We recently connected with Daniel Velasco and have shared our conversation below.

Daniel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful projects I’ve worked on was being a musician for Yuridia’s “Pa’ Luego Es Tarde” Tour and Emmanuel’s “Toda La Vida” Tour.

Backstory: I started playing sousaphone (tuba) in 2011 when I was in high school, and I would practice non-stop because I wanted to be one of the best musicians and be invited on tour someday. When I got out of high school, I did start touring with small bands at first, but it wasn’t until 2016 when I started to work with Adriel Favela/Gerencia 360, that I started to get noticed by more musicians due to the artist’s reputation. I worked with him from 2016-2020 where I had the privilege of doing “La Escuela No Me Gusto” Tour which was their most successful tour to date. Working there, I got noticed by Saul Majalca, a musician who works with Gerardo Ortiz, one of the most successful Regional Mexican corrido singers. In September of 2022, Saul was called to do a show with Emmanuel, a grammy-winning Mexican pop artist. He wanted to include regional Mexican instruments in his set such as tuba, accordion, and bajo quinto. So that is when he recommended me for the job and we started working with Emmanuel. When I began touring with Emmanuel, I met Mariela Josid who does vocals for both Emmanuel And Yuridia and it was her that invited me to do the “Pa Luego Es Tarde Tour” with Yuridia this 2023.

With Emmanuel I got to play with some of the best musicians and some of the best venues such as the Caesar’s palace in Las Vegas, the Yaamava’ Casino, at the Allende Cathedral in San Miguel, various sold-out palenques in Mexico, and most recently were back at the Venetian in Vegas for 3 nights in a row.

With Yuridia I also got to work and live with some of the best and most talented musicians. We did about 16 sold outs in also some of the best venues such as the United Palace in New York, the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, the YouTube Theatre in LA and the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta. She is one of the highest selling female artist, one of the most streamed, and she was doing mostly sold out shows so it was one of the best projects I’ve worked on.

This is meaningful to me because this is something I knew I always wanted to do, because I worked so hard to be able to play with these artists/musicians, because I get recognition back at home from other musicians/family, and because since these two artist in particular are in different genre than me it feels cool to be some of the first to be trying new things like this.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Daniel Velasco. I am 29 years old and I am a musician who plays various instruments such as guitar, requinto, bass, bajo quinto, accordion, and tuba. I also own a recording studio called Revibe Sound Studios located in Santee, CA and produce when I am not performing or on tour. I work mainly as a freelance musician going on tour and producing artists. One of the things that sets me apart is that as of 2023 I’ve worked with over 30 regional Mexican artists either touring or in the studio, so when a new artist calls me, I can give them that resume and they usually end up calling me due to that work experience.

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

For me, the most rewarding aspect of both performing and producing is to see people’s reactions and seeing how emotional they get. For example, when touring we know the fans have probably been waiting for that concert for a couple weeks, so when it is concert day we get to see people’s reactions from the stage and it makes me really happy to see them have a great experience. Likewise, in the studio is really cool to get that artist’s reaction when they come in with a basic idea of a song and they come out with a finished product, and you can feel everyone really motivated and happy; it is really rewarding. Also listening to songs on the radio/tv that I’ve worked on or seeing artist that I work with also on tv etc. feels really cool :)

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Even though I did say that I get to work with really talented musicians, at first I thought that by being the best singer/musician/songwriter automatically you were gonna get noticed and get a career going etc. So me and a whole bunch of friends/colleagues dedicated ourselves to being the best we could and although that helps (it helped me a bit), later I learned that it has to do much much more with marketing, connections and how much of a show you can really give. I met some super talented musicians who didn’t really have much personality, they wouldn’t market themselves, or they wouldn’t talk to people, and at first I didn’t really want to accept it because I wanted to world to notice how great they were, but then I realized that marketing and personality matter just as much. I am now studying marketing to help me with my image because of it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdaniel_velasco/

Image Credits
GENARO FLORES LALO NAJERA ANTHONY BANALES FRANCISCO VELASCO ESTEBAN TORRES VERDUGO