Alna. I've thought Julie Gacia, a lifelong educator and the proud recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Today, it's my great honor to wish Latino USA a very happy thirtieth anniversary. Ucisi Magaskis for thirty years of informing, challenging and inspiring us. That Lisi that is to all at Latino USA.
This is Latino USA, the radio journal of News and Kurturre Latino USC latin Latino USA. I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and while the country is struggling to deal with these, we listens to the stories of black and Latino Studio United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.
I'm Maria Ino Jossa or La Latino USA. Listener. Hey, here's a show from Los Archivo's enjoy.
I loved seeing how people reacted when somebody was singing stuff like that that would give you goose bumps or like that kind of stuff. I want to be able to do that. I still don't know if I do that, but it was just something I've always wanted to do.
New chins.
From Fudromedia and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria no Josa today. Omar Apollo a rising star in the indie R.
And B scene.
Omar Apollo began making music on his own, teaching himself chords from YouTube videos and honing his sound in an attic in a small town in Indiana. His musical inspirations transcend borders and cultures, reflecting his experience as a son of immigrants from Guaalajara, Mexico, growing up deep in the Midwest. The music of this twenty three year old Mexican American artist courses with rich funk, sweet soul, and upbeat pop, and his lyrics often flow seamlessly between English and Spanish.
Omar began performing music at house parties and open mics in his hometown of Lake Station, Indiana. Then, in twenty seventeen, while working at a fast food restaurant, Omar found his first breakthrough on Spotify with the song you Got the He then began receiving invitations to play at venues in Chicago and eventually across the country. Almost four years later, Omar has amassed more than one hundred million streams on Spotify and has signed a recording deal with Warner Records.
Before the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a halt, Omar had relocated to Los Angeles after wrapping up nearly two years of touring throughout North America, Asia, Australia.
And Europe.
When California went on lockdown, Omar decided to scrap everything that he'd been working on, daring himself to turn Quarantine into a lab of sonic experimentation. On this episode of How I Made It, Omar takes us to the early days of making music on bowered equipment and tells us how he explored everything from funk music to corridos in order to make his debut album, Apologno.
It was up Omar Apollo and I'm an artist from Yenna. I'm from Lake Station, Indiana, where I grew up, so I don't need a GPS to go around anywhere. It's kind of very small. Everybody knows everybody type of thing. There wasn't really much of a music scene, but I would go to little events. I just wanted to perform.
I don't knew what you need.
The first bands that got me into music. There's a band called the Internet and released album called Ego Death when I was like seventeen.
Need for your thoughts on knowledginal Gar.
I remember I just listening to the album and then I was just like, oh, I need to get a guitar tomorrow. So after I heard that, I just went to the pawn shop and got a guitar. My friend let me borrow his bass. Then my other friend let me borrow his interface. My first memory really of getting started with music was in the garage. I had a few friends who played. I was eighteen when I started performing. After we started playing in Indiana, people were like, oh
you could play, Like come play over here. It was just a hobby of something I did, but I wasn't sure that it was going to happen. I made you got me when he's seventeen, and I remember I was by myself really and then I called my cousin because he lived down the street, and I was like, Yo, you gotta come through, fool, come listen to this song I just made. He's like all right, I'm coming. He pull up in his little Monte Carlo and then I played it for him. He was just like, bro, what
like that's insane. Maybe there's something you know, but clearly say I'm not good.
I think that I'm ben.
My friend was like, you gotta put it on Spotify, and then I didn't have any money, so gave him money to put it up and then got like playlisted or something. I got on like three playlist or something, and then I woke up and I had like all these plays and I was like whoa. I was like, that's crazy. I was like working on McDonald's and collected in the work that day, and then my friend told me the next day. He was like, yo, you gotta you gotta put it on another one on you got
another one. I was like yeah, and then I had break lights like ready to go.
Markers like cut right though.
So I wanted to get good at making music, so I was just made it a bunch of songs a month for like the whole summer, like thirty five songs in a month, and I wouldn't put them out or nothing. None of them ever came out. It's just on this hard drive. Whether it was just an idea or like or a full song or just a bunch of mumbles or a bunch of harmonies. It was not until I started like selling out shows that I was like, okay, yeah,
this is possible. So after I got off a tour, I didn't like the music I had been making, and I had this process, and I was just bored with the process, and so I figured I needed to do like a lot of different things, like try different things in music. I had twenty five twenty seven songs or something, and I was getting ready to put it together, you know, release it. But then Quarantine happened, and yeah, it kind of hit me. It made a lot of stuff I
wouldn't normally make. But I had just started using a lot of pedals, and there was this one pedal in particular. It's called the Mutron. It's like wow, wow, wow wow, It's like whoah.
Wo won't.
Step you wanted to use it? Bootsy Collins use it, George Clinton, everyone used it. I ordered it because I was like, oh, we got money, now I can I can order things. And then I woke up the next morning after playing with it all night, and then like made stay Back, and obviously it's very Booty Collins inspired. Bootsy Collins is one of the pioneers of funk music. He was the first one to like slow it down and make this funk music that was sexy and slow.
I just kind of said the ideas to my managers that it would be really cool for got Bootsy Collins on this, so yeah, it would be so then I just d M them and then then you like responded and then uh, you heard the song and he was.
Down especially, and I'm thinking about you.
I feel like I still have a lot of things that I want to do to like satisfy myself, and I think I had the same feelings when I was younger too. I played with the La Philharmonic recently and they learned this corrido called those that I made well corrido. It's a Mexican style of music. It was just crazy to hear, like I have the sheet music that transcribed sheet music in my studio just because it's really cool
to look at you. I don't know, I've never looked at music that way, and so it was just really interesting to see people play along to it in a very trained way. My earliest memory of a corrida was probably my uncle's, my Theo's playing it in the living room like two in the morning. Drunk, just singing. It's just music that is nostalgic to me and the family. And I'm telling the story of just my life Jesse
being from Indiana. That's talking about where I was from, and then how people didn't take me serious because I wanted to do something differ. Well, then the pre course, I'm just talking about getting money.
Yeah, one day.
Last I.
Honestly, getting money, I think is always the goal now because I never thought about it on the way up. I never thought about money when I didn't have it. I was just thinking about music. I love music. And now I'm like, oh, I want to have generational wealth because it's never It's never ran in my family. You know,
we'd never had money in my family at all. And then the second verse, I'm talking about how much I'm making Now it's just this and all everyone who is hating on me back home, and yeah, it's kind of toxic.
Paget go from me for La Jamara can compre Outlas diamonds, So Baganda press barabras get remade.
Don't you.
See yoga makom pre.
I go back to Indiana, it just feels different. And yeah, just seeing people that you knew and they know and they know how you're doing.
Now, would you.
I changed every day? I changed this morning, I had a breakthrough this morning. I changed every day. I think, I think that Why would you stay the same?
That was R and B artist Omar Apollom. His debut album Apollonio is out on all streaming platforms now. This episode was produced by Julia Esparsa with help from Julia Rocha and edited by Martha Martinez and mixed by Gabriel Lebiez. The Latino USA team includes Andrea Lopez Brusado, Mike Sargent, Victori Estrada, and Renaldo Leanos Junior, with help from Dorim Marquez. Our director of Engineering is Stephanie Lebau. Our senior engineer
is Julia Caruso. Additional engineering support by jj Carubin. Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was composed by Zena Ruinos. I'm your host and executive producer Maria jo Hosa. Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, keep up with us on social media. Iyatusaves not Teva.
Yes Bye.
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. The Heising Simons Foundation Unlocking knowledge, opportunity, and possibilities more at hsfoundation dot org. Funding for Latino USA is Coverage of a culture of health is made possible in part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Can we get quiet?
Please? Please? Three minutes please?
One way to engender a lot of love from your family. Okay too, one