Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to King Gonzo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

King, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I’m 100% self taught on the DAW that I use (Logic Pro) but I started out on GarageBand using loops that I would chop, reverse, add effects to and then chain together to create the textures and rhythms in my music. I’d then pair that with beats that I would handcrafted and sometimes build chord progressions or synth leads as well. This is one of the more unique aspects of my music and sound design. I’m also heavily influenced by other artists such as Flume, Skrillex, Zedd, Avicii, the list goes on. A few obstacles I had to face as a young music producer (I started at 14 years old) was money of course. So I had to use free versions of music production softwares and free plugins (which is why I ended up using GarageBand heavily until upgrading to Logic Pro). To this day I still do not use midis or beat pads to make my songs even though I am interested in incorporating those into my live shows soon! A couple skills that were most essential and I think are a great prerequisite are:
1) Simple music theory (scales, tempo, harmony)
2) I had previous knowledge from being in drumline and marching band about rhythm, polyrhythms, and syncopation and I’ve applied those to the percussive aspect of my music for sure! (Shout out to Mr. Jimenez!)

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 as a band kid, joined drumline for my passion of music, and got my first laptop my freshman year of high school. From there the rest is history. I have been 100% independent in everything since day one. I run my socials, book my shows, mix my instrumentals, (I do have an audio engineer that mixes my hiphop verses, shout out to Jon Sullivan and Spitfire Sparks!), and recently have been heavy into music production. I specialize in Drum and Bass, Bass Music, and Future Bass. Some influences of mine are Flume, What So Not, Skrillex, Fred Again.., Zedd, Odesza, Rl Grime. I grew up always into the rave scene and watching DJs perform and knew that’s what I wanted to do since! Currently working on getting booked to perform hopefully at places like The Van Buren and Darkstar. Go check out my latest drop called “Nightmare” (all my dubstep horror fans will love this Scream-inspired song) To check out all my links you can go to:
Linktr.ee/kinggonzomusic
Thank you for your support and I look forward to performing for you!

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

I create music simply for the love and passion of it! It gives me a chance to be my most authentic self and being authentic resonates at such a high vibration that I feel like it helps heal me as well and hopefully you too!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn that when I would DJ events (not performing a set, but rather just blending tracks), you have to play the music people not only want to hear, but music they didn’t even know they wanted to hear. This simple principle is what makes an amazing DJ.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/kinggonzomusic
• Instagram: Instagram.com/kinggonzomusic
• Facebook: Facebook.com/kinggonzomusic

Image Credits
Christian Saverino