We recently had the chance to connect with Daniel Florez and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Daniel, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I’d say a little bit of both. I never expected that I would attempt to make a living off of music so at the moment, I say that I’m kind of taking on random opportunities to see how they pan out. For example, I’m branching out more and more into performing live music for private events and seeing how that goes, while occasionally making videos for promoting my own music and services and seeing where my career will take me. So rather than sticking to one path strictly, I’m wandering around to see what path I can make for myself.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Daniel Mateo Florez and online, I’m mostly known as Audio Mocha. Locally, I’m a music teacher and performer and online as well as conventions around the country, I’m known for creating tropical covers of video game music. I used to say just surf rock but I’ve been more involved with other adjacent genres like Latin rock, Colombian cumbia, ska punk, and Hawaiian slide guitar. I’ve been living in Colorado for the last 6 years but originally I’m from Medellin, Colombia. Lately I’ve been working in a variety of projects, particularly with making video game music covers for Pixel Mixers and GameGrooves projects, as well as for myself.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
As a musician, one of the first people who seemed to know that I had a bigger future in music than I envisioned was my high school piano teacher George Noel Ortiz. I always had a great time in that class and towards the end of the school year, he told me to not quit my work on music. At that point, I had barely been playing guitar for 2 years and didn’t expect to try music professionally but that stuck with me all of this time. I can say the same for when I was in university and I took Music Appreciation, the professor for that class Luis Gomez, also told me the same, for me to keep going with my love of music. More than a decade later, I still remember those moments.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Pretty much income. It’s why I never went into music in the first place, since the arts aren’t known for stable income. Even nowadays, it’s still the biggest concern but having invested a lot during my 20s means I’ve got a pretty good passive income flow to keep a steady flow, even when business is slow.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Pretty much, it’d be hard to keep up a character otherwise.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Making my own music/videos and posting them online. I knew ahead of time that it’s not something that would immediately succeed but rather that it will take time to increase my following.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.audiomocha.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/audio.mocha
- Twitter: https://x.com/audio_mocha
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AudioMocha/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/audiomocha
- Other: https://audiomocha.bandcamp.com/
