We recently connected with Tristen Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.
Tristen, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
It is hard to pinpoint exactly when I learned how to create songs and music. I’ve always felt like creatives are sponges, just soaking up every little aspect of their environment, and redirecting it into their own expression. As a child, I specifically remember listening to music hyper-intently: memorizing lyrics, identifying different melody choices, and even re-writing certain portions to my liking. This, coupled with both of my parents love and exquisite taste in music, I was able to build reference points of what is “good” to me across many genres.
I think the skill that was most essential for me to learn early was taste. I think it is super important for artists to understand why they like the music that they like, and how to replicate those general aspects into their own creation.
Knowing what I know now, I would have taken the full plunge into my creative abilities sooner. Throughout my youth, I was actually mostly occupied with sports. Soccer was my main focus early on. Due to this, my love for music was not cultivated as much as it could have been, but it was always there, dormant.
The biggest obstacle standing in the way of learning more was ultimately my own ego. I was so scared to actually release music because the harder you try at something, the more vulnerable you are to have it hurt you. I heard a saying recently that stuck with me because it sort of sums up that issue I was growing through as a young artist. The saying goes “you might not be great to start, but you must start to be great”. Early on, I knew what good music sounded like, and I knew that my product was not quite there yet. Now that I have begun to make music that I feel more accurately represents me, I no longer have any hang ups or apprehension.
Tristen, 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?
My name is Tristen Rodriguez, although a lot of people know me as Don Dre. I am a musician (Songwriter, Vocalist, Producer) working in Los Angeles, California. I got into the music industry after moving to Los Angeles from Indiana in 2021 after my undergraduate. I now do a multitude of things within the creation of music, including but not limited to: chorus creation, verse structure and writing, melodic suggestion, creative direction, etc.
I pride myself on helping clients realize that there are no wrong answers or avenues in the creative process, it is all about organic feeling. I like to take the pressure off of the artist by reverse engineering certain aspects of their creation. Telling an artist “if this was the beat to your favorite song, how would that song go? What emotions would it evoke?” From there, whatever the answers are, we try and create that ourselves. It helps to know what the assignment is sometimes for artists, as too much freedom is sometimes overwhelming.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My overall mission on my creative journey is to leave a lasting impact on the music industry as a whole. Whether it is through my own artistry, or a project that I am a part of, I want to be a name that has to be mentioned when discussing the history of music in the future. It seems that currently, music has lost its feel good and inclusive feeling. My own music aims to restore the feeling of positivity and light heartedness. It seems that there is intention missing from todays music. For this reason, I try not to do anything without reason, or waste any lines/lyrics. NO FILLER!!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think the biggest thing that society can do to support artists today is to spread kindness. Music is art, and thus should be critiqued. However, it seems that today more than ever, critiques lack empathy. There would be many more artists in the world if they weren’t constantly worried about putting their full time and energy into a product just for someone to skim the project and say its “mid”. If you’ve never created anything, you wouldn’t know the immense pressure it comes with, so I’d like for people to try and remember that before they trash somebody’s art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/dondreofficial
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aye_tristen/
- Twitter: @Aye_tristen
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dondreofficially
Image Credits
@stretch.aesthetic @sixsidesoja @fo.sachii