We were lucky to catch up with Gabe Freitas-Elysee recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Gabe, thanks for joining us today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is that I can’t sustain my life from just music. I know that their are people out there who are in the music industry and who are able to solely just do music for a living, which is great and awesome! But for me, I came to realize that I needed a day job that would provide me with a study flow of income.
For me, my day job is a graphic designer, which I greatly enjoy as it still always me to flex my creative muscles and connect with other creatives outside of music.
Going into the music industry, I thought that I would work on music 24/7 and make my living that way. In my experience, that was far from the truth and a hard pill to swallow.
At first I thought I had failed because I hadn’t achieved what I thought was the ultimate goal, but with time and conversations with other seasoned professionals in my field, I came to understand that it was okay that I have to have a day job while I build and develop my music career.
The music industry can be very feast or famine. Sometimes someone may have more clients and projects than they can handle, but other times it may be dry as a desert with no clients around. I have experienced this and realized that I need to eat and survive in those times of famine and graphic designing allows me to do so.
Gabe, 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 grew up in a very musical home. My mom is a pianist who studied piano at a conservatory as a child. Growing up my mom would always be jamming out on the piano to her own songs as well as to any popular song that were on her mind.
My mom would say that as a toddler, I would always be tinkering around with her violin that she had and as a result, she placed me in violin lessons and performances until I was in middle school. So I guess it was always meant to be that I go on to be in music.
As a kid, I always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, specifically electric guitar. I remember shredding some sweet riffs on my air guitar via my seatbelt in the car as my mom would play Bon Jovi hits through the speakers.
Within the span of middle school to mid high school there was a lot of back forth between taking guitar lessons and then losing interest in guitar. I would say that I always had some interest because within that span, I worked my first job as a maintenance worker at my high school in order to save up and purchase my first electric guitar.
In 10th grade, I was learning guitar on my own via YouTube videos plus any online resources I could get my hands on. I was also helping out at my local church by playing the electric guitar with the music band for the youth. We weren’t that good because I remember we used to play along with the songs via YouTube videos that the audience could see and hear as well in conjunction with the live band.
Eventually, that fizzle out as well as my interest in guitar, but in 11th grade a few of my friends and I decided to form a band to play at our church after our youth pastor asked for some help in that area.
So after forming the new band with my friends, I was a bit more serious about learning electric guitar and performing. It was a challenge learning an instrument and then having to perform every weekend. I remember it being embarrassing to have to show people my flaws as I was progressing, but I believe that is what made me into the guitarist and musician that I am today.
Within that beginning period of learning and performing, I wanted to quit. However, my mom didn’t let me. She got me lessons which helped a lot and gave me a great foundation in not just electric guitar but in music as well.
So after a year or so of lessons and weekly performances at church, I began to fall in love with music, electric guitar and performing within the church world.
I really believe that had it not been for God and God’s guiding hand in my life, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today because it was playing songs about God that I truly fell in love with music.
My passion for music grew so much that I wanted to pursue music as a career after high school. My parents were supportive of my desire to pursue music as a career and helped me in applying for college in pursuit of a music program that would suit what I was looking to do.
I ended up attending and graduating from Full Sail University with a Bachelor of Science in Music Production. Through my studies at Full Sail, I was able to not only fine tune my musical skills and abilities but also find what field within the music industry I would inevitably end up pursuing.
While at Full Sail, I came to learn about music production which entailed many different aspects of the music industry but particularly recording and writing music. I felt truly at home in these areas and confidently decided that pursuing the career choice of music producer was what I truly wanted to do.
Life after graduating from Full Sail was both amazing and difficult. There were many moments of wanting to give up and doubting whether or not I would find my place within the industry. There were also moments of unimaginable highs that I could have never reached on my own strength.
There were quite a few instances of people telling me I should stop doing music and find another career because in their eyes, I either wasn’t good enough at music to have a successful career or because having a stable career in music was too hard.
I’ve also had my own plans and dreams to pursue different opportunities within the industry fail and not work out as I had hoped for, which was devastating. However, things panned out way better than I could have ever dreamed of.
But for the hundreds of downs I’ve had since graduating college, I’ve also had a few major ups that were so solid that they helped me to keep going no matter what.
One of those moments was meeting my wife. When we were dating, she encouraged me to keep pursuing music even though I was considering giving it up and pursuing a different career entirely. She would remind me of how skilled I am at music and the massive passion I had for it.
Through my Full Sail University connection, I was able to land my first major gig in the film/tv world composing music for Fashion News Live Network, which is operated by Rocco Leo Gaglioti. If any readers are into fashion, definitely give that streaming platform a glance. There is so much inspiring and amazing fashion content on there.
I’ve also had the opportunity to be able to meet and build a relationship with Lu Diaz, the producer and mix engineer who worked on “Who Let The Dogs Out”. Which is insane because I remember jamming out to that song when I was in elementary school.
Most recently, I have gotten into production music for music libraries. This entails me writing scores for a music library that deals with a specific genre of tv shows or movies. I create custom made scores for the specific genre of visual media that a tv network or music supervisor can later come in to the library bank and select for their show or movie.
I look at where I am now in my career and I am like how in the world did I get here. It blows my mind and I am stunned sometimes. I can not wait to see where it takes me.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson that I had to unlearn is that I can’t sustain my life from just music. I know that their are people out there who are in the music industry and who are able to solely just do music for a living, which is great and awesome! But I have come to realize that I need a day job that I like, but that also won’t crush my creative soul.
For me, my day job is a graphic designer, which I greatly enjoy as it still always me to flex my creative muscles and connect with other creatives outside of music.
Going into the music industry, I thought that I will work on music 24/7 and make my living that way. In my experience, that was far from the truth and a hard pill to swallow, that I couldn’t have a job making music for 8 hours a day.With time I came to understand that was okay.
The music industry can be very feast or famine. Sometimes someone may have more clients and projects than they can handle, when it pours it pours, but other times it may be dry as a desert with no clients around. I need to eat and survive in those fam
I came to realize this recently through conversations I have with experienced professionals in my industry as well as watching interviews of professionals who have been in the field for so long.
I have also experienced this in my life , as there have been times of no projects or clients to work with. I need to eat and survive during those times and in order to do so, I need a day job. Which I think is absolutely normal and ok to happen.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I believe that what helped me the most in buildup my reputation in my market is hanging out with and getting to know other music producers and composers.
I am a more introverted and reserved guy and it’s easy for me to sit in my studio and making music for hours. However, pushing myself to go to in person events as well as reach out to other creatives allows me to build relationships with those in my field and learn new things that I would have never learned on my own.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gabefreitaselysee.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gfelysee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gfelysee?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabe-freitas-elysee
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@gabefreitas-elysee128
- Other: SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/gfelysee?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1&si=B8AB95950FEE47AE941C56846CC33161&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Image Credits
Katie Freitas-Elysee Photographer/Editor