Rising Musician Mxrk GBy Valeria QuezadaCarlsbad might sometimes feel likea small town, but it is filled with many talented young people who are following their dreams. Markos Gonzalez an 18 year-old musician born and raised here.Markos recently graduated from the Carlsbad Early College High School with an associateof Arts. Markos goes by “Mxrk G” when he releases musicand has been making music andputting it out to the public for two years now. “But I’ve been messing around with it and playing guitar and a few random instruments since I was about nine,” says Markos. Music is something that is typically sparked in someone from other people in their life, so it’s no surprise that Markos had a lot of people inspiring this path forhim, as well as a natural born love for music.“It’s just something I always wanted to do since I was a little kid. I used to watch my uncle go play with his bands or watch my dad DJ, and I just thought it was so cool that they were doing that, so obviously I wanted to try and do it too. I just love music and everything about it, it’s all I ever think about or talk about, so I think it just happened very naturally, but it took a lot of learning, luckily I met some of my friends who also make music and they’ve helped me along the way.”Markos’s music style is more rap and hip pop, but there’s influence from other genres such as punk, jazz, and trap. “My type of sound is definitely a bit all over the place, but I think it blends together well,” he explains.Markos has taken inspiration from Kenny Beats, Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Screw, Lil Peep, Mac Miller, Smino, Nirvana, Yeek, Pierce the Veil and so many other music artists. The thing that attracted Markos the most about these particular artists were their lyrics and aesthetics. “I can remember listening to certain projects from these artists and my mind just being blown away and instantly being infatuated with their lyrics and aesthetic about them,” he recalls. Other than having other people inspiring his pursuit of his dream, Markos’s own love forcreating music is what pushes him the most. “My favorite part of making music is the feeling I get when I’m almost done with a project and it’s sounding really put together, when I can look at my screen and see all the small things working together to make the sounds coming out of my speaker. Just the feeling of being able to export the file and then send it to my friends and see what they think of it, or taking it out and listening to it for the first time in the car to see if the mix is good.”The process leading up to a complete song is even more interesting. Many music artists have different processes or “routines” they do when they are creating music and Markos has his
very own. “I’d say it’s more of a process rather than a routine, for beats I like to just play around with samples and loops till I find something that I think might work, or I like to lay out a drum patternand then work around that. I also like to play an instrument myself, record it, and then chop it up as if it were a sample. As for lyrics, that changes all the time, typically I just freestyle my verses and keep certain topics in my mind that I know I want to talk about, but sometimes I hear a beat and I know exactly what I want to doand I go and I write a verse.”“I think the more common thing that happens is I’ll write something without a beat and save it till I hear the perfect beat I had in mind for that verse. I like keeping everything organic when I make my music, when I start forcing certain things it just ruins the energy in the song and makes it feel off in some sort of way,” he explains. The way Markos explains the process of creating and finishing a piece of music truly shows the love he has for what he does, a path most people think is a “tough business to make it in.” Even though it hasn’t been easy,there’s nothing hard work and practice can’t help a musician, or anyone overcome.Markos explains his biggest challenge, “The biggest struggle I’ve faced is probably finding ways to get out to people and finding a crowd that would like the type of stuff that I’m making, I know it’s out there, but in a small town it’s hard to get the momentum started.” Right now, Markos’s favorite song is “Where Are We At?” He likes this song the most because it shows all his musical styles blended into one song. In his personal opinion it blends together perfectly. “The best advice I could think of, that I wish I would of told myself when I was younger, is to just go and do it, nobody’s first piece of music is going to sound great, but that’s the only way to improve, and it doesn’t hurt to just attempt something, it’s all just practice so you can make the music that you really want to make. As long as you’re still having fun with it and still have that passion then don’t ever stop, feelings like that are rare to come by, so if you have that then hold on to it.”On that note, Markos is currently working alongside friend and fellow musician, Alijah Gomez,to make music as a duo called “November.” They are planning to work together making music as a group and for their solo careers. “The main priority is getting some releases ready for Spotify that we hope will be ready by the end of this year. I’m also working on a project that I’m hoping to release in September, but I just want to make sure it’s the best it can be before I put it out,” he explains his current plans. Markos just wants to continue making his music and hopes that people will continue to listen. “The dream is to be able to live comfortably off of my music, and to be able to inspire and help people like how so many others’ music has helped me.