My name is Roman Gastelum and I am a musician. I am a bassist, – both acoustic and electric – , composer, and vocalist. I began music at the age of 8, starting off with vocals. I then started to play bass guitar at the age of 12 and in my teens became involved as a bassist both in and outside of high school. When I was 19 I moved to Los Angeles to attend Musicians Institute and to pursue a career in music once I graduated (this was also when I began to take the double bass more seriously). I also eventually began teaching private lessons for bass and music theory when I graduated, which I still do today.

I think what sets me apart from others in my field, is that I am stylistically diverse. I enjoy performing, composing and arranging in a multitude of genres, ranging from jazz to country, rock to classical, and don’t like to get too pigeon holed in any single one, although it might still happen naturally every now and then. I also play both the double bass and bass guitar which allows me to be a little more flexible, especially when playing across different styles of music. I am also passionate about teaching and have always felt that it comes naturally to me. It’s not something that I treat as a just job. Whenever I see one of my students make progress or get inspired, I progress and become inspired as well.

The one thing I am most proud in my career thus far, is my first full length record that I put out as a solo artist in Fall of 2023 entitled “EQuilibrium”. It is a very unique balance between both hip hop and jazz – or boom bap and bop to be more specific. It encompasses all of my skills as an artist and there was a lot of creative energy and passion put it into it not only from myself but from everyone involved. If anyone out there is equally into both of these styles, or simply a music lover in general, this is a must listen. The album is on all streaming platforms.

I think that even though I have established myself to a point where I feel somewhat satisfied and have definitely come a long way since I moved to Los Angeles, I am still no where near where I would like to be. It’s funny because as of 2024 I feel as if I am barely getting started with my career. It’s always a moving target. There are a few things that I would like to achieve, most of which is taking what I have already done thus far, but doing it bigger and better.

A few topics that I will say I am as well versed in on a fundamental level, and also in regard to certain niche aspects as I am with music, are economics and history. I think being able to understand how the world works with a clear mind is extremely important no matter what your field is and can allow you to make better life decisions both in and outside of your career, as well as gain a more solid world view in terms of the “how” and “why”, especially during the turbulent conditions that our country and world have  been in over the past few years.

There is a good portion of the general public that doesn’t know what economics is exactly. So what is economics? It is the study of the allocation of scarce resources that have alternative uses. Ultimately it is the study of trade offs, cause and effect, and the realities we must face living in a world of physical scarcity, and how we can aim to be most productive within these constraints. It is also important to gain some fundamental understanding of economics so people don’t fall for what politically “sounds good”, especially when in the voting booth. Most of the time what sounds good or is made out to be some kind of panacea, has unintended consequences. Both Intention and morality do not equal causation. If anyone is looking to begin studying economics, I would recommend looking no further than Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics” – a classic that is on its 5th edition, with minimal jargon, graphs and equations that will help solidify your fundamental understanding – one of those rare books that benefits both experts and novices. 

Studying history is very important because of aforementioned reasons and also because of that cliche saying about how it repeats itself. I will use this quote from a lauded historian that pretty much sums it all up: “The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises, and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.”

I would recommend “The Rise of The West: A History of the Human Community” by William H. McNeil (1963) as a place to start for a history book. Despite the title of the book being a little misleading (given the ethos of it being written not too long after WWII), it is actually one of the first world history books ever written, spanning from the Paleolithic age up until post-WWII and still remains one of the best even though the historiography is slightly dated, as McNeill mentions in the introduction of the newest edition that was released 30 years later. Regardless, this still remains an excellent place to start to gain a fundamental understanding.