01 / THE STORY
Listening, building, becoming
There is a photograph that does not exist yet, but that could sum up a good part of my story: a four-year-old boy in front of a toy keyboard, with small numbers stuck over the keys. My father had put them there to teach me a song he composed for me before I was born: “Mi Niño Bonito”.
I could not read music. I followed the numbers, listened and tried again. Soon afterwards I began to find melodies by ear. The labels disappeared, but the curiosity they awakened is still with me.
Over time I discovered that I like doing something very similar in different fields: understanding how something works, imagining what it could become and finding a way to make it real.
02 / LEARNING TO LISTEN
Learning to listen, learning to create
I was born in Mexico City and grew up moving between different cities in the country. Each change meant leaving friends behind, starting over and learning to find my place. Music was one of the few things that always travelled with me.
In Puebla, during my adolescence, I found people with whom to share it. I learned guitar in a rondalla, formed a band called Home Style with friends and, since almost everyone wanted to play guitar, I ended up buying a used drum kit to teach myself. We played wherever we could: parties, gatherings and school corridors. There were no grand plans. There were songs, friends and an enormous amount of enthusiasm.
Around that time I discovered something that would change my relationship with music. My Yamaha keyboard had a USB port. I connected it to a computer, investigated what it could do and found the universe of MIDI, virtual instruments and music production. Suddenly I could imagine an entire song and build it instrument by instrument.
I spent whole nights experimenting. I began producing music for friends and family, then for other artists. I was fascinated by the result and by the process: learning a new tool, solving a sound problem, discovering that something which existed only in my head could become a recording.
03 / FROM STUDIO TO STAGE
From the studio to the stage
Music took me to places I could never have anticipated from that room. I worked as a producer, arranger, instrumentalist and musical director. I also experienced the stage from different positions: behind a keyboard, accompanying singers, playing drums and, eventually, at the front of my own band.
One of the moments I remember most happened at the Lunario of the Auditorio Nacional, in Mexico City. I had been selected to present my singer-songwriter project and arrived with a full band: brass, piano, bass, percussion and drums.
Before going on, I saw photographs in the dressing rooms of artists such as José José and Yanni. I thought we were sharing the same space, although at different moments. On stage I felt expanded. I felt that was where I belonged.
My single “Volver a verte”, with which I debuted as a singer-songwriter in 2020, had begun to find listeners and opportunities. Soon afterwards the pandemic arrived and the momentum of that release was interrupted. I kept making music, although the path changed direction.
04 / BUILDING SOMETHING OF MY OWN
Building something of my own
I never planned to found a record label. I started by producing songs, then learned to distribute them digitally and, almost without noticing, I was helping other artists with their releases and their presence on platforms.
When I brought those activities together under the name Moctezuma Music, I also wanted to honour a business tradition in my family. The surname represented a history of people who had built something of their own; I wanted to continue that spirit through music.
The project went on to distribute the work of more than 50 artists and represent seven musical projects contractually. I learned about strategy, marketing, negotiation and artist development. I also discovered something important: I enjoyed creating music much more than focusing exclusively on marketing it.
During those years I worked with artists in the studio, was musical director for Mandala Love and taught piano applied to production. Each experience broadened the way I understood the craft: creativity also demands listening, coordinating, learning and knowing how to collaborate.
05 / THE TECHNOLOGY WAS ALWAYS THERE
Technology was always there
My interest in technology did not begin after music; it grew alongside it.
As a teenager I was intrigued by discovering why a task had to be done in a particular way. Once I helped improve the shared use of computers and printers in a family business. On another occasion I found a way to automatically rename thousands of photographs that someone expected to process one by one.
It gave me the same satisfaction as finishing a musical arrangement: I had found a simpler way to solve something complex.
That is why I do not see music, technology and entrepreneurship as separate worlds. In all three I find similar questions: what is needed, what can we imagine, how do we build it, and how do we make it work for other people?
06 / THE ROAD TO VALENCIA
The road to Valencia
For years I had a dream waiting for me: studying at Berklee. I had taken part in Berklee Latino and knew the Valencia campus, but life had taken me down other paths.
In 2022, Andrea and I walked the Camino de Santiago: 33 days and more than 950 kilometres on foot, talking about our dreams and the life we wanted to share. In those conversations Berklee came up again. And so did the idea of living in Spain.
We decided that, if I was accepted into the master’s degree, we would move. If not, we would keep looking for our path in Mexico.
The letter arrived one day in March, while I was alone in my studio. I waited before opening it. I prayed. Finally I read the answer: I had been accepted. I wanted to wait to see Andrea in person to show it to her. She cried with happiness.
Three months later we were preparing a new life in Valencia.
Studying the Global Entertainment and Music Business master’s at Berklee Valencia meant recovering the excitement of being surrounded by people who shared my passion. It also meant starting over in another country, with all the challenges and uncertainties that entails.
07 / UNEXPECTED PATHS
Unexpected paths
After finishing the master’s degree I looked for opportunities in the music industry. I interned at Peermusic and took part in selection processes, but I did not find the professional continuity I expected.
Then something happened that was not in our plans. At Andrea’s birthday party we prepared chilaquiles and micheladas for our friends. They liked them so much that they began asking why we did not open a business. The idea was born as a joke; then the possibility of a venue in central Valencia appeared and we asked ourselves: “Why not?”
That is how Santo Chilaquil was born. It meant entering a completely different world, learning as we went and discovering how much work it can take to turn a spontaneous idea into a real business.
It has not been a linear journey. I have had periods of enormous enthusiasm and others of uncertainty; projects that grew, others that changed and dreams that had to be put away for a while. I do not need to pretend that every decision turned out as expected in order to recognise how much they have taught me.
08 / WHAT REMAINS
What remains
When I look back, I see a child who wanted to play a song, a teenager learning to record on his computer, a producer helping other artists, a musician on a stage and someone who still feels curious about building new things.
I am not defined by a single profession. I am interested in music, but also in the way an idea becomes an experience, a tool, a company or something useful to others.
I am moved to understand and transform what I discover into something useful, beautiful or meaningful.
Perhaps, after all, I am still doing the same thing I did in front of that keyboard: listening, trying, making mistakes, learning and trying again. Only now there are many more keys.