Check Out Astin Lopez’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Astin Lopez.

Hi Astin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started playing guitar when I was 13. It wasn’t long until I realized that I’d found something that I was good at and loved doing. I found things to play online and in magazines and would spend hours in my room trying to figure them out. Eventually, I got lessons, and then also I took a music theory class in high school. These things combined meant that I was ready to start making music.

I made my first attempt at writing music when I was 18. I had 13 tracks of guitar-driven music. I was happy with what I made, but it sounded terrible. I didn’t know the first thing about recording music. So when I got to college, I decided to take classes on recording.

I made a few other attempts at recording, but my first real recording of mine was my EP, Futility, and Accomplishment in 2018. That was my senior project and the culmination of all my knowledge about writing music as well as recording music.

I used Futility and Accomplishment as a springboard for my music career. I had something to show people and I finally had a starting point for my career. Over the following years, I released singles and started doing freelance audio work. This eventually culminated in my following EP, Shame Spiral, released in 2023.

With Shame Spiral, I have something bigger and better, a triumph of my skills, and something I’m very proud of. I can’t wait to see where it takes me next.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest challenge for my has been my introverted personality. Music is typically a collaborative experience.

You’ll notice over my story that I did everything myself. This meant that everything sounds exactly how I want it, but that things take a long time. My first releases also suffered with minimal play. If nobody saw what I was doing, it was difficult to get people interested in listening.

Eventually, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and started to involve other people. I did live performances. I asked people for feedback on tracks as they were being made. I even had somebody else master Shame Spiral for me.

What resulted was a much larger reaction to the project overall. The next step is involving more musicians in the writing and recording processes. You know, making a band. I’m excited to take that next step.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a musician. More specifically, I am a guitarist, singer, and audio engineer. I try to specialize in everything as best I can. For most of my work, I am responsible for every aspect of it from start to finish. I’m most proud of my most recent work, Shame Spiral. It represents a growth in songwriting for me.

I tried a lot of things new on this project and am happy with the results. I think what sets me apart most is my guitar playing. The guitarwork that I do is a lot more involved than other songs in the singer-songwriter genre. I have always considered myself a guitarist first and I let that shine through on my work.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
People can support me most by listening to my music on streaming services.

By listening to me there, I get picked up in the algorithm and get shown to more and more people. They can also support me by following me on social media. Social media drives the music industry right now. If you’re getting views on TikTok, then you’re probably doing just fine. If you go to my website, astinmusic.net you can find all the different places I exist online.

If you’d like to collaborate with me, let me know! Send me a message if you think we’d work well together. I’m always open to exploring new musical endeavors.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://astinmusic.net/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/astinguitar/
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/AstinGuitar
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@astinguitar
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/astinsmusic
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/astinmusic 

Image Credits
Mir Khan