We were lucky to catch up with Jorge Alberto Flores recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jorge thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

If I could go back in time, I would not change the way I started my music career. I feel like I unintentionally took the scenic route when it came to starting my music career, and I got to experience a wide range of subjects. This allowed me to learn and study to become a well-rounded person, able to notice patterns and connect ideas together, almost like a polymath. Understanding myself through knowledge helped guide me and let me see that I had actually started practicing to become an artist since a little kid.

Growing up I was always into different types of music genres because of my parents, and this molded the way I listened and thought about music. Being able to draw inspiration from all the different genres one is exposed to allows the artist to tap into their own frequency of music. Looking back at it, this was almost a way of me studying the career path I would take without knowing it. Singing along to old Soul, R&B, and Hip Hop music helped me learn breath control, how to harmonize, and how to try to stay in key with music and understanding my vocal range. All of these experiences shed light on tools that I had no idea I would need.

The Music Industry is big and there is a lot to learn about it without being taken advantage of and not knowing what one is getting into. I feel that what I have learned by taking the long scenic route and taking time away from music has helped me a lot and given me a broader perspective of the Music Industry and the Business side of it. Being able to have heard some of the artist I look up to explain the parts of the music business that one does not know before going into it provides a sort of map to help navigate these new territories.

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.

I started recording music and producing beats in Middle School with my friend Christopher Masarweh, his brother Ryan Masarweh, and our friend Jerry Torres. They were writing songs and needed someone to record and that is where I decided to learn how to on Garage Band. I was teaching myself how to produce and engineer by watching YouTube videos and trying different things out, being hands on. I did this until I got to the 12th grade, which is where I took my first Audio Engineering class and started learning in person.

I started going to Mt. San Jacinto Community College to get an A.A. in Audio Engineering, but I ended up changing Majors two times before returning to be a Music Major. This was because I was not really sure how I could make a career out of music. I got scared because I kept hearing people tell me a career in music isn’t a reliable source of income and that it is hard to make it in the industry. That is what led me to look for a different career, which I do not regret because it allowed me to take classes I would not have taken as a Music Major. This is what helped me grow into the person that I am today and the type of music that I am a vessel for.

It wasn’t until when Covid hit in 2020 that I decided to go all out with the music and make it my goal to have that be my career. During that time at home I was making beats everyday and putting all of my time and energy into learning and creating. This led me to reaching out to local artist and starting to network with the San Diego Hip Hop scene. Having the opportunity to collaborate with these artist helped me exponentially learn and grow through real-world experience and having to solve studio problems on the fly. I graduated from Cal State San Marcos in 2022 with my Bachelors in Music and right after that I started renting a spot to make into my studio room.

I currently have my studio room at Spaceship Studios, which is a music building that rents monthly rooms out for people to rehearse their music in. The building is located right next to Cal State San Marcos and my studio is called 3 of Life Productions. I offer music recording, mixing, mastering, custom beats, music videos, and photoshoots. The studio room is a bit small, it fits 2-3 other people other than myself and this offers an intimate studio space for creatives. I have worked with some great artist from the San Diego area and am excited to continue to work with more talented artist.

What I am most proud of is being able to provide a safe place for artist to express themselves and try new things out. A lot of times the first thing artists say when they first come in is how much they like the vibe of the room. Many artist leave the studio feeling like they had a therapy session as well because of the open ears I provide and the environment. This allows the artist to feel comfortable when recording or writing to a new song because they can relax and tap into the frequencies much easier.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Some of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is being able to share the knowledge that one has accessed through the experiences lived. Music, art, poetry, and stories were used to preserve knowledge and pass it on to the next generations. I try to keep that in mind whenever I am writing lyrics to a song and creating stories. Thinking of what it is that I want the listener to take away from this, knowing that everyone will have a different interpretation of what is told.

Being a creative allows me to see the same situations through different lenses that others might not be able to see. Putting these perspectives into stories, movies, songs, poems, art, ect. allows those points of views to be brought to light in different manners. It is rewarding being able to interpret something from multiple different angles and using that information to create something new.

The brain is an antenna tuning into the a higher dimension of frequencies that surround us. Each thought, each emotion is a different frequency that flows through the Universe like water through a river. This can also be interpreted as letting God/The Creator talk through you and tuning into God’s light depending on your beliefs. As a artist/producer, it is rewarding looking back at something we created and feeling the blessing of being able to bring something from a higher dimension into this one.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

One of the books that helped push me to follow my dreams instead of settling was The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. This book made me realize that I do not have to go searching far from home to realize my purpose and find joy in life. I was able to make a connection between the long trip that the main character, Santiago, takes in the book and my career path. Having been off the music path multiple times while studying, I was able to experience a variety of knowledge, just as Santiago experienced a variety of adventure. At the time while I was reading this book, I was trying to figure out a path in life and thought I would find the answers by traveling abroad. It also reminded me that I am being guided through my entrepreneurial journey, as Santiago was being guided by Melchizedek.

I am a big fan of philosophy and creation stories/religious studies. I was always intrigued by the similar teachings in different religions and even the stories they share from the past. Trying to link them together to understand the bigger picture, see where they all meet and what single point they all sprang from. Religious texts are full of symbolism, allegory, and metaphors meant to hide knowledge to the uninitiated. I like to add this type of depth and texture to the lyrics that I write. Where the lines have different meanings in the macro and micro level of the story. This expands the way I am able to think about entrepreneurial and management situations as well because of the practice in deep thinking. Being able to think outside the box as an entrepreneur is helpful in finding creative solutions to stand out as well.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahomie_beats/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dahomiebeats9214
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6h73PIYxF9uLM9ysbirEFo?si=b5N1-dn5Qou1myAHBaUkbw

  Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/dahomie/1513078706

Image Credits

Photos taken by: Elizabeth Hernandez, Juan Flores
Cover Artwork done by: @lau5yn