Can we start off with your name and grade?

yeah, so my name is Marcos, Marcos Torres Gutierrez, and my grade is 12th grade.

So tell me a little bit about yourself.

Yeah. So, like, I, I grew up with like a single mother. My mom has to take care of like three kids. And I was like her middle child, her son. But even though I’m the middle child, I’d say I’m her favorite. But yeah, I mean, growing up, I had a single mother, so we’ve been kind of rough, like, food wise and finding a home that’s sustainable. So that’s how I’ve always lived, like in rough apartments, never really had a stable home. Up until like, I guess, when I was in sixth grade. That was when I really started living in this one apartment. But before that, it was just constant moving in. So it would be kind of hard to make, like long term friends. When I was a child, especially when I was in elementary school, and before that, I would move from house to house or apartment to apartment around us.

So when I see you in the hallways or  after school, I’d see that you have your guitar, And funny enough, I think that’s  one of the things that I associate mostly with you. So how did you start,  with music in general?

So it was the ninth grade, actually I’d say I was like pre ninth grade. I was probably very anti anti-music and actually didn’t like every time someone brought up like, oh, “what music do you like?” I never had an answer. And I would always just answer that just I liked music, But it’s what the point of it, you know? but then I listened to this one artist named Cuco. And he was one of the first artists that I actually liked their music. Before that it was just all pop music. And I’m like, Okay, I guess I would just say this song I’ve heard. Like, what’s your favorite song? I just said some Imagine Dragon song. But when I found Cuco, I really liked the sound of his music. It was stellar music that I liked. And ever since, like, I found Cuco I just started exploring more into that genre, which is like bedroom pop, indie music. And that’s when I’m like, “Oh, man. I really like music, you know, I should learn to play an instrument.” So I started learning to play the piano. And I was looking for him on YouTube with how to play his most recognizable songs, my favorite songs from him. And then there was like, I mean, that’s what got me interested in playing an instrument, right? Listening to him, but then after that, it was one of my mom’s friends. It was during COVID whenever we weren’t locked down. My mom would have a friend that would come over, and he would always bring his guitar, an acoustic guitar, And when I heard him play, I’m like, “Wow, I want to learn that now. Like I’m done with piano I want to learn guitar now.” Then he taught me, the few basic open chords, things like melodies on the guitar, you know, ever since then I just started playing it like every day just because I love the songs and the guitar. It’s so beautiful. That’s really what got me into music.

So would you say you’re self taught? I mean you did mention right now that you know you had someone who helped you out learning some of it.

Yeah, I would. I would consider myself mostly self taught, my mom’s friend really only helped me with like, like open chords, the first like basic basic chords that you learn in guitar.

But after that I just explored it, like I looked into YouTube. Searching up how to play this song or how to play this chord on the guitar. And like, it was all me, it was all on YouTube. So everything that I’ve learned after those basic chords was all from YouTube, just Googling stuff.

Would you say you’d probably build a career around music? or continuing with music?

So I definitely want to. I mean I like this but because I started so late, like, I was like barely 15 I never really grew up like reading music or was never in band before that. So, I mean, pursuing a career today’s it’s going to be quite challenging. But I am looking into producing music, not performing, but actually producing on a computer with software and learning how to use the machines to perfect the sound on your own or of other artists.

All right, well, yeah, that’s pretty much all I have. If there’s anything else you’d like to say or you know, it was like going out there.

I guess good luck to anyone who is pursuing a career in music. And good luck for anyone in any career.

Do you have any music that is public that you’d like to share?

Yeah, during the summer, it was on my birthday when I released it. I released it as a mini EP. It’s just more it’s an instrumental. So EP, “Ethereal of music to listen to”. It’s on SoundCloud. By the name of Ayoisthatmarcos.