We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alvin Lee. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alvin below.

Alvin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Ever since I was 6 years old, I knew that music was my gift. My parents put me through classical piano lessons all the way through high school, but I never saw myself pursuing a career as a pianist. It wasn’t until college that I discovered DJing, and it was the art of reading your audience and being able to seamlessly transition from song to song that attracted me to the craft, with producing coming shortly thereafter. The risk-averse part of this story is that I started DJing and playing shows in parallel to being a student, all the way through graduation and even with a corporate job as an Engineer. With the era of COVID, my work became fully remote and I utilized the ever-changing work environment to move to LA and pursue more networking and music opportunities while still balancing my 9-5. Nearly a year after my move, I’ve made so many connections in the music industry, got closer to people that I once considered distant role models, and released a song under my first major label.

Alvin, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Initially, I got into music when I was 6 years old and I was learning classical piano. It was during college where one of my close friends taught me how to DJ, and shortly after, I got into music industry when I applied for a contest to DJ for one of my inspirations. Although that contest didn’t work out, the company reached out to me a month later and booked me for one of their next shows.

One of the moments that I’m most proud of is when I played at San Jose Civic Center, which is a venue that I had been going to for concerts when I went to college. It was so nostalgic driving to the venue and seeing all the concertgoers, since I had been one not too many years back.

The main thing that I want followers/fans to know is that the things that you are passionate about in life are worth the risk (granted that you have the means to pursue it), because I believe that is when you feel most fulfilled in life. I hope that anyone that comes to see me perform can see this exemplified in both the music I produce and the energy I emanate.

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

Outside of performing itself, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is being able to impact people through your music, and become friends with artists who seemed like distant role models previously.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

In my view, I think there are many avenues that society can take to support artists and create a thriving creative ecosystem. This ranges anywhere from liking, commenting, sharing, buying songs or tickets and more. However, I think the best way to support is to listen/view artists/creatives without judgment – society needs to remember that artists/creatives do what they do as an outlet to express freely, and just because you don’t prefer what they create, doesn’t mean that you slander or pass judgment on the artist/creative. By unconditionally supporting artists/creatives without judgment, this helps alleviate the stress that artists/creatives feel when they put out content for audiences and creates a thriving creative ecosystem.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alvynmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlvynOfficial
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alvin-b-lee/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ALVYNOfficial
• Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCJLbvfEy_Fb7xrAxvDkPMdQ/editing/details
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alvynofficial

Image Credits
Alex Hong