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Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Solano.
Juan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born in Manhattan, NY, to Dominican parents. At the age of four. I moved to Weehawken, NJ, which is right across the Hudson River. Even though NJ had a super diverse demographic just like the Big Apple, my parents still worked in NY, so I spent a lot of time there as well. In my teens, I took a strong interest in music. Enjoying the great rock music NJ had to offer, the dominant rap scene NY had, and also taking a liking to the more tropical sound Dominican Republic had to offer when I visited my family in the Caribbean. In one given day, you could catch me listening to Jay-Z, Juan Luis Guerra, or Coheed and Cambria. My new love for music enticed me to join the Weehawken HS marching band. I really started growing interest for drumming but was shut down by the band director as he wanted me to play trumpet like my cousin Lucas. All my cousins and sister were in the marching band as well. It took some time, but I eventually learned enough on my own time to finally convince Mr. Espinosa to let me play snare drum.
From then on, I was fully invested in learning the ins and outs of music. At 16, my mother, sister and I moved to Atlanta, GA. Upon arriving to Atlanta, I was introduced to Crunk music. It was a sound I have never heard before or could imagine. My musical palette began to expand even more. After graduating high school, I enrolled in college to study Visual Communications. I was able to get my hands on a copy of Adobe Photoshop while in high school and that is what sparked the fire inside me for creating things digitally. One day I was hanging out with my step-brother Michael and I saw him using a program for making beats called Fruity Loops and I thought to myself, wow this is pretty dope! At the time, I was a drummer in a rock band but seeing this program changed everything. I knew that with the power of this program, I could make almost anything I wanted if I put my mind to it; that I didn’t need band members or have to go through the struggle of scheduling practices, buying expensive instruments, etc.
Fast forward a couple of years and a few design company internships I find myself working at a company called PureRED as a graphic designer and front end web developer. It was my first salary job with benefits and I was pretty happy. On my free time at home, I was still learning the ins and outs of music production and music theory. By now, I had made friends with a few Latino artists in Gwinnett and was mainly producing hip-hop and reggaeton. I slowly started building up clientele and would artists come over my apartment to record. Even though things were going well at my day job, something struck me one day at a company meeting. There was a lady who received an award for being at the company for 20 years and I thought to myself, is this what I want to do with my life? Be here for 20 or more years? Right then and there I knew that If I didn’t start making strides towards the life, I really want to live that I was going to be really upset with myself.
Not even a week later, I get a call from my a good friend of mine called Chunky who was a super talented drummer. He said he’s going on tour with this artist and that they needed a DJ. I had been to Nicaragua twice already with an artist I was producing for as his hypeman/DJ. I thought to myself well I don’t know who to really DJ, but I understand the concept of it and how to play the songs in order and add some extra razzle-dazzle. Little did I know that this was going to be a tour across the entire United States over the span of two months. And to add even more shock value the person I going to be touring with was a country hiphop artist by the name of Demun Jones. My gut told me this was my calling and a week later, I resigned from my position at PureRED. No one at the company was upset with me as they told me they would have done the same if they had a chance to tour the country. Being on the road day in and day out really gave me a lot of time to think about what exactly I needed to do moving forward. I got to see parts of the country that I never dreamed of ever setting eyes on.
Upon returning from that tour I knew I had to up my hustle because I didn’t have that nice corporate check coming in every two weeks. I wasn’t proficient in the beginning at making beats but I knew that I needed to expand my revenue within the realm of the music business. I got better at DJing and being a sound engineer. Time went on and I was introduced to EDM. It felt like I was falling in love with music all over again. A fresh realm of music where new sounds take reign and artistic freedom is king. I quickly launched my DJ/producer project as Vitillaz. I started playing DJ sets at different spots around town, infusing hiphop, electronic trap, and house music. My production style was based around trap and dubstep and I released a few songs. During this time, I started picking up more recording clients through working at an Atlanta studio called Third Eye Collective, mainly southern rap artists. Time went on and I went to then launch my house music project called Velcrxo which my first release hit #2 on the Beatport Tech-house Top100. In the midst of all this I also partnered up with old-time friends Randall “Florista” Ruiz and Pedro “Tempo” Perez to start Perreo404; a good vibe Latin party based around old-school reggaeton.
For those parties, my DJ name is JamesJuan007. Before the pandemic hit you could catching me spinning house music at Red Martini on Tuesdays, spinning Top40 at Big Sky Buckhead on Thursdays, spinning urban Latin music at my Perreo404 event every last Friday of the month, spinning hiphop at Whisky Mistress every Saturday, and every here and there catch me doing a full blown EDM set at Believe Music Hall. When I’m not in the club DJing you could catch me all around Atlanta producing, recording, mixing and mastering for up and coming hot Atlanta artists. Even though it was very difficult getting back on my feet when I came back from tour, I feel like I got somewhere where I really wanted to be. Invested deeply in the main different facets of music and the culture has to offer. From time to time I still do digital design on the side. Creativity is my fuel for life.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. There were many difficult learning curves along the way. When it comes to design, I had a good head start because I had been using Photoshop since high school so by the time I got to college, I had a good understanding. In terms of music I had to really invest a lot of time outside of my job in the early years because during the day I was full involved in handling the tasks at hand for the projects I was overseeing. This meant staying up late at night every night, learning digital audio production, wrist and hand pain from learning how to play piano for hours on end, figuring out how to budget accordingly to have funds to purchase the proper software and equipment needed to have an adequate studio. I would 70% of what I learned in music was from trial and error and the other 30% from online resources. I went to college for graphic design so I was pretty much on my own when it came to music.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
A2Z Entertainment specializes in digital creation. Flyers, logos, video editing, audio production, audio engineering, and DJing services. When it comes to execution in the entertainment industry, we have most of the tools needed for success.
What I think sets us apart from the others is that we have a broad understanding of different cultures and are seasoned in working with different avenues in the music and club industry.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
What I like best about our city is that it’s always growing and that there is a continued influx of outside culture. We are in the south but there are a lot of northerners here and people from around the world. I get the southern hospitality mixed with splashes of diversity across the city. Also Atlanta is considered the current hiphop capital of the world at the moment which is great for business. Yes, the music has become drastically saturated which can make one feel like there is nothing new under the sun but it also opens the door for a lot of opportunities.
The thing I like least about the south is that if you missed your exit off the highway, you are screwed, lol jk. I think one thing that the south lacks that the north has is unity. I still see a lot of separation in the music scene, depending on race. Even in Gwinnett and other parts, you still see a lot of different races just focused on their own and not expanding the cultures as a whole.
Image Credit:
DVPhotoVideo, Quinton Thomas, Jenna Luca, Adam Oliver, Pyrexx
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