Meet Miguel Escobar | Concept artist, Songwriter, and Comedian

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

Hi Miguel, why did you pursue a creative career?
I chose a creative career because I couldn’t figure out how to do anything else. After high school, I thought about pursuing a career in music but after a year of occasionally playing music with some high school friends it felt too daunting. I went to college instead because, according to most of my adult mentors, that was the safest next step. After receiving a bachelors in Philosophy I went through the same process: I wanted to play music, and gave it minimal effort, but I decided it felt too impossible and went to grad school instead (the safest next step). After completing a Masters program in Theology, I am still drawn to music, and art in general, which is ironic considering that my financial debt makes a career in the arts even more impossible. Although I enjoyed learning (and I especially loved being in the classroom environment), I was very unsatisfied with the academic expression. The academic approach to sharing information is most often argumentative, and only sometimes purposefully helpful. But the conscious mind seems reluctant to change. I don’t know many people who only believe what evidence or argument has shown them. I prefer art because it feels more honest; it is unavoidably multi-dimensional, and intends to move us, not persuade us. I can be moved to greater forms of myself more easily than I could ever be convinced because, even when my mind is most fixed, my heart can still be softened.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I can barely remember a story that I think about all the time. Maybe it never happened. A friend got into a fight about ice cream with his partner. It was clear from the quick escalation that the fight had nothing to do with ice cream. But the ice cream scenario was a microcosm of what needed to be discussed. This seems common. I like to keep things playful. I think it’s important. I enjoy making fun of myself and the people I see around me. We’re shockingly inconsistent with our beliefs and intellectual commitments but we act as if they are our only guidance. We seriously need to take ourselves less seriously. Art offers an occasion for a person to accidentally consider something they hadn’t, maybe something they’re too stubborn or afraid to think about. This is a serious power, and I want to take it seriously. For me, that looks like spending a lot of time developing mutuality between the musical composition and the lyrical conception of a song. I want the music to communicate what the words would if they could, and to go well beyond the words; I want the lyrics to do the same for the music. I want the words to be vague because if I talk about the ice cream in a concrete and direct way, we may never learn what’s behind it. There are so many movies where a new guy in the office becomes an occasion for the gossiping character to explain every other character in the office in a single scene. The writer is free to explicitly summarize the motives, the interests, habits, quirks and personal history of anyone else involved in the story. This eliminates the possibility of misunderstanding by diminishing the chances of surprise. The writer no longer has to rely on the perceptiveness of the audience, and they certainly have saved themselves a lot of time. But now there is only ice cream. Other movies develop the same tendencies, habits, interests, and quirks of each character over the course of many scenes, relying on the help of the actors, and the perceptiveness of the audience to give life to the characters, accepting the possibility of misunderstanding. I think music has similar categories. I want to lean into surprise; to vaguely gesture and allow the listener to connect the dots. Here is an occasion for you to engage with yourself, not for me to guide you into exactly what I think about ice cream or anything else. This is the challenge I have for myself. I want to write entirely in references. We will discuss the ice cream because we cannot discuss the mystery itself without dispelling it. But if we talk about ice cream as if it were ice cream, that would be ridiculous. “I love you” means different things to different people for different reasons always. Life is ice cream and not it’s not. Writing music with all of this in mind is very difficult. It takes me a long time, I’m not that good at it yet, and I’m not sure anyone cares that I’m doing it. I may never perfect the technique or write a song that does exactly what I’m describing, but I want to always take ice cream seriously.

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?
It really depends on who is visiting. But I would take anyone to Resistencia Coffee in Southpark, Gasworks park for a picnic, Betty Bowen Viewpoint for a sunset, and the Sunset Tavern or Club Comedy for a show.

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?
It’s difficult to narrow-down my gratitude. My family has been incredibly supportive, both implicitly and explicitly. They are funny, thoughtful, people, and I owe them my health and wit. I have been blessed to know so many artist archetypes whose thoughts provide reoccurring inspiration. But I think I would like to dedicate this shoutout to fans. I am not an incredibly well-known, world-renowned artist, but even I have been gifted an encounter with a fan. I think fans are capable of more love than regular people. Their passion doesn’t seem to be entirely self-involved, and is often selfless. Their willingness to participate in an encounter with artwork is admirable, beautiful, and inspiring. Corny as it sounds, I think this willingness to be moved is the greatest hope we have in the world.

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Other: Spotify: Miguel Escobar

Image Credits
Gracia Heilmer Miguel Escobar Juliann Itter