We recently connected with Juan Arreche and have shared our conversation below.
Juan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Since I was a child, I always heard melodies and sounds that may be able to fit into the synapses of a song, humming along or adding my own ideas. I grew up playing percussion in middle school and high school here in the United States. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the sounds that the instruments would make, and always thought of harmonies. My mother and father were both musically inclined, as well as many members in my family. I began the process of creating a completely improvised part of my first single, Togetherness, that began as just an idea. My friend, Talei, who is from New Zealand, was just introduced to me via happenstance by sharing our stories of music and our connections to it, while giving a live performance online after being asked by another individual. It was truly serendipitous as we immediately connected. After some time, she sent back her ambient sounds played with my piano improvisation, creating a cinematic soundscape to capture the feeling of what it was to be in a time of despair and disconnection from the world due to the pandemic at the time. I began taking music production and theory lessons with my now music mentor and close friend, Pere, who is based just outside of Spain. He asked me questions in the beginning, such as “Do you know what the modes are for music?” I had no idea. He then told me “You play like you know all of the modes and know theory. You are a natural.” The rest is history as I began to write for strings, arrange and improvise piano, create sound designs, and create three different states of being within what is called today, “Togetherness,” my first ever single release. It was such a meaningful piece, weaving hardship with hope, knowing that we cannot exist without knowing and being with the darkest moments and parts of ourselves. I could go on with this but, I feel it can be best experienced by listening to the song itself.
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 Juan Arreche. I write music that narrates stories into sound, play piano, create sounds, arrange, write for live acoustic instruments, along with detailing each emotion and experience throughout the process of it. I primarily write ambient and instrumental music. It is very much inspired by nature and I enjoy sitting with the stillness of nature in order to be inspired. Nature is where I go to be with everything and be nothing. It is also what inspires my covers for single artwork. I began the craft of producing music in 2021 but even before this, I had ideas in my mind and began to map them out and create them. My music mentor and close friend, Pere, helped me learn the “how-to” part and the rest of it was a very DIY experience for me. I would sit and create and write out ideas, feeling out ideas and have my sounds created on loop. I create music that is meant to allow one to feel themselves, their body, to ground, and to heal. The music I create has more of an element of storytelling, as there are transitions in it and it does not tend to repeat in its creation. I also enjoy collaborating with other artists to create artwork that I conceptualize with them. I want people to be able to sit with and resonate in their own ways through creating meaning with the music produced. Professionally, I work as a mental health therapist, Sound Mind Counseling Services, where I serve primarily the LGBT community in San Antonio, TX, as well as couples, and assist with managing mental health and life struggles. At times during sessions, I will experience hearing melodies in my mind that I later write down or will hum into my voice memo sometime later in order to expand on the idea itself. When I was young, I always thought of how music is made, how it has its own story behind every part, as well as how I could just create soundscapes by playing on a keyboard during summers as a teenager. I am most proud of being able to see a project from beginning to end and even think of ways in which it can evolve from then on. I believe slow music has a way to connect us with ourselves. I would say that “Togetherness,” my first single, truly helped me to work through and create a new version of myself. I began applying these principles of personal love and growth, as well as inner knowing, to my daily life. I am learning my own process to this day and with the help of other professional musicians, have been able to live record what I write for new singles coming out in the near future. I like to know how people resonate with music. I am not here to create music that becomes a hit but, to allow people to be impacted internally and allow a space for release. My next single, Connection in Displacement, is about grief, as I lost my mother in January 2023. It has been a longer process to create and complete this as I was in spaces of grief and needed to feel. Sometimes, I would write something out that I felt was so beautiful followed by crying for about 20 minutes. I would show it to friends and they would say how they teared up themselves. I want others to know that they are welcome to listen and feel with the music that I create. I feel humanity has been disconnected for sometime now. More than ever in this day and age. Connection in Displacement tells a story about how connection to others and the self truly can help one overcome anything in life.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
“Togetherness” was released in May 2023. To this day, I receive messages from others randomly that tell me how they listen to the song and it allows them to transcend their feelings and even sit with them. I feel that the resonance of someone’s work is what is a truly a gift to this world. I believe that art has always existed as an essential need for humanity to tell its story, as well as keep people alive. Music itself has a way of doing this to people in many different ways. For instance, the human voice mixed with emotion and certain timbres is what we call music. It is what connects people together and to themselves somehow.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
A dream of mine is to tour and create music with other creatives. When I began the process of writing and producing in 2021, I connected with other creatives online, such as graphic artists, illustrators, activists, producers, acoustic and classically trained musicians, as well as poets. I want to integrate spoken word and poetry into my music, as well as be able to tour with visuals to create an emotional and existential experience. I feel that this is also a way to maintain a creative reach to others in the world, as well as create that source of happiness and togetherness when it comes to creatives working together. When I send a midi file to a musician, I am humbled by their feedback when they tell me how beautiful the work is, saying that they are happy to record for me and in future endeavors. It’s a beautiful feeling being able to work with others and I would love to do so in a live setting by touring. I would also love to produce music for other artists, including written lyrics, vocal arrangements, production of sounds, as well as writing for acoustic instruments to assist them in attaining their dreams. I do not feel that any artist gets to a destination without aid from others along the way. I feel that it is essential to connect to create.
I would love to score music for films, audiobooks, and video games. That has been a dream of mine to be part of narratives in any which way possible. I feel music drives a story in the most beautiful of ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://juanarreche.bandcamp.com/album/togetherness
- Instagram: @juan_arreche_music
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqYSr1NQbikslx9RY010W6A
Image Credits
Destiny Fuentes.