We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Antonio Alvarez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Antonio below.
Hi Antonio , thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
It all started when i was 15. I picked up my first turntables & started doing house parties when I was in high school. During the duration of my sophomore & junior year, I was hanging out with the wrong crowd & got derailed. It was an uncle of mine who spoke to me giving me tough love expressing I needed to get my *ish together. He didn’t want to see me end up like him, going in and out of jail. I began re-thinking my whole life. Senior year came , I got my life together, graduated & started to go back to deejaying. My 1st professional gig was at a strip club in San Francisco, CA. That’s when i decided to take my deejay career seriously and now til this day i continue to deejay & maintain my 9 to 5. Antonio by day and DJ Gio510 by night.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I got into the industry through a good friend named “Andy Herrera”. Andy called me unexpectedly asking if i wanted to do one of his events in Las Vegas during the “Latin Grammy’s Week”. I told him, “hell yeah i do,”& then he asked if I wanted to do FM Radio. I again responded with,” hell yea I do!”. He said the reason he asked me first prior to anyone else was because he saw that I was humble, worked well with other people, work great with music artists, and was always seeing me grinding. After some time i would go out to Vegas for the Latin Billboards, Latin American Music Awards, Empire Events, & music labels private events I then started doing A&R projects for independent artists and breaking records with Indie & major artist. What sets me apart from other deejay’s is that I deliver, stay consistent, connect with people, & help independent artists succeed in whatever their goal is. I want to do what Andy did for me for others.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Being a Dj is more than spinning tracks at parties. The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is I get to deejay at big festivals, concerts, sporting events, radio stations and major clubs all over the U.S. Some of the perks of being a DJ is I got to meet and network with new upcoming artists, DJ’s and of course major artists. It has its benefits by collaborating with small & major labels and other major platforms.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When covid hit I think it effected everyone but mostly artist and DJ’s because they stopped all festivals, concerts, clubs. We all had to stay home and luckily I was still working my 9-5 job and I was making an income but after awhile I falling into depression because I was missing the night life. Thru this somber time I had thought that was the end of my dj career. I needed to be creative and do something to appeal to others who were feeling the same. I started to use an App called Clubhouse and started to meet producers, artist, dj’s, model’s…..Networking at its finest which started to get my motivation back. I also started to go live on major social media platforms such as instagram live, Facebook live and on twitch. This was a game changer for everyone. Peoplecwere able to connect thru music have private paries in the confort of their living rooms. Then, in 2022 everything from the entertainment business slowly started to open up again, and slowly, I started to get booked back at night clubs. It’s been a journey that illustrated my resilience. I just wanna thank my good friend and publicist Carmen Grayson and my project manager Shireen Valdes for pushing me everyday and putting up with me …lol I love these power house women
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djgio510/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djgio.richcityfinest
- Twitter: https://x.com/DJGio510
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DJGio510
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/d-j-gio-510
- Other: https://audiomack.com/djgio510