We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sean Robledo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sean, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a musician. However, the biggest turning point that I can remember was when I was about 10 or 11 I was in the truck with my dad and Hells Bells by AC/DC came on the radio and I just remember thinking it was one of the coolest things I had ever heard. As soon as I got home I searched them up and that band became my first musical obsession. I remember I bugged my parents for an electric guitar almost everyday that year, and as luck would have it, I got one that same Christmas!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve been writing my own music now for about 10 years. My biggest influences are bands like Green Day, Nirvana, and The Strokes, and I often describe my music as “if those bands had a baby together it would make Sweet Ventura”.

I’m not sure why but writing sad or angry or loud music is my favorite thing to do. Something about the energy of the guitar or the emotions of the lyrics just really attracts me to that type of music and I love making it.

My band Sweet Ventura started as a solo projects but after I brought in friends to help me play I decided to make it an actual “band” and we have been playing live shows just about every other weekend for the past year now, and it feels like a dream come true.
We try our best to maintain a highly energetic stage presence to go along with our high energy music. If you ask me, there is nothing worse than a band that just stands there, doesn’t move, and doesn’t talk, it’s just boring.
I personally try my best to interact with the crowd as best I can and involve them in the show as well. Sometimes it works so well that a mosh pit gets started, and watching that is one of the best feelings ever.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Like any artist, my goal is to be able to be able to do music for a living. I don’t really care about becoming famous necessarily but I wouldn’t mind being recognized from time to time, and I definitely wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to win an award like a Grammy or something but those aren’t really the goals that I’m working towards. I think if I could just get to a place where I am able to make a living off of writing and playing my own music, I would be happy.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At the end of 2022 I was probably at one of the lowest points in my life. I had been struggling to find people to play with me for about 3 years at this point and I was starting to feel like maybe I should just give up on music entirely. I had already had so many people tell me I shouldn’t go down that path or that I should do something else but a music career is quite literally the only thing I’ve ever wanted. I remember I played a crappy Halloween show at a friends house to like 6 people, we played terrible because we had only practiced twice, but it was fun and everybody there sung us praises. That’s when I decided it was time to get my shit together. I found some dedicated people to play with me and the first official Sweet Ventura gig was the 2023 Lowbrow Palace Battle of the Bands. It was my first real gig in almost 3 or 4 years and yet we managed to make it to the finals and I even got to crowd surf at the end of our final set! We didn’t win but the exposure had us getting offer after offer for shows and it carried us through the rest of the year.
2023 was probably the best year of my life because I started at one of my lowest points and ended at one of my highest and now I have got so much drive for the future! I’m planning new music releases and even looking into us going on tour soon!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sean_robledo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHm4v7-V5ophybj7gX_GFOw
• Other: My Band’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweet_ventura/

Image Credits
Angel Salcido (@sanangelisaac) Christian Martinez (@christian_mtz9911)