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

Hi Daniel, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I was born in a city in which to live off as a musician is something very complicated, so, although it is what I have always wanted to do. I come from a family of professionals, so studying music was not an option. Taking the decision together with my parents I decided not to follow my dreams at the time, so I decided to study an ordinary technical career so that the work and income is “safe”. I finished my career 5 years later, years in which I had to leave the music aside. I thought my life was already made when I finished school so I entered regular work. Everything was going well, the first year was very good, the second the same, everything seemed promising, and it was precisely that year that I took advantage of the Covid to start uploading videos to socials. The third year made me question everything, was I really following my dreams? Or was I following someone else’s dreams? The fourth year was a chaos, I began to have problems with my coworkers, I began to lose the trust of my bosses, all the motivation left, I felt stuck. On the other hand, I kept uploading videos to my networks, I started connecting with musicians from Mexico and other countries, producers and professional music production studios; So I put in the balance, should continue in my work with “safe” salary but living unhappy? Or should I follow that little voice in my head to follow my dreams taking advantage of the opportunity that was “presenting” to me? I decided to follow my dreams and after 3 years I can say that I have lost a lot, but everything has been worth it.

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.

My name is Daniel Vega, and I am a 27-year-old independent drummer born in the city of Tijuana, B.C., Mexico.

At the early age of 3, I showed interest in drums, so my family encouraged me to continue learning.

I actually did not study anything music-related. Formally, I studied aerospace engineering and worked in that field for four years, but in 2020, when the pandemic lockdown hit, I began to upload videos to my social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube. Soon after, I noticed people’s interest in the content I’ve been posting, including local bands, musicians, and producers.

After one year of thinking about it, I bought my dream drum set and decided to leave my comfort zone and pursue my dreams, so I quit my job as engineer and started to make a living as a drummer.

Today I work as a live & session drummer for artists, bands and producers. Some of the artists I have worked for are Maldita Vecindad, José Macario, Compa Steve. Almost got to work with Erick Aragon from Grupo Codiciado (Codiciado now) but didn’t happen, sadly.

The things I believe that sets me apart from other drummers are discipline, I focus on things other drummers don’t see, like technique (postures, the way I hit the drums, etc), my sound (I’m trying to sound better than yesterday). and the most important things, being committed and responsible is what I believe makes the difference, so if you ever want me to work with you you don’t have to worry about those things.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

So I remember this time when I was 11 or 12 years old, most kids have kind of an idea of what they want to do for a living when they grow up, most of them would say they want to be astronauts or doctores or even police officers, was not my case. My cousin asked me this almost 15 years ago: what do you want to be when you grow up? I replied: “I want to be a famous drummer”, he kind of laughed, but so did I. Today I’m not a famous drummer, but people recognize me even when Im not in a musical environment. People ask me to take pictures with them, and some others ask me to sign their drum heads. I gotta say that for me its a dream came true because as a creative person I understand how hard is to get people to like your stuff.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started uploading short videos playing some songs I liked, and in my urge to gain more views and followers I started to play music I didn’t like but that was trending at the time. What a big mistake, if you don’t like what you play people notice it (I don’t know how but they do), so first off you got to love your art, because if you don’t love it, why would anybody else do it? My advice to people that’s just starting to build socials is do what you want, and never stop trying to improve everything (your playing, video and audio quality, etc), people love to look back to what you used to sound/look/play.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ddanielvega/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ddanielvegga
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ddanielvega/featured
• Other: https://linktr.ee/ddanielvega