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Speaker 1: I think my journey now is to kind of break

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Speaker 1: out of that box of bedroom pop or indie pop.

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Speaker 1: I think that no matter where you started making music,

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Speaker 1: you could still be a pop star or a rock star.

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Speaker 2: From media and PRX.

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Speaker 3: It's Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: I'm Maria Jojosa today a dive into bedroom pop, a

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Speaker 2: genre where young LATINX artists are breaking new ground and

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Speaker 2: reclaiming their place in the music industry. Even if you

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Speaker 2: haven't heard of the term bedroom pop, you'd probably recognize

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Speaker 2: the music in this genre pretty quickly.

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Speaker 3: What's it kinda take me now?

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Speaker 2: Bedroom pop music is dreamy and nostalgic, often acoustic, with

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Speaker 2: minimal production.

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Speaker 1: Don't tell me what it's kinda take me now.

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Speaker 2: It's not meant to sound like a massive studio production.

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Speaker 2: In fact, bedroom pop got its name because of its origins.

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Speaker 2: Most times this music is produced by independent artists from

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Speaker 2: their actual homes and their bedrooms. Do it yourself music

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Speaker 2: phenomenons like this aren't new.

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Speaker 3: House music.

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Speaker 2: Garage, grunge, even hip hop began in garages and backyards

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Speaker 2: and underground parties outside of the mainstream. It's where young artists,

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Speaker 2: often artists of color, were able to experiment with new

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Speaker 2: sounds on their own. In twenty twenty one, up and

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Speaker 2: coming artists are continuing this legacy in bedroom pop. A

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Speaker 2: lot of young stars today like Billie Eilish, Cliro and

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Speaker 2: Rex Orange County, got their start in bedroom pop, and

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Speaker 2: as the genre's gone more mainstream, a lot of young

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Speaker 2: La the Next musicians are making a name for themselves

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Speaker 2: in this space too, the Marias, Omar Apollo, Google, just

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Speaker 2: to name a few. But some artists say this glamorizes

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Speaker 2: an actual struggle. When you don't have access to resources

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Speaker 2: or connections, you don't really have a choice but to

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Speaker 2: make music from your room, and the bedroom pop phenomenon

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Speaker 2: can obscure the fact that a lot of these artists

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Speaker 2: are making music this way out of necessity. It impacts

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Speaker 2: a lot of musicians of color who are historically underrepresented

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Speaker 2: and lack support in the industry, even when they're often

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Speaker 2: helping to pioneer these hot new genres, like many Latinos

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Speaker 2: and Latinas are doing today. With bedroom pop producer Daniela Teo,

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Speaker 2: Garson spoke with a few LATINX musicians about the challenges

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Speaker 2: that come with being independent artists of color and their

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Speaker 2: experiences is rising bedroom pop stars Daniela is going to

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Speaker 2: take it from here.

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Speaker 4: I don't know, I don't know.

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Speaker 3: I don't know.

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Speaker 5: This is Victor Internet.

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Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know.

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Speaker 5: They're a young artist who started out by using YouTube

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Speaker 5: to teach themselves how to play music. That's not their

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Speaker 5: real name. By the way, Victor's Advanthus adopted Internet as

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Speaker 5: their stage name after deciding to become a musician. Today,

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Speaker 5: performing as Victor Internet, they have millions of streams on

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Speaker 5: Spotify and tour all over the US. Victor, who uses

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Speaker 5: they them pronouns, makes the kind of music that makes

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Speaker 5: you feel seen, touching on the highs and lows of

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Speaker 5: love and life. Their melodies make you want to dance

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Speaker 5: and cry at the same time.

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Speaker 1: I think it either feels like an anonymous love letter

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Speaker 1: or it feels like laundry, like fresh out of the dryer,

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Speaker 1: and it just smells really good like linen.

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Speaker 3: I think that's how my music is like.

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Speaker 5: Victor is first generation Mexican American from the South Side

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Speaker 5: of Chicago. Both in their music and on social media,

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Speaker 5: they've been outspoken about their heritage along with their queerness

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Speaker 5: and their mental health journey. They've also been outspoken about

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Speaker 5: their struggles making it as a full time musician, and

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Speaker 5: as passionate as they are about it, it hasn't been

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Speaker 5: an easy journey. Victor didn't have any formal music education.

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Speaker 5: Their passion for music started with their family.

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Speaker 1: They grew up in the church, and both my parents

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Speaker 1: sing or play an instrument. My dad is a maiachi,

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Speaker 1: so I grew up around him playing the trumpet, and

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Speaker 1: my mom is a singer or so I just kind

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Speaker 1: of grew up around that.

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Speaker 5: But even with their parents' musical backgrounds, Victor had no

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Speaker 5: idea where to begin if they wanted to do this

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Speaker 5: for a living. They couldn't afford to pay for music

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Speaker 5: classes or high tech software and equipment. They didn't have

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Speaker 5: any connections to music labels in the US or any

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Speaker 5: other kind of foot in the door to the industry.

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Speaker 5: So Victor took matters into their own hands.

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Speaker 1: That was born the year two thousand and computers were

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Speaker 1: rolling out and becoming really big thing. So I decided

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Speaker 1: to teach myself through YouTube. I didn't go to school

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Speaker 1: for music production or anything like that. I just taught

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Speaker 1: myself through the Internet.

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Speaker 5: Victor learns how to use digital audio workspaces. Those are

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Speaker 5: music production software used to compose, record, arrange, mix, and

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Speaker 5: master audio. The first digital audio workspace that Victor used

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Speaker 5: was fl Studio, and they eventually moved over to using ableton.

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Speaker 5: They torrented the software off of illegal websites and would

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Speaker 5: borrow their friend's microphone to record their music.

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Speaker 1: I thought that was cool, like the fact that I

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Speaker 1: can learn the things that are taught in schools that

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Speaker 1: people pay a lot of money for. I just thought

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Speaker 1: it was really cool that anyone could just hop on

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Speaker 1: YouTube and learn that stuff.

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Speaker 5: Victor was about seventeen years old when they started posting

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Speaker 5: their own original songs online on streaming sites like SoundCloud

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Speaker 5: and YouTube. They journeyed into underground stardom at around the

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Speaker 5: same time as other artists who were doing the same thing.

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Speaker 5: FU For the artists that were making music this way,

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Speaker 5: the process felt really democratic. You just make your own

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Speaker 5: work and upload it online, letting the rest of the

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Speaker 5: world decide if it likes you or not.

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Speaker 1: There was this era on SoundCloud back in twenty seventeen

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Speaker 1: of people like me who also just like learned online

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Speaker 1: or just started out in their room with like really

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Speaker 1: cheap gear, and that scene was blowing up.

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Speaker 3: We all grew up together just doing the same thing.

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Speaker 5: I was seventeen years old at around the same time

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Speaker 5: that Victor was. I wasn't uploading music to SoundCloud, but

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Speaker 5: I was on the receiving end of this movement they're

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Speaker 5: talking about. I was one of thousands of people that

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Speaker 5: were discovering hidden gems like Victor Internet, and I quickly

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Speaker 5: became a huge fan.

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Speaker 3: Much on my min last.

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Speaker 5: I became obsessed with discovering small artists on the Internet.

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Speaker 5: I'd fall into rabbit holes on SoundCloud and Spotify, and

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Speaker 5: I'd follow these artists on social media. A lot of

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Speaker 5: these artists were teenagers like me. I started making playlists

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Speaker 5: and sharing them with my friends. The music was warm

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Speaker 5: and inviting, especially the music by latinx artists.

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Speaker 4: Like me.

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Speaker 5: A lot of them were raised by immigrant parents in

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Speaker 5: a country that differed vastly from the culture their parents knew.

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Speaker 5: This music reflected those experiences, sometimes in both English and

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Speaker 5: in Spanish, and listening to it made me feel at home.

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Speaker 5: Even at my majority white high school, where I was

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Speaker 5: surrounded by people I couldn't identify with, I could identify

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Speaker 5: with music by Boy Pablo Losretros Danielandra, Luna Luna and

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Speaker 5: other LATINX artists. They made up a majority of my playlists.

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Speaker 5: Victor and these other young artists, and to a lesser extent,

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Speaker 5: listeners like me too. We were fueling a movement, and

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Speaker 5: without necessarily realizing it, we were stumbling into the world

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Speaker 5: of bedroom pop.

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Speaker 6: Bedroom pop is a DIY, do it yourself form of

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Speaker 6: music production that generally involves an artist working for very

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Speaker 6: limited tools and production methods to create pop music.

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Speaker 5: That's Andrew Casillas, a music contributor for Rolling Stone. Andrew

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Speaker 5: ran the Latin music blog club Phonogramma between twenty eight

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Speaker 5: and twenty sixteen. Andrew says that today's bedroom pop scene

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Speaker 5: was decades in the making.

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Speaker 6: Commercial recording equipment was very bulky back in the nineteen

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Speaker 6: fifties and sixties when rock and roll and even hip

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Speaker 6: hop were really ursioning. It wasn't really to the eighties

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Speaker 6: till they were a little bit better commercial equipment that

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Speaker 6: people could kind of purchase for their own home, studios

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Speaker 6: or themselves. But it really wasn't until the digital audio

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Speaker 6: boom back in the late nineties early two thousands where

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Speaker 6: bedroom pop really became its own sort of scene.

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Speaker 5: By this time, digital audio was making it easier than

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Speaker 5: ever for artists to create and share music from home.

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Speaker 5: Technology only became more and more accessible enter streaming. In

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Speaker 5: the mid twenty tens, artists started uploading their work to

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Speaker 5: platforms like SoundCloud, YouTube, and Spotify, just like Victor did.

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Speaker 5: More and more people began experimenting with music from home,

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Speaker 5: leading to a real bedroom pop boom.

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Speaker 6: I think what makes it a movement is just that

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Speaker 6: it is so easy to make nowadays. Now, I mean,

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Speaker 6: we have Garage Band, which comes basically with every single

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Speaker 6: Apple device, and there's a ton of others you can

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Speaker 6: just download online that allow you to make whatever kind

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Speaker 6: of music frankly that you want to make. I think

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Speaker 6: what sets it apart over generationally is that it's become

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Speaker 6: a lot more popular in the mainstream.

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Speaker 5: A new generation of bedroom pop artists started getting more

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Speaker 5: and more popular around the late twenty tents. Right as

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Speaker 5: artists like Victor began to make a name for themselves

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Speaker 5: on the Internet, streaming services and major labels took notice

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Speaker 5: and began to really push the bedroom pop brand. Today,

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Speaker 5: Spotify's bedroom Pop Playlist, which helped popularize the term, has

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Speaker 5: over eight hundred and eighty thousand subscribers. Bedroom pop stars

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Speaker 5: are competitive in the industry. Billie Eilish, who started out

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Speaker 5: recording music from her parents' home, is winning Grammys, and

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Speaker 5: homemade music videos are racking up millions of hits. Clara's

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Speaker 5: video for the song pretty Girl, for example, has over

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Speaker 5: seventy eight million views on YouTube. But some quintessential bedroom

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Speaker 5: pop artists, like Victor Internet, took issue with the hype.

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Speaker 5: Victor noticed that they were being grouped in with other

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Speaker 5: artists who were actually backed by lots of money and resources.

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Speaker 1: From the jump, they just like went crazy and they're like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: this is like the next big thing, and yeah, there

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Speaker 1: were a lot of people in the industry, a lot

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Speaker 1: of artists coming out who claim to be self made,

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Speaker 1: like you know, bedroom pop, but they weren't.

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Speaker 5: Victor says, the commercialization of bedroom pop feels inauthentic. They

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Speaker 5: acknowledge that the term bedroom pop originated to describe a

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Speaker 5: certain type of music and how it was made. But

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Speaker 5: when trends like this become popular in the mainstream, sooner

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Speaker 5: or later you start seeing efforts to profit off of it.

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Speaker 6: What bedroom pop really is, It's kind of evolved beyond

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Speaker 6: its roots. To where it literally was made in a bedroom,

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Speaker 6: made by yourself, or maybe made with yourself and a friend,

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Speaker 6: to where people can have full bands that can kind

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Speaker 6: of co opt the aesthetic nature of bedroom pop.

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Speaker 5: Andrew is referring to the fact that it's become easy

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Speaker 5: to recreate the bedroom pop sound in studios using professional engineers, bands,

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Speaker 5: and advanced production equipment. Bedroom pop has also become a

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Speaker 5: marketable esthetic think polaroid photos, dim lighting, and a acoustic guitars,

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Speaker 5: with young singers posting fuzzy YouTube videos of them performing

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Speaker 5: in their bedrooms. This kind of elaborate production and branding

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Speaker 5: is a sharp contrast against the stories of Victor and

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Speaker 5: other young artists like them. But this isn't the first

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Speaker 5: time the music industry has witnessed this kind of mainstreaming

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Speaker 5: of music genres. Bedroom pops humble beginnings echo past musical movements.

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Speaker 5: For example, there's house music. House is a form of

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Speaker 5: electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the late

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Speaker 5: nineteen eighties. Black American DJs pioneered the genre using drum

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Speaker 5: machines and splicing together records to make music at home.

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Speaker 5: Their music first took off among black audiences in the

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Speaker 5: regional underground club scene who boosted its popularity across Chicago,

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Speaker 5: the US, and the rest of the world. And then

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Speaker 5: there's grunge. It started out in Seattle with artists playing

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Speaker 5: music from their homes, literally in their garages. Influenced by

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Speaker 5: punk rock and heavy metal, the grunge movement was all

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Speaker 5: about being nonconformist, and it was characterized by this idea

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Speaker 5: of sounding dirty and unpolished. The successive groups like Nirvana

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Speaker 5: and Pearl Jam took this anti mainstream music all the

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Speaker 5: way to the Billboard charts. So much popular music has

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Speaker 5: origin stories like these, such as techno, garage, down tempo.

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Speaker 5: The list goes on. There's a similar theme here. So

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Speaker 5: many of these musicians started these movements from their home

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Speaker 5: DIY style, because sometimes making music from their bedroom is

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Speaker 5: the only point of entry for a lot of artists,

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Speaker 5: especially artists of color, who often don't have the money

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Speaker 5: or resources to break into music, or don't have the

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Speaker 5: right connections to do so. For Victor, sometimes it's frustrating

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Speaker 5: to watch bedroom pop take off the way it has.

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Speaker 1: Me and my friends work so hard from our bedrooms

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Speaker 1: to try and get to where we are now. I

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Speaker 1: started making music out of my bedroom, which wasn't a choice.

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Speaker 1: It just happened that way because I didn't have a

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Speaker 1: lot of money growing up, and so I didn't have

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Speaker 1: access to a big studio.

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Speaker 3: There were streaming platforms at the time.

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Speaker 1: That started coining the term bedroom pop, and they would

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Speaker 1: create playlists to cater to different audiences, so it felt

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Speaker 1: like they were profiting off of a struggle.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino, USA. Bedroom pop is sweeping the

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Speaker 2: Internet as a popular new music genre among young artists

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Speaker 2: and audiences, but the struggle to build a music career

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Speaker 2: offline is real. Today, Latino and Latina artists are trying

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Speaker 2: to figure out how to make it in an industry

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Speaker 2: that historically has shut them out. Stay with us, Yes,

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Speaker 2: Hey we're back. We've been hearing about bedroom pop and

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Speaker 2: how young Latino and Latina musicians like Victor Internet got

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Speaker 2: their start as independent artists, literally working out of their bedrooms.

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Speaker 2: But making a career in music is about more than

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Speaker 2: just talent, and being an independent artist comes with its

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Speaker 2: own set of challenges. Producer Daniell Llea Teo Garson picks

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Speaker 2: up the story from here.

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Speaker 5: The drum solo in the song You're Hearing is being

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Speaker 5: played by Chris Sanchez. He's a twenty one year old

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Speaker 5: Mexican American drummer from Chicago.

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Speaker 3: I absolutely love what I do.

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Speaker 7: I've been doing this you're professionally for a while now,

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Speaker 7: and honestly, it's been a roller coaster.

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Speaker 3: I want to do this for the rest of them.

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Speaker 5: Chris has always known he was going to be a musician.

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Speaker 5: At the age of three, he started banging on pots

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Speaker 5: and pants, even breaking his parents spoons from playing too hard.

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Speaker 5: His parents bought him a drum set and he taught

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Speaker 5: himself how to play when he was five years old.

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Speaker 5: When he was twelve, Chris found a mentor that would

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Speaker 5: give him lessons in exchange for helping out at gigs.

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Speaker 5: Almost every weekend for several years, Chris would help carry

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Speaker 5: equipment and set up on stage, and when the show

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Speaker 5: was over, he would be there to help take everything down.

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Speaker 5: Chris has been working independently as a full time musician

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Speaker 5: for seven years. He is a freelancer for different bands,

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Speaker 5: including plenty of bedroom pop artists, but he doesn't want

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Speaker 5: to be pigeonholed into any one genre.

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Speaker 7: Bedroom pop is a I think it's down terrible how

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Speaker 7: music is music. Sometimes I feel like people look down

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Speaker 7: upon bedroom pod because it wasn't made it like the

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Speaker 7: professional studio. It's a funny term for that style of music.

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Speaker 3: I think the.

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Speaker 5: Risks of being looked down upon and then exploited are

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Speaker 5: even higher as an artist of color. As LATINX artists

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Speaker 5: Chris and Victor Internet have both experienced discrimination in the

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Speaker 5: music industry.

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Speaker 7: Folks avoid me after shows. Well, they congratulate my white bandmates.

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Speaker 7: One time, when I was younger, I received a check

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Speaker 7: that was a lesser amount than my white bandmates. I

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Speaker 7: was the only brown person in the band, and I

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Speaker 7: was also the youngest person in the band. I have

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Speaker 7: to work twice as hard because I have brown skin.

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Speaker 7: I feel like I have to work twice as hard

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Speaker 7: to get the same gig, twice as hard to get

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Speaker 7: the same opportunities that someone else with white skin would

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Speaker 7: get a lot easier.

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Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of artists of color and

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Speaker 1: the industry get treated so unfairly, but you know, they're

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Speaker 1: still praised when they talk about their trauma and stuff.

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Speaker 1: So white people in the industry they love that we

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Speaker 1: talk about the suppression and how we struggle with these

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Speaker 1: traumas and the things that we've gone through, but it's

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Speaker 1: just it's weird because they don't really do much to

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Speaker 1: help out. I feel like white artists definitely get praised

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Speaker 1: for doing the bare minimum sometimes and it's a very

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Speaker 1: frustrating situation.

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Speaker 5: Chris and Victor have been able to push through to

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Speaker 5: find success on their own terms. As the bedroom pop

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Speaker 5: phenomenon shows, there's different ways to make it as an

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Speaker 5: independent musician, either full time or part time. For many

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Speaker 5: artists who get into music professionally in the first place,

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Speaker 5: that's exciting, multiple opportunities to do what you love. Here's

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Speaker 5: Andrew Casillas again the music journalists we heard from before.

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Speaker 6: Depending on the kind of setup you have, you make

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Speaker 6: your income a lot of different ways.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 6: You make your money off of physical sales, you make

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Speaker 6: your money off of streaming numbers. There is the touring,

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Speaker 6: there's the merchandising, There are the commercial aspects.

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Speaker 5: If you're lucky, streaming numbers can turn out to be

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Speaker 5: pretty lucrative.

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Speaker 1: I started putting out my first songs through distro Kid,

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Speaker 1: so all of the growth was very organic.

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Speaker 5: Distro Kid is an independent music distribution service that allows

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Speaker 5: artists to put their music on streaming platforms and monetize

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Speaker 5: their listens.

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Speaker 8: Many times at the ground, okay.

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Speaker 5: It's considered one of the easier ways to get your

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Speaker 5: music out there.

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Speaker 9: Like me too.

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Speaker 1: After a few months, I started seeing like five hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars ruling in. I was like, oh, that's crazy. I've

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Speaker 1: never had five hundred dollars to my name.

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Speaker 3: That's so crazy.

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Speaker 1: So after that, like it just kept going and growing,

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Speaker 1: and I would just notice that my monthly listeners would

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Speaker 1: go up, and then five hundred turned to five thousand.

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Speaker 5: Platforms like Spotify pay artists a rate of about one

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Speaker 5: dollar for every two hundred and fifty streams. To be

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Speaker 5: making that kind of money off of streaming, Victor Internet

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Speaker 5: had to be racking up more than one point two

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Speaker 5: million listens. Admittedly, that's not easy for a lot of artists,

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Speaker 5: but even if you don't become huge online, it's definitely

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Speaker 5: possible to be a working musician and have a regular

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Speaker 5: gig based income.

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Speaker 7: There are a couple of sources of income that as

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Speaker 7: a musician you can acquire. One would be steady gigs,

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Speaker 7: you know, like wedding gigs, you know, regular weekend gigs,

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Speaker 7: or just background gigs, or you can just cut a

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Speaker 7: really fat check from being on a record.

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Speaker 5: Chris is hustling to make a name for himself as

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Speaker 5: a working musician, but breaking into the industry is about

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Speaker 5: more than just being good at music. This is true

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Speaker 5: for plenty of bedroom pop artists or smaller artists in general,

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Speaker 5: and for freelance musicians like Chris, and for a lot

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Speaker 5: of them, the independent lifestyle is sometimes the only way

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Speaker 5: to get started. As an independent artist, Chris manages his

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Speaker 5: own schedule, his own gigs, his own promoting, and his

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Speaker 5: own finances. In the past, he's worked side gigs for

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Speaker 5: Uber and Popeyes to supplement his income. Chris is currently

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Speaker 5: a full time musician, but being your own manager is

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Speaker 5: basically a second job on top of the music. Chris

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Speaker 5: can be skeptical of the music industry and typical markers

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Speaker 5: of success, like signing to a label. He sometimes wonders

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Speaker 5: what it would be like that would mean more money,

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Speaker 5: better equipment connections in the industry. He could keep working

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Speaker 5: with other artists like the bedroom pop bands he collaborates with,

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Speaker 5: and he could also have more time to figure out

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Speaker 5: his future plans. But Chris doesn't want to get burned

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Speaker 5: or feel like he's being commodified.

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Speaker 7: I've been doing well, you know, releasing music independently. If

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Speaker 7: a label decides to end me up with an offer,

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Speaker 7: I'll think about it. But if they're not going to

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Speaker 7: be working for me, then I'm not going to SCIENTI

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Speaker 7: a label that's that's just going to take advantage of

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Speaker 7: me as just the front, you know, for being diverse.

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Speaker 7: I'm not going to be used as an object to

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Speaker 7: raise more money for other folks.

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Speaker 5: There are limits to a fully independent lifestyle, though. Soon

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Speaker 5: after blowing up online, Victor Internet noticed the logistics of

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Speaker 5: operating as an independent artist. We're overshadowing the creative work.

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Speaker 5: They began to wonder, after reaching a certain level of success,

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Speaker 5: do you reach a point where your bedroom becomes too

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Speaker 5: small for you?

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Speaker 8: I just.

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Speaker 3: Something.

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Speaker 5: Victor decided to try a musically out. In twenty eighteen,

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Speaker 5: they signed with a small label called Terrible Records.

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Speaker 1: I had never thought that I would sign with a

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Speaker 1: label or distributor, but I think there comes a point

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Speaker 1: as an independent artist where you just need a little

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Speaker 1: more money.

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Speaker 5: Victor says they liked Terrible Records business model because it

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Speaker 5: operated a lot like a music distributor and was a

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Speaker 5: lot more hands off than traditional labels, So once their

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Speaker 5: contract was up in twenty nineteen, Victor decided to seek

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Speaker 5: out an actual distribution network.

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Speaker 3: I wanted to just explore my options.

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Speaker 1: So Terrible Records is really cool and I'm so grateful

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Speaker 1: for everything that did for me. I just wanted to

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Speaker 1: branch out and try and working with other distributors and

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Speaker 1: see what they could offer.

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Speaker 5: Today, Victor works with a distribution network called a Wall.

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Speaker 5: This relationship affords Victor a lot of freedom, including retaining

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Speaker 5: full creative control over their music. Victor says, the way

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Speaker 5: it works is that they get a fee from a

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Speaker 5: Wall upfront, like alone, to cover Victor's production costs. The

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Speaker 5: distributor expects to eventually recoup that money once Victor's music drops.

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Speaker 5: In the meantime, a Wall can connect Victor to professional

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Speaker 5: sound engineers and other industry professionals to help with production.

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Speaker 5: A Wall also handles distribution and sales in exchange for

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Speaker 5: a small cut.

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Speaker 1: You know, in the past, a lot of artists have

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Speaker 1: got screwed over sending to a record label, and they

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Speaker 1: owe a bunch of money, and sometimes you know, the

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Speaker 1: record label just wants you to do something different that

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Speaker 1: you don't want to do. So I'm really excited that

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Speaker 1: now we just have distributors. I think that's really cool

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Speaker 1: because they just get your music out and you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe they'll give you some money. And I think that's

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Speaker 1: important because then they just let us take care of

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Speaker 1: the rest.

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Speaker 5: Victor thinks this setup has made a difference in their music.

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Speaker 5: They now work with a professional engineer, and they feel

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Speaker 5: that it's been an upgrade from having to mix and

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Speaker 5: master everything on their own.

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Speaker 1: So I had this indie sound to it, like very

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Speaker 1: low fi because you know, it wasn't mixed well. My

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Speaker 1: audience notices with my current releases like Luv and one

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Speaker 1: day they are mixed and mastered.

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Speaker 3: I give you a.

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Speaker 9: Chance from the start, whereas older songs like Maybe Reason

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Speaker 9: or Tender Song, where it mixed and mastered.

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Speaker 8: Sometimes I find myself thinking, love you.

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Speaker 4: Man.

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Speaker 3: I feel stupid.

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Speaker 5: But what cannot For Victor. The idea of bringing outside

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Speaker 5: help into their bedroom setup meant they have the space

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Speaker 5: to grow as an artist. They still feel like they've

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Speaker 5: held onto the things that make their music unique to them,

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Speaker 5: but they can focus more on the future and their career.

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Speaker 1: You want to make something that's chewed yourself but at

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Speaker 1: the same time, you want people to be able to

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Speaker 1: digest it. I'm trying to make a little more happier

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00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:30,720
Speaker 1: stuff because I know iticed like that does really well.

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00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:35,520
Speaker 1: So it's hard following the algorithm sometimes and following the trends,

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Speaker 1: but I'm doing my best.

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Speaker 3: I think.

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00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,280
Speaker 1: I think with time, I'll figure it out and I'll

448
00:28:40,320 --> 00:28:43,000
Speaker 1: be able to you know, stick to my sound, but

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00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:44,880
Speaker 1: also stay fresh.

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Speaker 5: This is a luxury that was hard to come by

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00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,160
Speaker 5: when Victor was fully independent. As they get more and

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00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:55,080
Speaker 5: more successful, Victor doesn't want the reality of their musical

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00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 5: journey to get buried. But that doesn't mean Victor is

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00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 5: only ever going to make music from their bedroom. They

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00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,120
Speaker 5: want their future to hold more than that.

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Speaker 1: I want to be that kind of artist where I'm

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00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:08,959
Speaker 1: putting out great music and I have this dedicated, almost

458
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,400
Speaker 1: cult like fan base. Sometimes I get recognized on the street,

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00:29:12,440 --> 00:29:15,280
Speaker 1: which I never thought would happen, but it happened sometimes,

460
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,479
Speaker 1: and it's the weirdest feeling ever. So I don't think

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00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:21,479
Speaker 1: I would ever want to go fully mainstream, but I

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00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,560
Speaker 1: definitely want to be, you know, a little bit.

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Speaker 8: In the middle.

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Speaker 5: I've been a Victor Internet fan since I stumbled across

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00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:37,000
Speaker 5: their music in twenty seventeen. This October, four years later,

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00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 5: I got to see them perform live. The concert was

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00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 5: at Lincoln Hall in Victor's hometown of Chicago, and it

468
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:46,880
Speaker 5: was one of their first shows since the start of

469
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:54,840
Speaker 5: the COVID nineteen pandemic. The venue was packed with hundreds

470
00:29:54,840 --> 00:29:57,840
Speaker 5: of people there. The crowd was young, and they were

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00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 5: all dressed in costumes ahead of the up coming Halloween weekend.

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00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,880
Speaker 5: Being the same age as Victor, I feel like I

473
00:30:05,920 --> 00:30:09,400
Speaker 5: grew up with them, and even as a longtime fan,

474
00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 5: their journey still feels kind of crazy to me. After

475
00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:16,760
Speaker 5: years of struggling to make music from their room, Today

476
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 5: Victor Internet has tons of fans screaming their name.

477
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:30,600
Speaker 3: I Chicago, welcome back. I forgot how to talk.

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00:30:30,640 --> 00:30:34,160
Speaker 1: It's been two years and stuff out of the stage.

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00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:36,640
Speaker 3: It's so good to see everyone here.

480
00:30:37,440 --> 00:30:39,520
Speaker 5: But there's a lot of artists at home that are

481
00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:43,040
Speaker 5: still using cheap equipment and limited resources to try to

482
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:46,520
Speaker 5: get where Victor is. Even if they're making great music,

483
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,800
Speaker 5: and even if they've started to attract attention from listeners,

484
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 5: a lot of them can get stuck living out the

485
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 5: real bedroom pop experience. They're looking for some support to

486
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:01,080
Speaker 5: continue doing what they love and row into the artists

487
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:01,920
Speaker 5: they want to become.

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00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:05,600
Speaker 1: I think as long as people are aware that we

489
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 1: didn't do this by choice, I think that's what would

490
00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: make me happy, just that you know, they know that

491
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 1: it's a real struggle, and maybe they should work on

492
00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,520
Speaker 1: giving these artists more resources, you know, like people who

493
00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:24,680
Speaker 1: are still in their bedroom. I think we should work

494
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:27,120
Speaker 1: on getting them into studios because they have the talent,

495
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,720
Speaker 1: they just don't have the resources. And I think that's

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00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: a problem, Like it's important to get them in these rooms.

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00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:46,440
Speaker 8: I admit that I wasn't the best and I wish

498
00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 8: I could stuck again. There's some voices that live in

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00:31:55,360 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 8: my mind and they forced me to say good.

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Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Daniell La Dieo Arson and

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00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:17,360
Speaker 2: edited by Alejandra Saassar. It was mixed by Julia Caruso

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00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:22,480
Speaker 2: and JJ Carubin. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Grusado,

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00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:27,640
Speaker 2: Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Jugieta Martinelli, Victori Estrada, Patricia Sulbaran,

504
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 2: Gini Montalvo, Rinaldo, Leanos Junior, and Julia Rocha, with help

505
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,240
Speaker 2: from rolt Perez. Our editorial director is Julio Ricardo Barella.

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00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:39,800
Speaker 2: Our supervising senior engineer is Stephanie Lebau. Our associate engineer

507
00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 2: is Gabriela Bias. Our digital editor is Luis Luna. Our

508
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:48,480
Speaker 2: fellows are Elisa Baena, Monica Morales and Andrew Vignellis. Our

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00:32:48,560 --> 00:32:51,760
Speaker 2: theme music was composed by Zane Rouinos. If you like

510
00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 2: the music you heard on this episode, stop by Latino

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00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:58,040
Speaker 2: Usa dot org and check out our weekly Spotify playlist.

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00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,640
Speaker 2: I'm your host and executive producer Maria Josa. Join us

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00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:03,840
Speaker 2: again on our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see

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00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:08,880
Speaker 2: you on all of our social media hellos, WATCHO bye.

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00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,840
Speaker 4: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Annie E.

516
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,800
Speaker 4: Casey Foundation, creates a brighter future for the nation's children

517
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:25,240
Speaker 4: by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities.

518
00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:30,680
Speaker 4: The wind Coat Foundation and funding for Latino USA is

519
00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:33,720
Speaker 4: Coverage of a culture of health is made possible in

520
00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 4: part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 5: You should do like a this track.

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00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 3: A high school distract.

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Speaker 1: I'm just kidding, you said, unless