Noel Aponte Interview
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: Music’s always been a part of me, I always had a love-hate relationship with music theory but what I learned set the foundation that I needed to create my own art and reflect myself through my music. I taught myself to play guitar and sing after learning piano and it just went on from there. I had this desire to express myself and I didn’t know how, wherever I looked in my past and present I found that expressing myself through music always came naturally, but I wanted to do it in a unique and recognizable way. It took time to develop that sound and be confident in it.
Q: What are some topics and themes you explore on some of your recent release Bittersweet?
A: I wanted to make Bittersweet a sort of continuous experience, it’s my first project and I was making it out of my college dorm at the time with the skills I’d taught myself. My goal was to captivate a wide variety of emotions that one can go through in the journey of a romantic relationship, if you listen closely each song had a different vibe and that was meant to resemble the stages of love, particularly one that doesn’t work out. In the beginning, the vibe is very upbeat, cheerful and fun, not thinking about the future but just living the moment, then progressively all these other situations and feelings start coming into play, and by the end of the project, the vibe is very different. I didn’t want to make a full-length album based on this topic so I condensed it into four songs and an Interlude to separate the two vibes. “I don’t see you in my Dreams” was a song about letting go and coming to terms with leaving someone behind. I did my best to put genuine emotion into these songs to captivate each feeling and make it so this EP would hopefully stand out in the sea of music today.
Q: How do you approach songwriting?
A: I’m very particular in the way I do my songs, I’ve always been a sort of perfectionist and I didn’t want to leave my creative process up to another person. I taught myself to produce my music and everything involved with this process in order to close that gap between my creative mind and technical ability. At times I just create a sound based on my experiences and then I find the words to fit them, other times lyrics will come to mind and I’ll make the track around the feelings those words invoke. The main issue for me is making my songs fit a particular song structure because I feel like that limits me sometimes but I also understand the importance structure has on making the song easy for the listener to understand and digest. That being said I feel like in the future as I grow I’ll do more and more experimental structures.
Q: Can you talk about your musical history?
A: Music’s always been a part of me, I always had a love-hate relationship with music theory but what I learned set the foundation that I needed to create my own art and reflect myself through my music. I taught myself to play guitar and sing after learning piano and it just went on from there. I had this desire to express myself and I didn’t know how, wherever I looked in my past and present I found that expressing myself through music always came naturally, but I wanted to do it in a unique and recognizable way. It took time to develop that sound and be confident in it.
Q: What are some topics and themes you explore on some of your recent release Bittersweet?
A: I wanted to make Bittersweet a sort of continuous experience, it’s my first project and I was making it out of my college dorm at the time with the skills I’d taught myself. My goal was to captivate a wide variety of emotions that one can go through in the journey of a romantic relationship, if you listen closely each song had a different vibe and that was meant to resemble the stages of love, particularly one that doesn’t work out. In the beginning, the vibe is very upbeat, cheerful and fun, not thinking about the future but just living the moment, then progressively all these other situations and feelings start coming into play, and by the end of the project, the vibe is very different. I didn’t want to make a full-length album based on this topic so I condensed it into four songs and an Interlude to separate the two vibes. “I don’t see you in my Dreams” was a song about letting go and coming to terms with leaving someone behind. I did my best to put genuine emotion into these songs to captivate each feeling and make it so this EP would hopefully stand out in the sea of music today.
Q: How do you approach songwriting?
A: I’m very particular in the way I do my songs, I’ve always been a sort of perfectionist and I didn’t want to leave my creative process up to another person. I taught myself to produce my music and everything involved with this process in order to close that gap between my creative mind and technical ability. At times I just create a sound based on my experiences and then I find the words to fit them, other times lyrics will come to mind and I’ll make the track around the feelings those words invoke. The main issue for me is making my songs fit a particular song structure because I feel like that limits me sometimes but I also understand the importance structure has on making the song easy for the listener to understand and digest. That being said I feel like in the future as I grow I’ll do more and more experimental structures.
Q: Have you played this music live and if so how does it translate with an audience?
A: At this point, I haven’t played my music live yet, it took a very long time for me to feel comfortable releasing my music to the world, I always want to reach a certain level of quality before showing my art. In that same sense, I’m kind of waiting for the right time to perform live. So far people have responded well to my music which is heartwarming because it makes me feel better about expressing myself that way, but it’s only been seven months since I released my first single, I’m sure when the time comes to perform live and share my music in that way it’ll be an amazing experience.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I believe all art is beautiful and the ability to create something unique is very valuable. When it comes to my music, I want it to be a reflection of who I am, and how I’m growing, and make it in a way that I feel does justice to the beauty of life and the experiences that inspire creativity. I’m still 18 and I have a lot of growing to do but I believe whoever will appreciate my music and have the desire to listen will find it, and what’s meant to happen will happen. That being said I’ll continue working as hard as I’ve always been to make even better art and hone my skills so I can bring it to the world. Also, I want to thank you guys for this opportunity to share it and to everyone who’s listened so far.
A: At this point, I haven’t played my music live yet, it took a very long time for me to feel comfortable releasing my music to the world, I always want to reach a certain level of quality before showing my art. In that same sense, I’m kind of waiting for the right time to perform live. So far people have responded well to my music which is heartwarming because it makes me feel better about expressing myself that way, but it’s only been seven months since I released my first single, I’m sure when the time comes to perform live and share my music in that way it’ll be an amazing experience.
Q: What else should we know about your music?
A: I believe all art is beautiful and the ability to create something unique is very valuable. When it comes to my music, I want it to be a reflection of who I am, and how I’m growing, and make it in a way that I feel does justice to the beauty of life and the experiences that inspire creativity. I’m still 18 and I have a lot of growing to do but I believe whoever will appreciate my music and have the desire to listen will find it, and what’s meant to happen will happen. That being said I’ll continue working as hard as I’ve always been to make even better art and hone my skills so I can bring it to the world. Also, I want to thank you guys for this opportunity to share it and to everyone who’s listened so far.