We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adrian Narro a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Adrian, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted the music field to be part of my future along my first years of self-teaching and learning to be a performer, to some degree. I took up software editing later along that time too, but somehow never considered merging the two up to my second year in college. Everyone usually has a period of time where they’re unsure where to go and my situation was the same way. I was certain about finding a major in the music field, but didn’t want to devote my entire career to performing in the orchestral world. At the same time, I was pressured into the computer science field- which wasn’t for me. Things eventually click before you even realize it- music tech and post production for general entertainment was the right thing waiting for me. This isn’t to say I don’t perform anymore, I still do gigs every now and teach music as well. That said, lining up priorities, the amount of time you divisibly devote to each thing (and the juggling/management) can be more daunting than any of the work itself.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a performer, and an editor behind the scenes. When offstage, I record and engineer the arts. Music venues and studios are essentially my natural habitat.

The cello kickstarted my musical career in school 14 years ago, while a dusty hardcopy of Sony Vegas 6 started my editing & post production run roughly around the same time. Presently, I’m a professional cellist, vocalist and guitarist for classical, rock and metal. I’m also a media composer, which ties into my brand studio, Mythos Post Production- where I spend most of my time providing enhancement services for entertainment, commercial and narrative works. When I’m not on the software chair, I play the role of recording engineer, capturing live shows for my clients or tracking their music takes at the studio.

What I plan for Mythos to be a different animal, is it’s hybrid capability combining music and general post production. It isn’t often that the studio taking care of your color, sound and edits can also provide all of your custom music!

What sets me most apart from others in the post production field is deep experience in both music composition and video editing. In any filmmaking context, these two are the most timing-dependent skills of the job, depending on each other synergistically. That said, it’s easier for one mind and imagination to make both these elements agree which each other- anticipating or reacting to the action in harmony.

What sets me most apart from others as a performing musician is my contrasting experience in both modern heavy music, and the classical arts. Rage and beauty is my sonic yin and yang, so when I can further creatively embody that as a composer, it feels great. The nature and uniqueness of the cello makes it a great vessel to do both. It’s a different kind of stage presence when you’re playing a classical duet to a silent crowd, as opposed to growling at a microphone or guitar-chugging.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

There’s this planning system called the Ivy Lee Method, and I’d only discovered it in 2020 because I naturally starting doing it before even knowing what it was. When Mythos became a thing, I had a small margined notebook where I just kind of started writing down 6 tasks to finish in a day, and focus in on those. The reason being: life got exponentially more busy once I found my way, and I started forgetting what I’ve done every previous day, which had a bitter aftertaste. I’d like to start remembering my days to just look back and say ‘cool, I did that’. It’s lame having a foggy memory with little to recollect. That, and I know blank spaces irk me as a pet peeve. So if I could bait myself to maximize production via crossing out the missing margins, it felt worth it.

A year after doing this, I went to shop online for a new notebook because my first was totally filled. ‘Six tasks a day’ on any search bar led me to the Ivy Lee Method, which had been in the 20th century by, well, Ivy Ledbetter Lee. I’d essentially been doing it without knowing it was a coined thing already. Simple idea but truly life-changing in the difference it made for me to focus on tasks and advance my career one step at a time in a day. It’s not totally partial to my career as a general completion list, but it’s helped in dividends to keep my practice/training and production progress going.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Probably a generic answer, but simply the fact that I’m working around what inspired me most in the first place is gratifying enough. No career path is ever going to be perfect or annoyance-free, but I know for sure life would feel infinitely more frustrating and mundane doing anything else. The various day jobs one would typically step across to finally reach a place working around their main interest/expertise will teach you that quick. It took a while and the road is different for everyone, but where there’s a will, there’s always a way to get involved and become marketable in what you like- even if the first steps/results don’t impress you much. They certainly didn’t for me at first, but universally the hardest part about going up is getting off the ground to begin with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mythospostproduction.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adriannarro.wav
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adrian.m.narro?mibextid=ZbWKwL
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-narro-633260167/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AdrianNarro
• Other: https://linktr.ee/adriannarro

Image Credits
Michael Rodriguez, Sophie Bakaev, Robert Andaluz, Joanna Yeh