Meet Daniel Mateo Florez | Musician and music instructor

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

Hi Daniel Mateo, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
It’s actually been a pretty recent development! I’ve been playing the guitar for 17 years but was a software engineer by trade for about 8 years. Since around 2014 or so, I started getting into making surf rock covers of video game music but only started ramping up around 2017 after joining OverClocked Remix and Pixel Mixers, two online communities for creating covers of video game music. Since then, I started taking music more seriously but still as a hobby. However, around the time of the pandemic, I ended up getting enough clout that I started being asked to perform live. At first, it was through online streaming but eventually I had my first real life gig since university at VGMCon 2021. After that, I got enough traction that I started getting more gigs at video game and anime events around the country. I was still working as an engineer throughout this time but after a few years during my last office job, there was a massive round of layoffs and I ended up being a part of it. One funny coincidence that had happened before I was laid off is that I met someone during a library story time and he recognized me from the gym we both worked out in. He mentioned that he had been searching for a bilingual musician to help with his after-school music lessons. Flash forward to a few months after the layoff, I thought to give that a try since I enjoy teaching and music. Since then, I started getting much more serious about music and realized that I could have a shot at doing something I really love for a living. By teaching, I ended up being exposed to more rigorous learning methods beyond my self-taught ways as well as being exposed to music that I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. Since then, I’ve been trying to grow the live performance aspect of my career and have been getting some small wins here and there but I’m definitely still growing into it. To put it succinctly, I began to pursue a musical career because I’ve loved being a musician for years and want to make it a bigger part of my life.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I mentioned that I started as a surf rock guitarist when I begun creating video game covers as a hobby. One big reason for this is that in the video game music scene, guitarists tend to gravitate towards metal and jazz. At the time, I had just discovered surf rock and decided to lean into it because it was still the kind of energetic playing that I love to work with. Over time, my guitar playing has become influenced by other genres like Colombian cumbia, ska punk, soca, and Hawaiian slide guitar so I tend to say nowadays that I’m more generally a tropical rock guitarist rather than just surf rock. I’ve also been introducing more of my original material so that I’m known as more than a cover musician. Professionally, I still got a long way to go and being a father, it definitely proves challenging but with the amount of gigs rising each year, I’m seeing my efforts paying off. Some of the lessons I’ve learned is that advertising is half the battle, since there is an audience for every musician but reaching them is the tricky part. One mission I’ve got is to show the world that the guitar can stand as a melodic instrument and can be as catchy as a vocalist. What I mean by that is that in the past decades, instrumental rock music has gone in a route of being mostly about theory and technical proficiency, and as such, isn’t really accessible to a general audience since that type of music isn’t particularly catchy. My goal is to show that that doesn’t have to be the case and that instrumental rock can be very fun to listen and dance to. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of going flashy with my solos, I gotta cut loose whenever I can, after all.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d be showing them all the great biking that can be done around here. I don’t mean just the mountain biking that people always think of when they think Colorado but rather, whenever I have visitors, we always go out on bike wherever we can. Having lived in Boulder, I love to spend a day there exploring the creek paths, exploring the downtown and hopefully even getting to go into some of the more technical hiking trails. My favorite spot in Boulder though, would have to be Valmont Bike Park. I love to ride the more technical parts but since it’s got great stuff for beginners, it makes it a great place to take anyone for a great day outdoors. For eating, Mount Everest Cuisine is my absolute favorite spot around here, but I’d also make sure to go to Rosetta Hall. Another day, we’d take the bus to Denver and explore. My favorite spot to eat there that I have to go to every time we go is Menya Noodle Bar. I’m normally not a tea person but the ube bubble tea there is to die for. At some point though, we’d definitely want to take a drive into the mountains (We need more public transit to get there!) to explore some of the mountain towns like Idaho Springs, and if I’m with someone who can handle their own on a mountain bike, Winter Park for Trestle.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I like to thank my wife Andira Ramos for being supportive of my pivot to a creative career. I’d also very much like to thank Miguel Soldevila of Soldevila Music Project. He was the one who helped me get into professional music instruction and because of this, I came to realize that it is possible to thrive in the music business.

Website: https://www.audiomocha.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/audio.mocha/

Twitter: https://x.com/audio_mocha

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudioMocha/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/audiomocha

Other: https://audiomocha.bandcamp.com/