Meet Jaime Morales | Musician & Co-owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jaime Morales and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaime, can you tell us about an impactful book you’ve read and why you liked it or what impact it had on you?
From day one, our goal at Planet Mischief has been to be a beacon of light in the music industry. Specifically for up and coming musicians. Not just young musicians but more experienced musicians that have fallen for the stereotypes that shine a bad light on us all as a whole as well. Outside the classical music side of the industry, musicians aren’t held in high regard. To us, this is not acceptable. We understand that the whole “beacon of light” thing comes across as pretentious but we feel that this is something that is needed. We hold ourselves to very high standards at Planet Mischief and we expect that those we work with meet those same standards. Leading by example is key. How often do we hear about the rock star that dies because of substance abuse? Far too often in our opinion. It is sad when we lose these shining stars but it is far more disappointing to see young musicians look up to these established artists and follow their example. We’re not telling anyone that they shouldn’t do drugs or drink. That’s not our place. What we stand for is not allowing substance abuse to be a priority over our art. To us, this means no drugs and not too much alcohol. To you, it may be some drugs and lots of alcohol. The thing is, will your music be more important to you than substance abuse? I bring up substance abuse as a big issue but there are many other stereotypes that contribute to the way we’re seen. The misconception that a musician must live “the life” is far more damaging to us as artists. This stereotype and others like it, lead to people on the outside looking into our world, to think twice about encouraging children to follow a career in music. Even when children are encouraged to pursue the arts they are often told to have a plan B. We realize that this industry is very competitive but if you don’t put 100% of your effort into your dream you definitely have no chance at succeeding. Telling a kid who wants to be a doctor to study biology on the side while he works at Starbucks would be frowned upon. Why should it be any different in music? The reason people do this with the arts and not a “safe career” is because of the image we put out. At Planet Mischief, we want to change the world. Not just by creating art and exposing people to art, but by making the outside world see us in a different light. We can’t force those on the outside to change the way they see us by telling them to. It starts with us. We as a community need to change what we are and what energy we put out.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’ve been a musician since I was in 4th grade. Everything I’ve learned from that time to today, along with my partner Shannon Callahan’s experience, has lead to what Planet Mischief is. We are musicians first and foremost. We compose music and we develop live productions such as the Electro-acoustic project Melodisea and the progressive metal band BloodSells. We have an ever-growing music catalog which can be used in film and television, among other media. IG: @DJMiaMischief IG: @BloodSellsMusic IG: @MelodiseaMusic

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?
So, if you’re my friend and you’re visiting me from out of town, you’re gonna be exposed to The Planet Mischief experience. Things are complicated at this time due to this virus but in a normal situation, we would hit The Viper Room on a Friday night and eat some bacon-wrapped hotdogs after. Saturdays could include a trip to the bowl for some L.A. Phil love during the day and end up at Satellite for Dance Yourself Clean. Not that I’m much of a dancer but that spot has a cool vibe. Sundays, especially in the fall, we’d end up at Killarney’s Irish Pub in Huntington for some Raider football and car-bombs! I’m not sure you’d need much more than that.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We definitely have to give a Shoutout to the people and companies that we believe meet our standards and have shown support for us and our cause. Dylan Gorenberg https://www.dylangorenberg.com/ IG: @dylan.gorenberg Outstanding guitarist and a dependable young man we’ve used in past productions as a guitarist and musical director. He’ll probably take over the world one day haha. Soultone Cymbals https://www.soultonecymbals.com/artist/jaime-morales IG: @soultonecymbals This company operates out of SoCal and makes great-sounding cymbals and aside from being very cool people, they’ve taken a chance on us at this point in our career. SJC Custom Drums https://www.sjcdrums.com/ IG: @sjcdrums Like Soultone, SJC out of Massachusetts makes an outstanding product. We shopped around for drums with the big names but we fell in love with the effort SJC puts into their craft. Very cool people that are easy to work with.

Website: www.PlanetMischief.com
Instagram: @PlanetMischief
Twitter: @PlanetMischief
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/planetmischief
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_ew4NXQy3Ogt-pnb5Y68pA?view_as=subscriber