Meet John Liwag | Artist / DJ & Electronic Music Producer

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

Hi John, how do you think about risk?
I strongly believe in taking risks in an artistic journey. Risks illuminate the path of finding exactly what you should be doing. Taking risks force me to rely on my intuition as my guiding force and to never betray my gut feeling. My career started the day I dropped out of college and quit my retail job in the same day, with no clients or back up plan. I effectively threw myself into the deep end, so that has set a recurring theme in my career if I’ve ever stopped being excited about what I was doing. Following the excitement is my personal tradeoff for risk taking.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m an performing artist, dj, and electronic music producer, and I’ve gotten to play a couple music festivals in southern California, a handful of LA’s most prestigious venues such as The Shrine Auditorium, The Echo, Moroccan Lounge, and have gotten to travel to New York, Masschusetts, Illinois, San Francisco, San Diego, and Palm Springs to dj.

What has separated me is that I have had 10+ years of experience with graphic design, video editing, photography, and creative direction for a handful of globally known artists and brands. I’ve taken that world-building thinking and have been applying it to my artistry.

I’m the most proud and excited about working on music every day, and getting able to perform it. I’m very grateful that I’ve had amazing momentum these past couple of years as a dj but my heart is in producing music and I’m so excited to present and incorporate my own music into the sets I play.

Music production and playing shows has been the most creatively fulfilling act I’ve ever done, and it also feels the most me. It has been such a creative rebirth for me, and I feel the whole world opening to me now. For as many challenges as there are, and continue to be, there is nothing else I’d rather be doing.

I’m learning to fully commit to what my heart and soul want to follow. I owe it to myself to fully focus on music, and to give myself the highest possible chance of making this dream of being a world-touring artist/dj/producer a reality. One song at a time, one visual at a time, and one show at a time — I’m destined to continue growing and evolving to grand heights as an artist and to comfortably and consistently perform on the world’s biggest stages.

I want the world to know this journey is a spiritual one, and as much as I am proud of the art I get to make, it’s the process that makes this thing so worth it. I’m absolutely in love with the process of making and sharing music so I have a knowing that I will continue to elevate.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d definitely take them on a picnic at Barnsdall Art Park to watch the sunset one evening, and on another evening we’d go to Echo Park Lake. I’d definitely want to take them to Disneyland for one of those days. I’d bring them to Shatto Lanes for bowling. I’d take them to either Yunomi Handroll or KazuNori for dinner one of those nights. Those are all of my favorite things, so I’d convince them to go to all of those places. I tend to have gravitated on the Eastside of LA for whatever reason, but I’ll be floating around Echo Park, Silver Lake, Koreatown, East Hollywood, DTLA, and The Arts District, so just driving around and following wherever the wind takes us.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Being an independent artist in the music industry can often be a very isolating experience, so I want to shoutout the community of likeminded artists that inspire me every day and treat this lifestyle like a true team: Haute Cue, ISOxo, Knock2, KANAKA, and LAYLO. I’ve realized the true value of this journey is who you share it with. I have one team member for my artist project business — my manager Dani Chang, who deserves the largest shoutout. Dani has believed in me as a friend, creative and growing person over the years, and her help allows me to purely focus on the artist/creative side. Dani is a Swiss army knife towards my operation as a performing artist, dj and musician.

Instagram: http://instagram.com/johnliwag

Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnliwag

Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/johnliwag

Youtube: http://youtube.com/johnliwag

Image Credits
Matt Tyszka