Meet Astin | Musician and Audio Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Astin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Astin, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Honestly, I pursued a career in the arts because everything else seemed boring and unfulfilling. I did pretty well in school when I was young, but once I got to college, the prospect of doing one of these academic things for the rest of my life was very saddening. I enjoyed the few music classes I had taken and had really enjoyed writing my own music up to that point, so it was an easy choice.

In the time since, I have never regretted focusing my efforts on music. I still love songwriting as well as the recording and mixing processes. It always felt like I was making something new, something the world didn’t have yet, and that felt worthwhile to me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am a guitarist, a vocalist, a songwriter, and an audio engineer. What set me apart early on was that I was doing it all by myself. There was no compromise artistically and there were no restrictions. This allowed me to explore artistic ideas for many years without much concern for what other people would think. I certainly developed my own voice that way.

Initially, I focused my songwriting on instrumental music. I tried to flex my music theory muscles as much as I could. Eventually, I wanted to add lyrics to my music and what came out was mostly very depressing. Writing music became a very good outlet for negative emotions and difficult situations in my life. Being able to contextualize emotions into words and music was freeing. As time has gone on, I have branched out in terms of my lyrical content, but bad things will always happen. When they do happen, at least I’ll get a song out of it.

Once I became confident in my art and started working collaboratively, I started creating more exciting work. I put out several projects since I graduated from CU Denver. I was happy with the work that I had done, but was not happy with the reception, or lack of reception, that my work received. I was finding it difficult to get noticed. Over time, I went out of my way to engage with the local community more, and then the attention slowly started coming. I had to become more outgoing and forward with my artistic endeavors. This was definitely challenging for me, but overcoming this has proven to be rewarding. Every release gets a little bit more attention. As long as you keep trying and keep advocating for yourself, things will get better.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As far as restaurants go, I’d take them to some local spots I go to all the time, Jerusalem for middle eastern food, Pho Duy for Vietnamese, and Los Molinos for Mexican.

I would take them to all of the local museums we have.

I would also take them to see a Sacred Voices open mic.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to shout out my girlfriend Dani aka Danchupichu. She’s been an artist for longer than I have and has always been dedicated to her art. Seeing her dedication to her art and getting it out there when we first got together was an inspiration to me for being more dedicated to, and having more faith in, my own works. You can find her at @danchupichu on all platforms.

Website: astinmusic.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astinguitar/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AstinGuitar/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNrl_RnTqIgjL_xw0GVtmHw

Other: www.tiktok.com/@astinmusic

Image Credits
Nikki A. Rae