We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pablo Castellanos Scherer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Pablo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I can´t stay I´ve wondered about having a regular job because I am still a full-time student, and as an international studying in the United States it is illegal to work anywhere that is not my University. Nonetheless, I have run through many ¨what-if” scenarios regarding my choice of studies, and I always conclude that music is, without a doubt, the best option for me.

I already played instruments and wrote songs before college, however, I dismissed the idea of majoring in music because so many world-famous musicians had no proper musical training and still made it. For example, none of the members of the Arctic Monkeys knew how to play an instrument a week before they started the band! I thought that studying music would be a waste of my time in the case that I didn’t become a millionaire superstar, so instead I wanted to be a historian… because I would make tons of money from that…

When I needed the most guidance I talked to my mom and she recommended going for what made me the happiest even if it was a financial risk, which in my case was music, and I deeply thank her for being so encouraging and supportive.

Now, as I’ve gotten deeper into university and thus closer to professional life, I’ve learned of a multitude of ways to financially support myself as a musician, and I look forward to carving my place in the scene.

Pablo, 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 first got into music when I was nine and got tired of only doing air guitar to records without being able to really play, so I asked my mother for guitar lessons and she provided them. I’ve had the same amazing teacher ever since and I have him to thank for where I am today, studying at Berklee College of Music, the most renowned music college in the world.

As I got older, some friends and I started a band, and that severely boosted my love and relationship with music, as I now could share another branch of emotion and expression with people with whom I already had deep bonds. It was playing with them that I realized that I liked writing songs, and four years after we began playing, in April of 2020, I bought my first audio interface. This allowed me to record whole songs I’d written instead of letting them fade into the ether.

In May of 2021, I released my first album, “Pull My Hair” under the name of “Her Majesty’s Poor Sugar” onto streaming platforms as a high school project so that I could graduate. I was already accepted into Berklee College of Music at the time, but the album is comprised of songs that I wrote before even auditioning. Since I began the endeavor in peak COVID times, everything is written and played by me (programmed in the case of the drums), and everything was recorded on my laptop in my room.

A few months later, in September, I stepped foot for the first time at Berklee, and since that moment I have grown in all areas of musicality in ways and proportions that I could never have imagined. These include everything from performance and music theory to songwriting and music technology, among many others.

Now, as I think of my goals after graduating, I first and foremost want to be part of a band to write, record, produce, and perform music alongside people whom I synergize with, artistically and just as humans. That, however, is hard to turn into a career, let alone sustain it, so I also want to work as a producer for talented songwriters who want help materializing their sonic and artistic vision.

My brand as a musician is broken sounds and distortion. I like rawness and grittiness, songs don’t need to be safely encased in plastic and records don’t need to be perfect.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

After my first year at Berklee College of Music, I declared to be a Songwriting major with a minor in Music Production, because I wanted to learn how to write effective songs that would appeal to people, and also how to get those songs ready to share across the world. Halfway through my second year, however, I realized that I preferred to pursue a Production major instead, so I switched my major to “Independent Recording and Production”.

I made this decision for multiple reasons. The first is that, as a professional avenue, I would rather produce for another artist than write for them. This is because when I write, I get too invested in the project and I don’t want to give away a piece that I built from scratch. Additionally, and maybe more importantly, I felt more comfortable writing songs than producing because I have been doing it for much longer, which also means that there’s more I can gain from studying production.

Since I made this pivot I have drastically improved as a producer and I enjoy my time at music school immensely more.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I think that this is a very intricate question when you consider how artists and creatives rise through their ranks. I say this because, I think that to best support artists and creatives, society first needs to realize that some artists need way more support than others. For example, those who are struggling through an unpleasant job while they promote their paintings versus Taylor Swift. Once these unknown artists are identified, the people who connect with their work should share with their entire social circles and even beyond that because undoubtedly there will be other individuals who enjoy the artist. Newly introduced fans should also share, and share, and share because they’d be helping to grow a community that will support the artist and their art!

A more boots-on-the-ground approach is to buy whatever the artist is selling directly from them, instead of pirating their music, movies, or getting knock-off merch.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0OMSImga0SCEg5XZUEUGXI?si=1r6HkClxRSik3ctv5Ns-8w&nd=1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hermajestyspoorsugar/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3StxjR6_9Qs
• Other: Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/her-majestys-poor-sugar/1566381911

Image Credits
Amir Halevi Paula Coria Alexia Montesano Javier Zarco