Today we’d like to introduce you to Armando Orona.
Armando, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Mexico and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I come from an immigrant family, so the attitude and mindset has always been to work hard and push through adversity to reach set goals. Growing up, I didn’t really understand this since I grew up not really feeling like an immigrant, I just felt I belonged here and this was my home since this is where I grew up. However, right when I reached high school, my perspective took a shift, and I saw how hard my parents worked to make sure my sister’s and I lived comfortably. This lead me to take in account how life was about to play out, and then I noticed how many opportunities were closed to me just for the fact that I wasn’t born here. This crushed me. I lost interest in my education because at the time, attending a university for higher education was nearly impossible for an immigration like myself. This lead me to dropping out of high school.
Several times after I dropped out, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) came into play. This policy allowed someone like myself that has been here in the US as a child to pursue deferred action and allow them to have a work permit. This meant I could now actually aspire to go pursue a higher education and work as hard as my parents to be able to give back to them and my family. This allowed me to dream. As soon as DACA become an option for me, I went back to school and got my GED to make sure I was eligible for it. As soon as it was granted to be, I enrolled in my local community college and found a job to be able to pay for my education. This kickstarted my ambition and drive to always move forward.
Fast forward to several years later, I met a really close friend of mine and we started making music together. We created an indie-pop music duo called Scorpio Szn. I felt right at home being a part of this project since I’ve been a performing musician for several years prior thanks to a couple of bands I was a part of that belonged to my family. Scorpio Szn opened up my mind to take music more seriously. My bandmate, Zandi Ashley, graduated from Full Sail University and after she told me about the school, I decided to take my shot at that university and moved to Orlando, FL to attend it. I graduated Full Sail University with a Bachelor’s degree in Music Production in March 2021.
In June 2021, I started an internship at ESPN in the Music Department, and as of August 2021, I became a full-time employee as a Music Assistant. Now I get to work on music that gets to air on TV.
As for Scorpio Szn. The artist project is now based from Orlando, FL and our music has been recognized locally and nationally. Recently, one of our songs I produced was recognized at a music award show in New York City. Our song “Sugar Sugar” won the award for Song of the Year at the Wavy Awards 2021.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road at all. I struggled with a lot of obstacles that come with being an Immigrant in this country. Especially those obstacles that revolve around high education like funding, lack of FASFA qualifications, or lack of scholarship opportunities for DACA recipients.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a creative and a musician. My entire life and work revolve around that. I am lucky to have my regular 9-5 day job be in a creative field, as currently I am a Music Assistant at ESPN in the Music Department. In this role, I get to practically listen to music all day. I work on gathering production music from various music libraries for producers of shows or sports. I also get to work closely with music supervisors to put together cuts of commercial music made for use on studio shows and games that air on the network and various platforms. I absolutely love my job since I get to work alongside an amazing team and also build my career within the music industry.
As far as my other creative endeavors, I am a music producer. I have produced music for artists and I also get to be a part of Scorpio Szn which is the artist project I started. I act as the music producer and music director of the project and I have fun working on this. We’ve accomplished so much in the three years we’ve been working on it and I’m excited to see where it leads. I love when our music gets recognition, and we’ve been lucky that we have been on NPR, on TV, on web shows, on the Recording Academy’s Grammy U Virtual conference, and even got to travel to New York City to perform at the Wavvy Awards where we won song of the year!
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Yes, I want to emphasize on the fact that dreams are possible if you remain curious of life. Always be curious. You never know where life will take you. Also, if you are not where you picture you’d be at this time, it’s okay. Always remember Blues Skies. It might be cloudy outside, but the sun will always clear up, and when it does there will be Blue Skies ahead. This is something someone very dear to me told me before I embarked on my journey, and it helps me to remember that things will work out. You just gotta go through those cloudy days.
Contact Info:
- Email: armandomxz@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armandomxz/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/26XRZ4lN2rclPx3PW0kstG?si=bRsuJPZKT6mBK6T_lQPLOQ
Image Credits:
Stephanie Gonzalez Emmanuel Morales
