My name is Cruz and I’ve been playing bass guitar for 13 years now. Music for me goes as far back as I can remember.
My aunt had babysat me a lot. She was very into the metal and rock scene. This was during the MTV era. I lived and pre-recorded broadcastings of bands playing shows was a normality on tv back when it still existed. As a kid, I got easily captivated by the aesthetics of these grown folk playing guitars on stage and not only having the best time of their lives, but giving everyone else the best time of their lives through their performances.
MTV was not just a place of metal and rock, it also aired other genres of music like country, classical, pop, and even rap. This led me to love music of all types in life, but of course, metal and rock for me was a musical home and I was simply not afraid to stray too far away from it.
What really got me into wanting to play any instrument at all was when games like Guitar Hero were coming out. Playing the game made me realize that I might actually have a talent for playing guitar of some sort. Growing up fairly poor, rather than being able to get a guitar, my aunt had given me her old bass from the shed. After that day, I’ve been playing bass consistently and have been recognized for it in small ways.
Since then, I've participated in bass lessons in San Bernardino, which taught me proper playing technique and the basics of reading and writing music. Later on in life, I ended up taking music theory at Imperial Valley College which opened up my understanding of music greatly enough to go back and endlessly pick apart all of my favorite songs and further understand their musical composition. Currently I’m taking online courses that regard Studio and Live Event Production. Music is something that I still choose to continue to pursue even to this day.
Fun fact: At Imperial Valley College, I studied Psychology very extensively, leading to a secondary completion in Behavioral Science. I graduated there in the summer of 2023.
“Music theory didn’t ruin me. It just made me insufferable.” -Nathan Rosenberg