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

Hi Buddy, thanks for joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have been playing music and touring the state and region full time for 15 years.

Buddy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started playing guitar at 19 years old in 1989 I soon started writing songs or what I thought were songs LOL.
Mostly just words that rhymed no real great story lines but I felt that playing music and songwriting was in my blood.
Messing around in the early 90’s with my McAllen,TX BMX and Skateboard friends we started a punk band and played a few shows around the area in ’91 but that didn’t go anywhere.
I think I was more serious about music than my former band mates were at the time.
Moving on some years to early 1995 I got an offer to go on the road with Tejano musician Bobby Pulido as his Lighting Designer ( setting up and programming light shows) I did that with him until 2000 when I joined the band.
I began playing Congas full time and toured all over North America and it was then that I knew that being on stage is where I was supposed to be.
I stayed with the band until early 2006 when I decided I no longer wanted to be traveling and performing as a “hired gun” I needed and wanted my own career.
I floated around the oil field work in the Laredo,TX area for a couple of years before joining my friends Eddie Perez and Leo Correa in the San Antonio/New Braunfels area.
They were starting a band called La Calma and I tagged along.
We quickly got signed to a record deal with Freddie Records out of Corpus Christi but again after a few years of being a “hired gun” I decided in late 2009 that I wanted to give performing as a solo act playing guitar and singing on my own.
I played in their band and did my own shows when I could but eventually I got too busy to dedicate time to the band and honestly I enjoyed playing country music and songwriting once again.
I wrote many songs for a lot of Tejano acts thanks to the help of Eddie who is a brilliant music producer.
He allowed me be a part of his team and many Grammy and Latin Grammy nominated projects by either writing for them or recording percussion parts and many times both.
All this over the years but still grinding away on my own trying to find places to perform that would give me a chance.
The first years were all “cutting teeth” taking $50 a night gigs at smokey bars , taco joints or coffee houses hoping to get a few extra bucks in tips for me and my wife to get some Whataburger LOL.
Fast forward to today I have been fortunate to play over 200 shows per year and ended 2023 with 238 shows.
All of this because I knew that playing guitar and singing for a living is what I am supposed to be doing with my life.
I have had to do it all by myself no booking agent, no manager nothing and still do.
In the early days I would reach out to a few area singer songwriters for show contacts but nobody would help me.
So I make sure that I help the up and comers and not be like all those that wouldn’t help me out as if it were some sort of competition.
Texas is HUGE there’s plenty of work to go around.
So after having no luck getting pointed in the right direction I decided to create my own show circuit and I have not slowed down.
Once I got the opportunity to get into a venue to perform I made sure to be as professional as possible.
No drinking, no swearing , no politics just feel good music.
It helps that I don’t drink or smoke so right away I mention that I am there to sell beer not consume it.
I think my work ethic and song selection (maybe some talent lol) has kept me returning to several venues a few times each year.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The biggest reward doing what I do is being able to make a living and provide comfortable life for my family followed by the enjoyment of playing music for new faces at every show whether it be cover songs I love or originals.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As a musician it is important to do a lot of marketing. You can find someone to do it for you if you don’t know how but it is not a necessity at all.
Maintaining a social media presence by creating short clips of you doing what you do.
Making “flyers” for each show and plaster them all over your social media.
It takes time to get there but don’t give up.

Contact Info:

• Website: buddyvargas.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/thebuddyvargas
• Facebook: facebook.com/thebuddyvargas
• Twitter: thebuddyvargas
• Youtube: YouTube.com/buddyvargas
• Other: tiktok.com/thebuddyvargas Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7r9zYMY1wHxieSbdkjrQJ6?si=ki-ALkd9TjeaROp6mslwoQ