We’re looking forward to introducing you to Aidan San Diego . Check out our conversation below.
Aidan, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Maybe y’all can relate; I’ve found that since the outset of my musical journey, I have always found promotion and putting a vision to the sounds to be the hardest thing. However, in just the past year, I’ve found an incredible amount of satisfaction in doing this in a way that feels true to me. I am finding countless parallels between the world of creating music and creating videos. I don’t think it was so much that I was scared of doing it before; it’s just that now, I have found it an effective way to develop world-building with regards to an artistic persona.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am Aidan San Diego. I am a multi-instrumentalist, producer, rapper, and songwriter from Maine. I moved to Nashville five years ago and have loved every second of it. Currently, I have temporarily relocated back to the East Coast for my education, but I return to the city often for collaborations and studio work. I played guitar in a rock band known as The Sunday Alibi for a few years, with whom I wrote, recorded, and released various singles and one studio album. Since the dispersion of the band, I fell in love with rap music, leading to a shift in what I created. Over the past year and a half, I have released numerous singles and a debut album of my own titled “MORE OR LESS (MORE)” under the name Aidan San Diego. I remember hearing “98 Freestyle” by Big L for the first time and becoming obsessed with recreating the sound of East Coast hip-hop in the 90’s, (naturally with my own twist on it). Just like you, I’m really just along for the ride.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
I believe bonds between people can be broken in a lot of ways. If you look at all of the closest relationships in your life, what do they all have in common? Can you think of one? I can’t exactly. Hardship of any form can break bonds, but it can also be a very fertile ground to build relationships as well. Being malleable as a person and willing to see things differently doesn’t always fit perfectly the idea of who you are, but who you are is always changing, and people tend to have more good ideas about life than they do bad ones (of course depending on how you look at it). I met one of my best friends at a time when I was considering quitting creating music altogether. I was convinced to go to a writers camp outside Nashville and went somewhat reluctantly, only to find that my love for creating and the sharing of ideas was reignited by an off whim trip that I never would have gone on otherwise. Sometimes you have to trust the faith that other people have in you, and not that which you have in yourself.
When did you last change your mind about something important?
For the longest time, I carried the mindset in my creation that everything needs to be 100% representative of your vision. I feel that other artists may resonate with this tick of perfectionism. However, I’ve changed my mind about that recently, coming to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter what you are putting out. The only thing that matters at this point in the journey (being small in an ocean of talent) is that you are 1, are putting things out, and 2, getting the point across on the most basic level. I’ve found that if you can do that, people will see your vision, and they want to stick around for the final iteration of it when it comes along.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whom do you admire for their character, not their power?
I have a great amount of admiration for Jerry Seinfeld/Larry David. Though not musicians, their creative expression about life through Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm is genius in my eyes. It’s not perfect, but you know that it is perfectly how they see life, and the fact that it is all so relatable makes it that much more potent on top of the comical aspect. It is the ideal of world building, which is what the ultimate goal for me as an artist; to create a space in which people can see the world as you do, as self-absorbed as it may sound.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
If I only had ten years left to live, I wouldn’t stop smoking that for sure, but I would stop making excuses to negate putting my art out into the world. I am guilty of that which I preach against, and could drop a fifty-song mixtape tomorrow, but it wouldn’t feel done to me. There are parts of any project that I release that I look back on and say, “dang, I probably should have fixed that before the master.” But there will always be those after-thoughts. So you might as well put it out there, cause odds are. the average joe probably won’t notice those spots where the vocals could have had an extra layer or used a little more high end.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aidansandiego/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-san-diego-2141b524b/
- Youtube: @aidansandiego14
- Other: https://unitedmasters.com/aidan-san-diego
