Today we’d like to introduce you to Juan Gutierrez.
Hi Juan, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I first started with a huge passion for classical music. When I was nine all I did was learn violin and listen to composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Paganini. I was very obsessed with the virtuosic aspect of this music but also the quality of the writing and how these classical melodies are so memorable. In 2015 I decided to learn how to play guitar and I found that guitar was my instrument, instead of violin. I got into the classic rock stuff from the ’70s and 80s and learned a lot from guitarists such as Slash, Carlos Santana, and David Gilmour. In 2018 I won a guitar-playing contest called “So You Think You Can Shred” which was held at the music festival “Monsters of Rock Cruise”. During that event, my guitar skills were praised by very famous musicians such as Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake, Michael Wilton of Queensryche, and Ace von Johnson of L.A. Guns. In that year I also started taking guitar lessons with the guitar virtuoso Dave Rude, who plays guitar for the legendary 80’s rock band Tesla and is one of the best guitarists in the world. Having all this knowledge coming from him really helped me improve a lot in my guitar playing and my songwriting skills. When I started studying at Full Sail, I fell in love with music production, and I started to go more in-depth in aspects such as synthesis, programming, and creating tracks overall. With the help of my music production mentor William Munar, an amazing Colombian producer who has worked a lot in national tv and the big tv realities of my country, I expanded my knowledge in Latin music, spending a lot of time studying reggaeton producers like Sky Rompiendo, Tainy, Ovy on the Drums, Mauricio Rengifo and Andres Torres. Right now, I work a lot as a session guitar player and I am also working on songs that I will release as an artist and producer . I am excited to keep learning and always remain on a state of continuous progress and improvement.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There are still a lot of challenges to overcome. The music industry is really hard but it’s also the one thing I love the most, so I will keep working on it no matter the obstacles that come by. From day 1, I always knew that the road to success will have a good number of really hard things to solve, but having the passion and the love for what I do is always going to compensate for any struggle.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I consider myself a fantastic guitar player. Of course, there is always room for improvement and there are always new things to learn, but I see myself as a great musician. As a producer, I am very versatile in the sense that you give me reference material and I can give you any type of track you want. Having said that, I do specialize a lot on reggaeton and Latin pop. Usually, in this world of music production, we can fake certain instruments by using very high-quality vst plugins in order to achieve this, but guitar is one of those instruments that can’t be fake with anything. The way a guitar player articulates single notes or gets creative with chord inversions is something that a loop or a plugin won’t be able to do. I combine these two worlds of being a musician and also the beat-making aspect of it, so that would be something that makes me different to other music producers.
Also, when I work with artists, I love spend a lot of time working on the songwriting aspect of music. You can have the best sounding track in the world, but if your song doesn’t have high-quality melodic movements and hooks it won’t connect with the listener. I’ve also developed a great ear for songwriting and sending a song to the next level by creating catchy and memorable parts that everybody will remember. Another important element of what I do is caring a lot about the sound of instruments. Nowadays, pop music tends to be very simple as far as harmony and structure, but the sound design aspect is what rules now. So, taking care of timbre is always a key element to do. As I said before, I am always willing to learn from others and that also makes me a huge fan of teamwork. Working with other producers and writers is something that in my opinion can give a lot of value to a song, so I am always looking for collaborators that have the right mindset and ambition.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The most important lessons for me are to always strive for excellence, think big, be passionate about everything I do, and avoid the fear of making mistakes.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Shift Team Colombia
Janina Nenadic
