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

Alright, Elvis thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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 released 5 singles between 2020 and early 2022. Those releases were very well thought-out, it took me months to drop them because I Directed and edited videos for each single. I would plan the perfect strategy and the perfect time to release them.

A couple of months ago, I watched a tv show called “Heartstopper”, a wholesome lgbtq+ story that inspired me so much and made me feel so many things, so I decided to make something with those feelings: Music.

I wrote a couple of songs about it and for the first time in my life I was willing to take the risk of sharing them on my social media without thinking twice. I shared a video playing the piano and singing one of the songs and some people found it touching and wholesome, some of them were part of the Heartstopper fandom.

I decided to go even harder on this and produced a little part of one of the songs, called “Nick & Charlie” (The main characters of the show), and posted it on my Instagram. I couldn’t believe all of the people who watched it and liked it, even part of the crew that filmed the show commented on it.

For the first time, I didn’t care about strategies or anything, I was following my heart making music about something I love, and wanting to be seen by more people going through the same thing I was going through, make them feel understood, loved, and make them know that they’re not alone. I just wanted to spread even more the message that Heartstopper is giving us, even though my current followers at the time were not the right audience for this content.

I wrote, produced, and posted 8 demos. Each song is from the perspective of each character of the show. I became “The guy who writes songs about Heartstopper”, almost the whole cast and crew saw me and it felt really good so I took the decision of actually releasing this music on all streaming platforms.

“Nick & Charlie (Happy Version)” came out on July 22nd, celebration 3 months of Heartstopper. This song is very personal to me, it’s about trying to find something like what Nick and Charlie have, pure love. The love this song is receiving is way more than any of my releases have ever received in my whole career.

I’ll release all 8 songs and my dream is to be recognized by the creator of this beautiful story, Alice Oseman, or maybe be featured in next seasons of the show. She made us all feel hopeful so this is me showing my gratitude and love for her story and the universe she created. I’m also collaborating with more artists of the Heartstopper fandom to make the artworks and fan-arts for this music. I’m trying to make people come together for this and create a family more than a fandom.

I’m writing, producing, and performing these songs, as well as editing the lyric videos by myself. I’m investing all my time and pouring my heart on this project taking many risks but I feel in my heart that this is gonna touch a lot of people and make them happy, including Alice Oseman, hopefully.

A big lesson a learned from this experience is that sometimes it’s not about waiting for the perfect moment or campaign or writing the right song for a certain audience. I trusted and followed my heart, took the risk of not reaching anything and losing the audience I already had, and also being this vulnerable in my writing not knowing what was gonna happen, and still pushing through and releasing it.

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

I’m a singer-songwriter, producer, and vocal coach. I’ve been in the music world since I was a kid. I started singing and playing the piano at 9, writing my own songs at 10, releasing an album at 12, and producing and writing songs in English at 18.

I’m also a filmmaker. I’ve directed my own music videos, edited multiple commercials, music videos, and promotional videos for artists, and was the cinematographer of a music video this year.

Acting has been a huge part of what I do as a musician, but this year I finally debuted as an actor, I played the main character “Alex Bianco” on the incredible Shorfilm “Explorandum”.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZye42Jfbu0&t=580s

I released 5 singles between 2020 and early 2022. It wasn’t until now that I started really growing a solid fanbase, I’m releasing music about the wholesome and necessary lgbtq+ show “Heartstopper”.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started by posting acapella and semi-acapella covers on Instagram. I was noticed and posted by artists like Shakira, Why Don’t We, Ruggero, Willie Gomez, and more.

Link for Shakira’s post: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CI3LufNKjm4/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Something that made me engage with people was the fact that I show the process of what I do. I do everything by myself, from producing to filming and editing the videos, and I always try to film vlogs explaining everything I do.

After that, I released some themed singles, but it wasn’t until now that I started really growing a solid fanbase, I’m releasing music about the wholesome and necessary lgbtq+ show “Heartstopper”. These songs are touching so many people, so I’m starting to release them officially on all streaming platforms.

Link to “Nick & Charlie (Happy Version)” Lyric Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38pjMaH_dsA

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A big lesson a learned from this experience is that sometimes it’s not about waiting for the perfect moment or campaign or writing the right song for a certain audience. I trusted and followed my heart, took the risk of not reaching anything and losing the audience I already had, and also being this vulnerable in my writing not knowing what was gonna happen, and still pushing through and releasing it.

I wouldn’t say I unlearn a lesson, ’cause creating a good strategy definitely works, but this was a specific scenario and I decided not to apply that lesson.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elvisjss/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Elvisjss
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fQs1sko69X0Fm92ILEmvT?si=W_nm_dsrTxKTCG_x3r5Snw

Image Credits
Some of the pics are taken by myself, and some of them by Rafael The Wizard.