:29 Luke F. Walton these things you can't actually really master them, but you can clear challenges.

17:34 Hendrick Valera yeah yes Exactly. You know, and that when you start to clear enough challenges, people see that you have ranking, you know, you have a little bit of ranking to your name, you know, people are like, oh, why?

17:46 Hendrick Valera How is he doing that thing? Let me contact him. Let me just see what happens. And also once that starts to happen, it's on our end to follow through, you know, because like I know so many talented artists that they just don't follow up.

18:00 Hendrick Valera with whatever you know because we've always said oh yeah let's get together to jam to make some music and nobody like it's very rare for people to follow up on that i don't know what the reasons behind each person it used to not follow up but i think that following up has made such a huge difference in my

18:19 Luke F. Walton I think

18:19 Hendrick Valera career.

18:19 Luke F. Walton that there's something there's like some sort of basket of like personality traits like good and bad that creative specifically musicians have because it's everywhere like I and I have it too where you know sometimes you just like

18:33 Luke F. Walton there's like a weird wall of like why don't i do that thing that i know i need to do but it just kind of like lurks on the to-do list forever it's like yeah but that's the most important thing on the to-do list and trying to like reframe your mind so like you tackled that thing the beginning of the day or whatever however it works for you yeah

18:51 Hendrick Valera and once you be that thing last like 30 minutes of your time it's just gonna take you 30 minutes and then why was i putting this off for so long

19:01 Luke F. Walton totally

19:01 Hendrick Valera you know just sending an

19:03 Luke F. Walton right

19:03 Hendrick Valera email or

19:03 Luke F. Walton exactly

19:03 Hendrick Valera whatever

19:03 Luke F. Walton just

19:03 Hendrick Valera you

19:04 Luke F. Walton responding

19:04 Hendrick Valera know it's just

19:04 Luke F. Walton or

19:04 Hendrick Valera like don't

19:05 Luke F. Walton yes yeah

19:05 Hendrick Valera don't be afraid to also send a cold email here and there bro you know

19:09 Luke F. Walton totally i do it all the time i like literally i i part of part of the way that i justified in my head is like you know what someday i'm going to be super successful and then this person's going to want to reach out to me and they're going to see that me when i had like a hundred listeners is like hey what up like you want to like link up make some music they'll see me from you know 2018 or whatever like

19:29 Hendrick Valera Yeah,

19:29 Luke F. Walton sliding in their dms like that's cool i want that future to happen i want them to come back around and see that i dm

19:35 Hendrick Valera them yeah.

19:35 Luke F. Walton earlier you know

19:37 Hendrick Valera exactly and like part of it is planting the seed you know just

19:41 Luke F. Walton exactly right why

19:42 Hendrick Valera like oh

19:42 Luke F. Walton not yeah

19:43 Hendrick Valera he actually reached out to me before why he might want to

19:47 Luke F. Walton totally

19:47 Hendrick Valera work again you know like work time for the first

19:49 Luke F. Walton you

19:49 Hendrick Valera time

19:49 Luke F. Walton don't you don't know where that stuff's gonna land or how long it's gonna take but it's just like why not you know what's the what's the worst like something you seem thirsty it's like well that's like music business is thirsty like we're all we're all trying to make money

20:02 Hendrick Valera yeah

20:02 Luke F. Walton like yeah

20:02 Hendrick Valera there's a lot of people thirsty it's nowadays that

20:04 Luke F. Walton hard it's

20:04 Hendrick Valera i don't even like like

20:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

20:05 Hendrick Valera yeah yeah and like i get it some people just don't want to like fall in the game but um it reminds me this guy is kind of like kind of a friend of mine that i met through other through the internet but uh he's kind of like a mentor to me and uh he has his own podcast about talking about music and um he gets asked the question a lot of like oh is he like

20:30 Hendrick Valera can you do you still have like equal chances to make it as an artist if you're not like extrovert or if you're like if you don't like putting your music out there or like because social media is making it really hard you know i have to be all up on social media whatever and he his answer was like so wise i was like okay i'm gonna this is printed into my brain forever he was like you need to think back of the times where music was like something that was available for royalty royalty

20:56 Hendrick Valera you know these entertainers that would come like just to entertain the king or whatever those were the musicians that were getting paid because they were being loud they were putting on a show that was kind of like their tiktok

21:07 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

21:08 Hendrick Valera so to

21:08 Luke F. Walton yeah.

21:08 Hendrick Valera speak you know what i mean they still had to be an extrovert and make a show and be the center of attention and like entertainers

21:15 Luke F. Walton Yes.

21:15 Hendrick Valera you know that's kind of like part of what some musicians

21:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

21:19 Hendrick Valera have to some

21:19 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

21:19 Hendrick Valera musicians have

21:20 Luke F. Walton get

21:20 Hendrick Valera to

21:20 Luke F. Walton it.

21:20 Hendrick Valera do today it's kind of like the same thing you still need to like go in the center of the plaza sing a little like canon you

21:27 Luke F. Walton Yes.

21:28 Hendrick Valera know what i mean because otherwise i mean you can still get amazing and like i don't know get gigs here and there but like if you were just out like a little bit outward with it you would get so much more

21:40 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

21:40 Hendrick Valera work done in my opinion or like much

21:42 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

21:42 Hendrick Valera work in general a lot more work to do

21:44 Luke F. Walton Yes.

21:44 Hendrick Valera in general because like it's been done forever the ones that call more attention naturally are gonna get more attention you know and it's like that mental block you need to get that mental block that is tiktok's fault or like instagram fault there's always no matter what generation you were born even even if it was in the 1500s or sort right

22:03 Luke F. Walton Right.

22:03 Hendrick Valera now 2025 you still have to do something to get someone's attention if you don't like that maybe i don't know you consider teaching or something like that but like don't expect to blow up to the same degree as the extroverted ones by being an introvert and just hoping for people to catch

22:20 Luke F. Walton yeah

22:20 Hendrick Valera up on you you know it might happen you know because there's always like the exception to the rule but like I wouldn't bet on it you know what I mean

22:27 Luke F. Walton but

22:27 Hendrick Valera I wouldn't

22:27 Luke F. Walton there are people also that are introverts like Prince or something they're like it's like I gotta do this to get famous and then I'm gonna have fun with it and make it my own but like Prince's persona versus who Prince was just in his private life seemed like they're two very different people you know

22:42 Hendrick Valera exactly yeah

22:48 Luke F. Walton Sorry to interrupt this very important broadcast, but it's time for one more advertisement for myself, for this podcast. What I'm asking for is for you to rate it five stars, share it with your friends. This is like the most important thing for this podcast to grow. So if you want to do this, you go into the podcast screen, right? You click on the dot, dot, dot on Spotify.

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23:14 Luke F. Walton stuff to share it out with the world i know that it's a lot to ask but if you could please please please just please just hit those three dots and a five star would really help us out and helps us you know get the get the word out and spread the love of music so thank you if you're listening on youtube you know what to do like subscribe all that good stuff thank you so much and here's the rest of the episode

23:33 Hendrick Valera yeah so find your alter

23:35 Luke F. Walton yeah

23:35 Hendrick Valera ego or whatever that makes you like cope with all attention you know because like and even if if it's if your goal isn't to be an artist or a

23:42 Luke F. Walton Hmm?

23:42 Hendrick Valera Or a famous pop star or whatever. if you want to be part of a studio session you also have

23:46 Luke F. Walton Totally.

23:46 Hendrick Valera to be liked by other people if you go to a networking situation which is even weird to mention i've never been in one of these and you're like a guy in the corner talking to no one with a like a plug-in company shirt and that's it that you have i'm like whereas you have these other people are talking laughing just not even talking about music but they're connected you know they're going to be invited to the next production or writing session you know you're going to be like oh you remember that guy in the corner what's his deal you know what i mean

24:12 Hendrick Valera i mean i don't know it can be also for studio work you have to get people's attention in some way make yourself heard you don't have to be like the most extroverted person but make your presence known like you're saying that basket of talents or like skills that you need to have you know to just like keep loving music and be continue being rewarded by it

24:31 Luke F. Walton yes

24:31 Hendrick Valera you know

24:32 Luke F. Walton i mean it's it's a collaborative art and if you want people to hire you like yeah just like any business you

24:37 Hendrick Valera absolutely totally

24:37 Luke F. Walton gotta show up to the interview in a certain way i feel like networking and music is an interesting word just because like what it actually is is vibe checks you know it's like less

24:47 Hendrick Valera Yeah.

24:48 Luke F. Walton about like oh hello sir what are you working on today yeah exactly

24:52 Hendrick Valera This

24:52 Luke F. Walton it's like is not

24:52 Hendrick Valera me.

24:52 Luke F. Walton really quite that it's more like do i actually want to be locked in a box with this guy for 10 hours you know yeah

24:59 Hendrick Valera Yeah, exactly. So that's the best description of like a vibe check. No, I'm going to this vibe check reunion. It's going to be everyone checking each other's vibe out. We'll see who sussing

25:10 Luke F. Walton 10

25:10 Hendrick Valera them out.

25:10 Luke F. Walton year vibe check 15 year vibe check

25:12 Hendrick Valera yeah exactly yeah yeah you gotta pass the vibe check you know or just be weird in a exactly room full of other

25:18 Hendrick Valera no weirdos you it doesn't mean that know you have to be normal it doesn't mean you it just means like you

25:23 Hendrick Valera yeah have to you have to vibe with each other like you have to be able to be like i could create with that person um

25:29 Hendrick Valera exactly what's the difference in vibe between like colombia venezuela uh argentina yeah

25:35 Hendrick Valera well I haven't been in Argentina for yeah a minute and obviously Venezuela like 10 years so I the music thing that I would be able to tell you the least is Venezuela which is crazy because this is where I was born born but for example

25:48 Hendrick Valera Mm in -hmm. in argentina it was so surprising to me moving out there first coming from venezuela because like people there love art for the sake of art you

25:57 Hendrick Valera Yeah. know in comparison in venezuela and a little bit in colombia too it's a bit more a consumption and maybe a party and music is involved in the party people like to party you know but not so much of like okay like is it in english the term busking

26:13 Hendrick Valera Yeah. where you're performing in public or like you know like at the metro or whatever there's

26:18 Hendrick Valera Okay. a lot of that in argentina people clap Oh, when cool. you're done playing people like give you money in here it's more rare there's still that happening but like people don't clap as much it's not like a culture of like oh this is what you do when a performance is over you know it's kind of like this guy gonna shut up and get out of the bus you know what i mean So a lot of that, I also noticed there was a lot of a big rock scene.

26:41 Hendrick Valera and i was in that used to rock music and like for example everyone in my class for music for music school there everyone had already like three or four rock bands that like had like their moment and they split you know like you know what i mean yeah it was it was like a lot of experience in bands everyone had and it's so normal to have a band for like 10 years and like nobody they'd never split you know it's like it's like a thing in here it's more like i think colombia it has a bit more projection worldwide because it's

27:10 Hendrick Valera Because Totally. it's closer globally to other countries or Tina at that time. I don't know about now, but at that time it was very

27:16 Hendrick Valera Yeah. Argentina Yeah, industry yeah, yeah. everything that happens in town It doesn't go out a lot and the music from outside doesn't come inside a lot Unless it's kind of like Brazilian music, which is next door, you know caribbean artists or like from center of america it wasn't

27:32 Hendrick Valera Mm getting as hmm. much down here than in argentina it's like depending on what you like to do you could thrive in one or

27:39 Hendrick Valera Yeah. the other you know what i mean i at the end of my time in argentina i felt a little bit stagnant because first of all i was doing something that i didn't want everyone knew me as a saxophone player and i knew that i wasn't going to be a saxophone player and i had the opportunity to move to colombia at the time that i rebranded as a that's a producer but everyone

27:56 Hendrick Valera Yep. knows me here as a producer and i think that i get more satisfying work here

28:02 Hendrick Valera Oh, I like get that. next month i'm going to argentina Hey, cool. for the first time in six years

28:06 Hendrick Valera Yeah. i'm going to visit her a month you know i want to take my time to do sessions make music so we'll see how that experience is this time around but back then i felt a little bit stagnant and i felt like the only the better gigs were going

28:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

28:16 Hendrick Valera for like the same

28:17 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

28:17 Hendrick Valera people always you know kind of like and it's impossible to enter that circle unless this and that i was like you know what whatever i'm leaving and and i came to colombia and i've

28:26 Hendrick Valera I've been able to mainly work with artists from online all over the world it wasn't like being in Argentina I was mainly doing Argentina or Colombia I'm mainly doing Colombia but when I moved here I started doing work with local artists I wasn't charging them or anything like that or charging them much it was more like a passion project for me to get some in

28:44 Luke F. Walton Yes.

28:44 Hendrick Valera -person studio experience

28:45 Luke F. Walton Yes. Good

28:45 Hendrick Valera because

28:45 Luke F. Walton point.

28:46 Hendrick Valera I didn't have much of that you know and like learning studio etiquette like vibing with people just connecting with people and becoming someone that people enjoy enjoy and spend a lot of time with which is a skill that you have to develop

28:56 Luke F. Walton Yep.

28:56 Hendrick Valera i don't think a lot of people are born with that because it's very specific set of skills that you need to learn and like things to do in the studio so i've got that kind of like ground practice here and i've got to work with artists

29:09 Hendrick Valera of like varying success like some people are starting out some people are like already have their career established and right now i'm working with artists that are like kind of like are the biggest that i've worked with so far in colombia cooking up

29:20 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

29:20 Hendrick Valera to come up come out soon it was just built through that getting to be known with the right people because i would see people and i was like okay this

29:29 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

29:29 Hendrick Valera looks like someone that's going to help me out that's kind of like a sixth sense that i kind of developed to myself i'm like okay i should should get closer to this guy or this girl that

29:38 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

29:38 Hendrick Valera songwriter that helps me with this that and it wasn't like it planned in a way that i was like okay this is so this other person hires me but it in some way got me to the next step and somebody else hired me but like i wasn't expecting or knowing who was going to be next but it's so it has been like a step up every time i don't know my own metric is what i want to do every year you know every year i want to like work with bigger projects bigger budgets

30:04 Hendrick Valera your artist and that's like it pushes

30:07 Luke F. Walton Yes,

30:07 Hendrick Valera you also

30:07 Luke F. Walton totally.

30:08 Hendrick Valera to become better because if you keep working in rooms where you are like the best always there isn't i don't i don't guarantee that

30:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

30:16 Hendrick Valera a great

30:17 Luke F. Walton Yes.

30:17 Hendrick Valera product is gonna come out of that you know and not disrespect to yourself you know because like but you're also working with other people and like the if you work with better people that are better than you your music is gonna catapult so you're not even gonna see it coming because like you're gonna be like oh i'm making these decisions that would have taken me a few months and a few feedbacks with artists before you know and now it's just like first

30:40 Hendrick Valera nature

30:41 Luke F. Walton yep

30:41 Hendrick Valera to just like go and do it right away because yes you're working with more experienced people and you know what experienced people like and that kind of like translate to the next person

30:50 Luke F. Walton well

30:50 Hendrick Valera in one thing or the other you

30:51 Luke F. Walton it's

30:51 Hendrick Valera know so yeah

30:52 Luke F. Walton true and also like staying uncomfortable

30:53 Hendrick Valera yeah

30:54 Luke F. Walton that's the only way to keep growing like the second the second

30:57 Hendrick Valera yeah

30:57 Luke F. Walton that i keep that like i'm like oh my god this project is driving me crazy like six months later i look back and like okay no that was that was like the best thing i could have done yeah

31:06 Hendrick Valera it can be like that yeah and like it's great and like these same guys

31:11 Luke F. Walton Yes.

31:11 Hendrick Valera the one that i'm telling you that the 1500s advice i i dm him the other day and i was like hey i'm starting to be invited to rooms where there are like big people you know or like bigger people than before how do you move around so people like know that you're ready you

31:29 Luke F. Walton It's

31:29 Hendrick Valera know or

31:29 Luke F. Walton a good way

31:29 Hendrick Valera like

31:29 Luke F. Walton to put so it.

31:30 Hendrick Valera you don't i don't know you you don't feel you don't come across as a newbie you know and and he was like when you have enough experience you know that you don't need to show anything off you know you don't need to be like sweating or just like trying to pull out every trick you has to prove something you don't have anything to prove because your experience

31:52 Hendrick Valera tells you that you don't have anything to prove to anyone you're just doing yourself you know and just having that energy or that energy change from like oh i need to prove that i'm this to just like oh i just need to

32:02 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:02 Hendrick Valera put what's best for the song forward that's when like your confidence starts showing i'm like hey how is he doing that he's not even overthinking but at the same time you're just chill you know you're just not like desperately trying to prove every trick just like listening to the music and as a person who has been making music for x long this

32:21 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:22 Hendrick Valera is what i think the music should do now because i trust my judgment you know and i think that that was such a simple but great advice that i was like of course dude i've paid enough to just not feel like like a weirdo in the studio you know i just be yourself you know and if you're doing something that's wrong people are going to tell you and you're going to find out

32:41 Hendrick Valera you it might be a nice way or not a nice way but like you're gonna know when you're doing something that people don't like you know yeah getting outside the comfort zone just like at some point you're gonna feel comfortable feeling uncomfortable you know kind of like oh damn this is kind of like hard but

32:58 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

32:59 Hendrick Valera you love it you're addicted to

33:00 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:00 Hendrick Valera it you know it feels like a rush like

33:02 Luke F. Walton Right.

33:02 Hendrick Valera so what's going to come next you know and uh embrace that you know i think that that's that's a great thing to just seek for what you're

33:10 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:10 Hendrick Valera here Yeah. and you're

33:10 Luke F. Walton I like that of the like reframing it to be like, I'm actually addicted to solving problems. You're like, give me a new one. Let's go.

33:19 Hendrick Valera exactly just let's

33:20 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

33:21 Hendrick Valera do this and

33:21 Luke F. Walton Make decision.

33:21 Hendrick Valera like make the

33:22 Luke F. Walton decision Yep.

33:22 Hendrick Valera you Yep. know don't

33:23 Luke F. Walton No,

33:23 Hendrick Valera don't overthink

33:23 Luke F. Walton but dude,

33:23 Hendrick Valera it like everyone says that you

33:25 Luke F. Walton that is so important in this kind of. it's a kind of work because think about how many decisions you have to make just for one song

33:30 Hendrick Valera yeah all the time just

33:32 Luke F. Walton exactly

33:32 Hendrick Valera for one track do i need to clip gain this do i need to compress it do i need to rx it do i need to you know it's so many options that you can do with one trick and like also with time you start realizing that the less you do the better things

33:46 Luke F. Walton dude sound eq

33:47 Hendrick Valera sometimes uh

33:47 Luke F. Walton eq has always been my ultimate

33:49 Hendrick Valera give me version a perspective

33:50 Luke F. Walton of that the longer i do it the less and less i do but like when i do it i do it hard when

33:55 Hendrick Valera yeah

33:55 Luke F. Walton it needs it i do it hard but like yeah yeah exactly

33:59 Hendrick Valera exactly it's like important moves you

34:01 Luke F. Walton i

34:01 Hendrick Valera know it's not like i

34:02 Luke F. Walton know totally

34:04 Hendrick Valera can't tell the difference it's just something like it can but when you make the right move sometimes you can move like 0.5 less in the right spot and it's gonna clear up everything you know it's gonna totally

34:16 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

34:16 Hendrick Valera open up the song but you have you have to listen for it and

34:19 Luke F. Walton Right.

34:19 Hendrick Valera train your ear and put in the hours you know because and then it's gonna become so easy and so like at your hands reach you

34:27 Luke F. Walton No.

34:27 Hendrick Valera have to be while guessing

34:29 Luke F. Walton Yep. and like when you understand okay this is muddy and it doesn't have enough bite to it and it's just not quite interesting enough it's like okay i got 15 different ways that i can fix that problem which one's like the coolest for this situation where

34:43 Hendrick Valera yeah

34:43 Luke F. Walton in the beginning you're like i don't even know how to solve this problem i don't even know what i'm hearing you know

34:47 Hendrick Valera yeah yeah that that could be that that's so tricky and another one that like even goes back to before mixing or before producing when you It happened to me, especially here in Colombia, when I started to work with other artists that are like so much better than me performing, because

35:03 Luke F. Walton Yes.

35:03 Hendrick Valera I'm the producer and I just need a performer. Sometimes your stuff sounds shitty because it was performed horribly with a horrible instrument. And once you get the same part being performed by that great instrument and a great performer, you're not going to need to EQ, you're more likely, most likely not going to need to do anything because the sound is already.

35:24 Hendrick Valera it's already there you know i was like wait why can't i get the bass to slap in the right way or to just

35:29 Luke F. Walton Yes.

35:29 Hendrick Valera sound without being like you know what i mean and then i get a real bass player i was like wait all the problems are gone i just needed to a good player or i mean if you can't get a good player just play better capture your song your your sound better you know and that will save you so much work down the line you don't you're gonna have to eq less and compress

35:49 Luke F. Walton yes totally

35:50 Hendrick Valera less and just like have more time to make

35:53 Luke F. Walton yes

35:53 Hendrick Valera the music not just one track or one

35:55 Luke F. Walton and

35:55 Hendrick Valera recording

35:56 Luke F. Walton i same same

35:56 Hendrick Valera you know

35:57 Luke F. Walton thing

35:57 Hendrick Valera what

35:57 Luke F. Walton with

35:57 Hendrick Valera i mean

35:57 Luke F. Walton singers man like a singer that knows how to record knows where to put stuff in their mouth so they don't have to eq it as much but for somebody that just i like and this i was i was this way for a long time as a vocalist is i just kind of sang the way i sang and then like deal with it later but now i'm so much more specific of like i need

36:15 Hendrick Valera yeah

36:15 Luke F. Walton a really hairy background part i need to like put it to this part of my head i need to like put the mic a little bit farther away all these all those little things you know it's it just layers and layers

36:24 Hendrick Valera exactly

36:24 Luke F. Walton and layers and

36:24 Hendrick Valera yeah

36:24 Luke F. Walton it is

36:25 Hendrick Valera and it comes with it comes with experience you trial and error if you don't have if you know if you're going to school because obviously in school they're going to tell you those things but if you're going to if you don't go to school and you're just going off what you do on your own because a lot of what i did also was self-talk you're gonna get to it but you have

36:41 Hendrick Valera Yeah. to like be curious Yes. to why is it sounding so badly Yeah. you know and don't be afraid to ask for advice look look up always for mentors because like i told you in venezuela when i was looking for jazz i didn't know there's no jazz education there but i still it was one or two guys out of the 33 million

36:57 Hendrick Valera Yes. people that we had in the country that knew how to do it so reach out to them the information needs to continue even if you're not curious they're gonna share with someone else

37:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah, so I'm so curious, too, about some of the things you're excited about. We're at the beginning of 2025 here. So, you know, New Year's resolutions, New Year's vibes. But just like you were talking about like that song that you got coming out that's pulling in some of that electronic influence and taking a smaller genre

37:21 Hendrick Valera Yeah.

37:21 Luke F. Walton and seeing what you can do with it. What are some of the things that just are like getting you going, like getting you excited about what's next?

37:27 Hendrick Valera For 2025, I am excited about doing, making music more in person and more worldwide. I want to start traveling. I want to travel more. I want to be in different rooms that are mine.

37:42 Luke F. Walton Yes.

37:43 Hendrick Valera Like I told you, I'm going to Argentina and I would like to go to Europe maybe to make music with a lot of people that I know there and just like keep pushing and like expanding my horizons, you know, because like.

37:54 Hendrick Valera like i think that that's what's helped me keep in my business growing and because like i always find the next artist i don't i don't stay stagnant with like oh i'm just working with this one or two artists i like to have like eggs in different baskets if you have enough time to make a lot of music you better be it might as well be with different artists that make different type of music if you like that kind of that kind of stuff i do because some people like to work on the same genre all the time but i like putting little eggs on different baskets and see and like i've had

38:22 Hendrick Valera I've had like the wing that I told you 20 minutes before

38:25 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

38:25 Hendrick Valera we got in the meeting I've had little wings from each of them that like oh this pushes to the next one and it helps me to grow with the next one because like I mix the music for some artists from I mix music for a Jamaican neo dub label based in Germany and it's they make like the most left field music ever and I loved it I'm obsessed with it I I feel like

38:45 Luke F. Walton Cool.

38:46 Hendrick Valera I was born to make it sound like that because it sounds so good and we've had a few already like like

38:51 Luke F. Walton Great.

38:51 Hendrick Valera features on BBC radio I feel like shout us in like very big like I don't know uh DJ stuff and I was like this is amazing like people that I would have never imagined are listening to music that I that was his experiment that was passed through my studio you know and that's one thing in one corner of the world then there's this other artist from Spain that recently won an award for like best new African music in Spain

39:17 Hendrick Valera And it was like, wow, I would have never expected to contribute to something like that. And I'm getting it there and just like.

39:24 Hendrick Valera little projects that you invest your time and you put your best in here and there they might not be all connected but they're all creating a web that helps you kind

39:33 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

39:34 Hendrick Valera of like confirm who you are in this world you know and confirm like what you represent to other people i've heard crazy stories and i've had the luck that in all this time making music since i was 11 while producing legit for like maybe 10 years i've never had to work with people i don't enjoy working with you know it's always been with people that have been

39:53 Hendrick Valera being respectful towards me that like what I do that respect what I do obviously compensate me for my work because

39:59 Luke F. Walton Yes.

39:59 Hendrick Valera it's always important to charge for you for your work like maybe one or two bad experiences in the 10 years because like I think that a big part of it was staying true to what I believe in you know and my values and those things are reflected in the people that you work with you know so they're gonna okay this is not someone that I can just mess around with or just

40:19 Hendrick Valera or just be responsible or unprofessional I always put like a professional touch to what I do and like it

40:25 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah,

40:26 Hendrick Valera led

40:26 Luke F. Walton good way to put it.

40:27 Hendrick Valera to professional results because like if you're just messing around not taking people seriously not meeting the deadlines you're gonna be disrespected you're gonna have uncomfortable moments you're gonna probably be confronted you're gonna have to confront people for something you know it's just not a good way and luckily I think that I've moving away besides those L's that I took

40:47 Hendrick Valera early when I told you I've learned from those experiences and learned to move in a way that so it doesn't happen the same in a professional setting because those were like the conservatory was like educational setting I guess you're in educational settings you're there to have mistakes to make mistakes you know and and the cruise thing honestly wasn't for me I'm glad I didn't end up taking it in hindsight I don't see myself being half a year in the middle of the ocean

41:14 Hendrick Valera just playing standard

41:15 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:15 Hendrick Valera i want to do more than that i want to make cool music cool weird music that weird cool people like you know

41:23 Luke F. Walton Right.

41:23 Hendrick Valera and it's just like you're not gonna get that at a cruise you just you're

41:27 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:27 Hendrick Valera not

41:28 Luke F. Walton And

41:28 Hendrick Valera gonna sometimes get that

41:28 Luke F. Walton those things

41:28 Hendrick Valera at

41:29 Luke F. Walton are traps

41:29 Hendrick Valera a concert

41:29 Luke F. Walton sometimes because they can be comfortable. If you can make good money, you've got a place to sleep, you've got a gig. Sometimes people stop moving forward.

41:36 Hendrick Valera yeah

41:36 Luke F. Walton Not everyone,

41:37 Hendrick Valera yeah

41:37 Luke F. Walton of course, plenty of people use that as a launchpad for their next thing, but sometimes people just kind of get stuck in that and that's the rest of their life. Nothing wrong with that. It's just

41:44 Hendrick Valera yeah

41:44 Luke F. Walton is a path.

41:44 Hendrick Valera some

41:45 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

41:45 Hendrick Valera i i met some people that have been doing cruises for 20 years and they didn't have any

41:50 Luke F. Walton Right.

41:50 Hendrick Valera with any light in their eyes i'm like bro are you there i'm

41:53 Luke F. Walton Totally.

41:53 Hendrick Valera like you know it's like i don't know i knew it wasn't for me you know and like i guess i felt comfortable enough to like be hustling and just like i don't know not making

42:03 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

42:03 Hendrick Valera enough money for

42:04 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

42:04 Hendrick Valera a while and then i'm not saying that right now i'm a fucking millionaire or whatever but like i'm definitely making a living and doing this full time and living comfortably and i only i only wanted to get better than this and it will be by doing the same things i've been doing you know just because like people i i remember um i think it was like a little akashi asked me it's like

42:28 Hendrick Valera my i don't think i don't think i made it because like

42:31 Luke F. Walton Mm

42:31 Hendrick Valera i'm

42:31 Luke F. Walton -hmm.

42:32 Hendrick Valera like yes i am doing the things i would like to be doing forever

42:34 Luke F. Walton Yes.

42:35 Hendrick Valera but i'm not at the scale i'm

42:37 Luke F. Walton Of course.

42:38 Hendrick Valera not yet at the scale that i would like to be doing because we always want to be bigger whatever you know uh

42:41 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

42:42 Hendrick Valera and she was like well in my eyes i think that you made it because you're doing all these things that people really don't have the chance to do you know you're like living off music producing music that you enjoy that you're proud of that you people like okay that it's not like you're not you don't feel like you're selling out and you're still like living comfortable and and

43:01 Luke F. Walton yes

43:01 Hendrick Valera having

43:01 Luke F. Walton yes

43:01 Hendrick Valera great connections musically and socially with people it's just like it's if you put it that way maybe i made it but like you

43:08 Luke F. Walton yeah

43:08 Hendrick Valera know i

43:08 Luke F. Walton no i totally

43:09 Hendrick Valera i feel

43:09 Luke F. Walton i totally know what

43:09 Hendrick Valera like

43:09 Luke F. Walton you

43:09 Hendrick Valera i'm

43:10 Luke F. Walton mean

43:10 Hendrick Valera chart

43:10 Luke F. Walton i really

43:11 Hendrick Valera you

43:11 Luke F. Walton know what you mean it's

43:11 Hendrick Valera know

43:11 Luke F. Walton a very

43:12 Hendrick Valera and

43:12 Luke F. Walton much the same way

43:12 Hendrick Valera uh i can't stop but like it's amazing that someone from the outside perspective says that that you that feels like

43:19 Luke F. Walton yeah

43:19 Hendrick Valera you made

43:20 Luke F. Walton of

43:20 Hendrick Valera it

43:20 Luke F. Walton course

43:20 Hendrick Valera you know

43:20 Luke F. Walton of course

43:21 Hendrick Valera yep

43:21 Luke F. Walton um but i i feel the same way too where it's like externally some of these things can look very successful and some of them are but at the same time yeah like it doesn't necessarily feel like that on

43:31 Hendrick Valera the yeah

43:31 Luke F. Walton other side and uh also the money in music is like not as much as a lot of people think it is it's so like you'll you'll always have to hustle yeah right exactly

43:41 Hendrick Valera yes i learned that i learned that last year yeah because like now now i'm 28 and i think that when you get to this age You search in a lot of your peers from like high school or

43:52 Luke F. Walton right

43:52 Hendrick Valera whatever that did pursue music,

43:54 Luke F. Walton yes

43:54 Hendrick Valera now they have houses, now they have cars, they have businesses, they have children and I'm like wait,

44:01 Luke F. Walton wait what am i doing

44:02 Hendrick Valera and I'm like hold up.

44:04 Luke F. Walton i've got some big news everybody my vinyl record is out we didn't make a ton of these so these guys are going to sell out and i would love for you to get your hands on one of them because they're so dope Nope. And it comes with a whole bunch of, like, liner notes and pictures and special stuff, the things that really went into making this record.

44:23 Luke F. Walton And I want you to get your hands on it. So go to scoobertdoobert.pizza or check out my Instagram for a link or click the link in the show notes or the bio or wherever you're watching this to pick up your copy. You know, they're going to sell out. We really did not make very many of these. And I want you to have it. It's like a collector's item.

44:42 Luke F. Walton Thank you. Thank you for supporting my music, and I can't wait for you to hear it actually on physical vinyl. Enjoy the rest of the episode.

44:50 Hendrick Valera You know, that's what that's it was last year. That's when I started.

44:54 Luke F. Walton yeah

44:54 Hendrick Valera Maybe I'm not making as much money as I thought,

44:56 Luke F. Walton you're also you're building something that's yours you're building something that is yours in so many levels yes

45:01 Hendrick Valera I'm doing something that is so different

45:02 Luke F. Walton yes

45:03 Hendrick Valera and like so that it doesn't have a path. It doesn't have a path

45:06 Luke F. Walton totally yeah

45:07 Hendrick Valera of like you study medicine, you graduate, you become a doctor.

45:10 Luke F. Walton you hit your goals you hit your sales goals and you get to your promotion next year you know it's like straight line yeah

45:16 Hendrick Valera Exactly. It's not like that in music. and

45:18 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

45:18 Hendrick Valera like even if you went to school for

45:20 Luke F. Walton Totally.

45:20 Hendrick Valera like film scoring it doesn't mean you're gonna be a film scorer you know what i mean and you might be 30 30 years down the line and you're gonna be i don't know

45:30 Luke F. Walton For sure.

45:30 Hendrick Valera A music editor.

45:31 Luke F. Walton I talked to a great guy who did all of the like sound design, you know, for for big films. He's still even like be like, that's what I do. It's like, yeah, but that is what you do. But he's like, I'm a filmmaker, like I'm a director, which is like also who he is. But he's a director who found this monetizable skill. And like that made him his money so he could make his real movies.

45:51 Luke F. Walton And like you can find those balances. I love what you said to about the light in the eyes. is because that's always kind of been my true north is i never want music to feel like that you know like i'd rather do a different job i'd rather you know

46:04 Hendrick Valera yeah no yeah at that point just go be a i don't know get a regular nine to five you know at least

46:10 Luke F. Walton that too yeah and then you

46:12 Hendrick Valera you're gonna

46:13 Luke F. Walton can

46:13 Hendrick Valera be making

46:13 Luke F. Walton make your

46:13 Hendrick Valera more

46:13 Luke F. Walton love

46:13 Hendrick Valera money You know,

46:15 Luke F. Walton if right

46:16 Hendrick Valera you make more money, you might get some of that light in your eyes back and

46:19 Luke F. Walton exactly or make the weirdest music imaginable because like it's not about money anymore just like go yeah get

46:26 Hendrick Valera Exactly. Exactly.

46:27 Luke F. Walton the light back right

46:28 Hendrick Valera And get the light back because like it's possible. There was one time where music was.

46:33 Hendrick Valera shining your eye making your eyes shine so hard you know so get back to that if you're not there right now try to find what make you get there it's like so fantastic it's so thrilling and so rewarding and like there's a lot of emotions that go through the experience of like making music but um it's amazing i wouldn't change it for anything i don't see myself doing anything else i don't think i don't think i could like my only real job has been in argentina because

47:01 Luke F. Walton I've been there.

47:02 Hendrick Valera i was really really down bad i didn't have any money to my name

47:05 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

47:05 Hendrick Valera and the only thing that i knew how to do was speak in english so i got a job at a at a call center that you had to speak english spanish and uh it was like for visa some some lame stuff you know and uh i did it for two years basically for the time that i was in music school i wouldn't do it again and i remember i was so inexperienced of having real jobs that i didn't even even talk about

47:29 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

47:29 Hendrick Valera the concept of putting your two weeks in. i didn't know that that was the thing so oh my god i had i was mentally planning i was like okay i'm gonna i'm gonna quit at the end of the month was waiting all the days and then when it was the end of the month i go to the counter i'm like okay so i'm quitting i'm working until today and they were like um you know if you stay like a couple more weeks you get more money you know you get like the full thing i was like nope i'm working until today and that was the last day i went to work i did how about

47:58 Luke F. Walton jealous

47:58 Hendrick Valera the two

47:58 Luke F. Walton i've

47:58 Hendrick Valera weeks

47:59 Luke F. Walton always

47:59 Hendrick Valera i

47:59 Luke F. Walton wanted to do that I quit. I'm out. That's so good.

48:05 Hendrick Valera I did that

48:07 Luke F. Walton it It's badass.

48:07 Hendrick Valera was so fucking weird I was like yeah I'm tired of this shit yeah yeah and I remember going on the elevator to leave the building like finally and like the my my boss was like coming from lunch or whatever and she didn't know what was happening I was like hey like

48:24 Luke F. Walton yeah yeah

48:25 Hendrick Valera obviously i didn't tell him i want to let the manager to tell you that i'm like bye peace and out yeah

48:30 Luke F. Walton yeah

48:30 Hendrick Valera it was yeah since then just like gigging music you know there

48:34 Luke F. Walton how do you make how do you make somebody feel comfortable in the studio what are some tricks some techniques yeah

48:41 Hendrick Valera are tricks there are tricks besides the basics of like making sure their needs are met like okay if they're thirsty they can water

48:48 Luke F. Walton no

48:48 Hendrick Valera or it's tea

48:48 Luke F. Walton great

48:49 Hendrick Valera if

48:49 Luke F. Walton it's

48:49 Hendrick Valera they're hot make sure they're not hot or you know just like just regular first make sure

48:56 Luke F. Walton The

48:56 Hendrick Valera that their

48:56 Luke F. Walton Sims,

48:56 Hendrick Valera idols

48:56 Luke F. Walton yes,

48:57 Hendrick Valera yes. they like seems the video game make sure they're they're good in that sense and then to break the ice i usually just like talk about my life a little bit to open up break the ice i can just maybe tell embarrassing story or like something that i always ask like okay what do you do today or what have you been up to this week just talk to me you know a little bit or i've been or i tell them what i what i did over the week something excited about music to get them a little inspired

49:19 Hendrick Valera inspire i'm like oh i was working with these other artists and these happened and they're like oh that kind of like gets them excited a little bit i think breaking the ice is easy in comparison to like the continuation of the session because you need to make sure that the vibe stays in some way you need to make sure that your your gear is right you know you can't be like troubleshooting for 30 minutes

49:39 Hendrick Valera like the artist is singing

49:41 Luke F. Walton Yes.

49:41 Hendrick Valera or waiting to sing and you're like you don't know if phantom power is on or what or what cable is the sound coming from you know you need to have your stuff in order the student needs to be good the vitals of that person needs to be good and then you can just talk like a regular person like you would talk to a friend because they're like even if it's like a huge artist or whatever once you're in the studio you guys you everyone is the same we're like at the same level we all respect each other and we need to move like

50:07 Hendrick Valera like that ask for their opinions what do you think about this music what do you what

50:11 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

50:11 Hendrick Valera do you feel like making today what's inspiring you lately you know from there it's easy because like once they give you the answers based on your knowledge you know what to do next you know and then that's when you start making the song that's when you whatever music tricks you have and just talk to them like they're your friends i remember last year a production camp

50:31 Hendrick Valera i was supposed to be at a weekend only for a weekend with this artist it was just me and him and it was like the biggest artist i've ever worked with i can't say the name but it was like i can't believe this shit is happening that i've been looking up to this guy for the longest time and now he's right in front of me i'm going there to check out the music i get there for the weekend i end up saying a week because there's so much work to do

50:55 Hendrick Valera and the first two or three days i remember my brain my head i felt like it was going to

51:00 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

51:00 Hendrick Valera explode i felt like so much pressure it's like prove it to this guy you know by the end of the week i did not have that feeling at all i was so calm i got past that stress and pressure i don't think there's one way to get out of that but it just passed for me and at the end i learned so much from being in that studio and being in that production session that it kind of like

51:25 Hendrick Valera confirm that I know what I know you know because like in I was like nervous that I was like I'm not gonna make the cut or whatever but at the end I was like I fucking killed this I was great I was productive I was keep I was on top of things I was engineering recording I was playing some instruments I was producing to helping with lyrics I was doing everything that was needed and if anything at the end that session taught me what I don't want

51:54 Hendrick Valera from my session so

51:55 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

51:56 Hendrick Valera what okay it might be confusing but what does what what does knowing what you don't like from a session help you in it helps you because if you don't if you know what you don't like

52:06 Luke F. Walton Yeah.

52:07 Hendrick Valera that helps you with what you like so for example if you go to a session or you're expected to prepare a session and you are a person that likes to start on time well make sure that the session starts on time in one way or another with your preparation i don't know what you need to do about it but if you

52:23 Hendrick Valera you find yourself working with someone that might not be on time then don't work with them because you don't like that you know if you don't like that then don't do the thing that you don't like doing so you that way you can start doing the things that you like doing which is working with people that are there on time which is being with people that are working productively or whatever you know because like

52:41 Luke F. Walton Mm-hmm.

52:42 Hendrick Valera It might have seemed like stressful time at first, but I was just easing my way into knowing what things I require of a session, you know, because not only the artist needs stuff, it's me that I also need a certain

52:55 Luke F. Walton exactly exactly

52:55 Hendrick Valera standard

52:56 Luke F. Walton yeah

52:56 Hendrick Valera of quality.

52:57 Luke F. Walton yeah i know what you mean it makes sense no because yeah you need this isn't just a one-way street like we're building each other's careers we're making something together it is not i'm just a tool that is working for you like we are collaborators yeah

53:11 Hendrick Valera mm-hmm exactly so you don't need to accommodate once you stop rejecting the things you don't accept you have more time to accept the things that you want you know and collaborate with like-minded people you know people that will respect your time will respect the way you work and like i don't know some good music will still come out of it great music will come out of it and it's not and it's not like it's not

53:31 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

53:32 Hendrick Valera all

53:32 Luke F. Walton yeah.

53:32 Hendrick Valera up to these artists it's just like oh we just don't have the same way of working that's it you know it doesn't need to be more than that the music we worked the music it just wasn't what i want for my i don't know the way i work

53:45 Hendrick Valera and that helped me make decisions for my future sessions you know and it helped me like this guy told me to gain more confidence it's like oh i don't need to proof stuff you know i already pay my dues in some way that i just like don't need to cater into any wild crazy need that you need i'm like oh this doesn't serve the song why are we doing this don't feel scared to just put the foot down and be like this is not something that i want to do yeah

54:07 Luke F. Walton I got one last question for you. It's a big one. So this is what I end the podcast every single time the same way. And

54:13 Hendrick Valera hit me

54:13 Luke F. Walton we've been talking about it a lot. But so the show is called Love Music More. The segment's called Love Music Why. And that's all it is. Why do you love music? Take it wherever you want. Take it wherever you want.

54:24 Hendrick Valera Music has taken me. to places that i don't think anything in life will take me to both physically it's taking me places that would have never expected to be and spiritually as well it's taking my spirit in in directions that has like made me feel as big as the planet you know it's just like it's it's an energy thing so physically mentally spiritually it all aligns in a way that just like It's just a crazy synergy.

54:59 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

54:59 Hendrick Valera I

54:59 Luke F. Walton Japanese.

54:59 Hendrick Valera don't know if you heard the term. I think it's called ikigai

55:03 Luke F. Walton Yeah, yeah.

55:05 Hendrick Valera Yeah,

55:05 Luke F. Walton It's

55:05 Hendrick Valera the Japanese term is something like that for me,

55:08 Luke F. Walton good.

55:08 Hendrick Valera you know? So for those who are not familiar, look it up, ikigai.

55:11 Luke F. Walton Otra pregunta. Sí, sí. ¿Por qué te encanta la música en español?

55:18 Hendrick Valera Sí. Ok, ¿por qué me encanta

55:20 Luke F. Walton Yeah,

55:20 Hendrick Valera la música? of course. Bueno. Porque la música me ha llevado a lugares que físicamente y espiritualmente nunca imaginé estar. Me ha abierto la mente, me ha llevado a lugares físicos que nunca imaginé estar y ha hecho mi espíritu sentirse tan grande como el planeta y sentirme conectado con gente que nunca imaginé conectarme y pienso que es la única cosa

55:43 Luke F. Walton Just

55:44 Hendrick Valera que me puede

55:44 Luke F. Walton guess

55:44 Hendrick Valera hacer sentir de esta forma la música y nada más.

55:47 Luke F. Walton I love it. I love it, man.

55:48 Hendrick Valera yeah that's it there

55:49 Luke F. Walton i would love to love to

55:50 Hendrick Valera you go do for

55:50 Luke F. Walton another

55:50 Hendrick Valera the spanish

55:50 Luke F. Walton uh another

55:51 Hendrick Valera to repeat chat yeah

55:51 Luke F. Walton in a year when i'm better at spanish yeah this was good man something to look forward to well Hendrick really appreciate you this is super super fun really really great conversation until

56:02 Hendrick Valera it was really fun to talk to you man thank you for having me in this space and much love to everyone talk

56:08 Luke F. Walton next time hasta luego

56:11 Hendrick Valera to you bye