We were lucky to catch up with Luis Guerrero recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Luis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

The first dollar I ever made from a creative job was when I played a show with my metal band back when I was 17 years old. I was still in high school, I never really thought that I wanted to play music for a living. At the time I was just having fun playing music with friends. The band was called “Feast of Heads” because, you know, we were pretty metal and all. I remember we opened for another band and that the venue was a half skate shop and half music venue. Needless to say, the place was pretty crappy but it was certainly a place I would never forget. The venue was packed and the audience which was filled with emo or scene teenagers made for a fantastic night. I had an amazing experience, I played as well as I could have and the band sounded incredible. I have since watched some videos of that night and I am definitely a much better musician now but that moment was absolutely incredible

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 musician that plays guitar and occasionally a digital controller. I play music all around town from private events, to Disney Springs stages, to stadium performances. I’ve liked music as far as I can remember and before thinking about income, I was just trying to get better at my musicianship. I got my degree in Jazz Studies which is basically a music performance degree focusing on Jazz and during my last year of college, I was already making a good amount of income from music performances so I was already making a living without really worrying about where my money would come from.

Of course life as a musician is definitely not an easy one. I quickly learned that sometimes music jobs will be very scarce and there will be hard times to get through. This will be very clear during the beginning of the pandemic where I had zero music jobs.

Things got better and I am very happy that I am able to play music for a living. I have had some of the best musical experiences since then. I have played the national anthem for Orlando City’s soccer team at Exploria Stadium where over three thousand people heard me play live. Another amazing experience is when I was featured in Disney+ Harmonious Live. It was a live program where they featured the harmonious show from Disney’s Epcot theme park. It an amazing feeling to know that I’m a part of a program of such a popular streaming site

Something that sets me apart is also my love for music production. My project GG CAT is a band which plays video game music live but also a company that creates music for video game companies.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Even though I don’t love social media, I recognize how important it is to help an artist get more work and reach out to a bigger audience. I think society can help artists a lot by just watching and interacting with their content that’s in social media or online in general. I find it odd that a random picture with a silly caption will get a huge amount of attention and likes but a song or music video where the artists spends hours and hours of work will get much less attention

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I would love nothing more than to create and produce music for a Nintendo video game. Nintendo has been one of the biggest influences in my life and their music catalog is nothing short of my favorite music

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ggcatmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ggcatmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ggcatmusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ggcatmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsT81plDzuLCcdOlls19zDQ
• Other: https://soundcloud.com/ggcat