We had the good fortune of connecting with David Antonio Garcia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi David Antonio, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk has and will always be the most rewarding challenge anyone could ever take. It’s what defines who you are by your experience and your lessons you had learned from. The biggest risks will always be the most rewarding in some way or another.

In my life, I took a risk by leaving my job as an employment coach for people with disabilities and moving from my hometown of Laguna Hills to Downtown Santa Ana during COVID to pursue my full-time recording studio business venture, not knowing if I was going to last. Fortunately, the plunge forced me to make it work by making connections with so many great people, and looking for opportunities wherever I could. I’m about to celebrate my first anniversary of only being a full-time freelance recording engineer!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Besides recording full-time, I am currently in two bands: Death Will Bring Change (@deathwillbringchange), which is a punk/pop punk band I play bass in, and my other project called Ceramic (@ceramic.wav), which is a Shoegaze Indie Pop project that I produce and play guitar in. I’m extremely proud of what I do with these two bands because they are my creative outputs where I can write and perform the music I write while trying to make a community impact with what we do with the music.

I started writing songs back in 2013 during high school and had asked a friend who recorded dance electro-pop to record my acoustic song. He really overproduced that track but in the process of seeing him work, it really inspired me to try recording myself so my dad got me a desktop computer with Garageband and I used a Rockband videogame microphone to record my first few songs. A few years and a couple gear upgrades later, I meet my friend Dahvid in college in 2016 and after becoming good friends over some cool music, he asked me to record his first EP. Soon after, I met Mark Berman of Fully Involved and asked to record his “Participation Trophies” EP in 2018. Since then, it’s just been 70% watching YouTube tutortials/reading recording techniques online, 10% from 1 recording class from college, and 20% trial and error.

In the spring of 2020 amidst of being accepted to attend Cal State Dominguez Hills in the fall to get my bachelors in recording, COVID turned my whole world upside down. Due to the pandemic, classes would be moved to online and I was immediately turned off of the idea of paying $7,000 in tuition to learn the same recording concepts online that I was already learning online for free on YouTube. So I made the decision to pull my application in late May and instead of moving out to Carson, I moved out to Santa Ana where there was a room available for dirt cheap rent. During all this, I had made connections with local musicians in the Santa Ana music scene and have since been fortunate enough to become friends with local studio owners, record music for John Roseboro, Briana Harley, Rocky Angelini, Jeremiah James, as well as record audio for the city of Santa Ana’s Openstage showcase, and Cal State Fullerton’s Taiko drum club. It’s been a really fast journey with lots of emotional and financial bumps, but man, am I glad I took the risk of trying to get my career started. It hasn’t been the smoothest road on becoming a full-time engineer but it’s been rewarding seeing my work enjoyed by not only the artists but their fans, my friends, and random reviews here and there. And by reminding myself that I would rather be frustrated with fixing a bad mix than working a job I have no passion for is what keeps me going.

This summer, I’m going to be establishing my recording studio business named “Intentional Sound”. In the time I have on Earth as a recording engineer, I want to be that mirror for good musicians by having their recordings be an accurate representation of who they are. “Intentional Sound” is intended to be a resource center that helps provide artists what they need to succeed. While I may mostly provide the music making services, I will also be the person people reach out to for marketing help, giving recommendations for videographers or photgraphers, sharing useful information to study, etc. My whole passion for making great art is driven by the DIY ethos: don’t wait for an opportunity, start creating it yourself. An artist is someone who can create something special with what they have.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a friend visiting the area, I would love to take them to different parts of Santa Ana/Orange County, such as Wursthaus, which is bratwurst of different types of exotic meats paired with a nice beer and fries. I would also take them to Dave’s Hot Chicken over by the outskirts of Santa Ana in Fountain Valley to have them try the best hot chicken sandwich experience outside of Nashville. Outside of food, The Frida Cinema is my favorite theater here in Orange County, and Port of Sound is the best record store besides Amoeba here in Southern California.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Within my success in life is many layers of people who helped me get to where I want to be. My family always pushed for me to do what I love in life and to do it well in order for the return in abundance to come to me. My bandmate and best friend Dahvid Aleksanyan was my first paying recording client who was nothing but just encouraging me as I was learning how to produce a record. Pedro Mancillas of FTG over in Santa Ana was the first engineer who really mentored me in providing me tips, advice, and answering all of my questions on how to become a professional engineer.

Website: www.davidantoniogarcia.com

Instagram: @david.antonio.garcia

Facebook: @producerdaveg

Other: Email: producerdaveg@gmail.com Phone: (949) 637 – 8651

Image Credits

Devon Larae (@hairymangos.photos)
Hannah Dressler (@photosbyhannahdressler)

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