Meet Victor M. Rocha | Music Manager, Film and Television Writer/Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Victor M. Rocha and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Victor, what do you want your legacy to be?
I don’t see my legacy being measured in how many awards there are to my name (if any), in any sort of statistic on a chart, or in anything a formula would try to quantify. I would like to be remembered for helping people out. Personally, I measure my own impact by whether or not I’ve used my time efficiently to help others. In my few years in Los Angeles, I’ve floated from film to television to music, all in the pursuit of one thing only: getting closer to people and figuring out how I can help. As much as we talk about Grammys, Oscars, red carpets, my focus has always been on who I’d be on the carpet with, the joy I would feel seeing my friends winning. In all honesty, I would rather host the Golden Globes than win one, just to spend a night trying to make people laugh. Awards are cool, I don’t know if they will ever be my legacy.

Taking a look at the scope of someone’s entire life can be a difficult tast. I’ve made some mistakes throughout my life, I think everyone has, but I’ve found that the one thing we can always do for free is try to get better, try to help each-other out, try to make everything between life and death seem a little less lonely. If I can be remembered for helping someone else, or even just for trying, I’ll have met the one goal that I think truly matters.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My story is unhinged in that instead of choosing film/tv or music, I just decided to try them both. I’ve maintained my career in film and television, writing on the side and producing projects alongside my friends, all while learning the music industry, expanding my network, helping my (currently) two artists learn and grow. It was never my plan to open a management company, I just met a musician who I thought I could help, and it led to so much more. What makes my “business” and my work different from the rest is my background in entertainment, though.

After working in Hollywood for 7 years, my network is wide, I have a friend at any company that I may need, I know how we can produce videos on a budget, I know which actors we can call on or which movies might need a perfect trailer song, and, most importantly, my income doesn’t come from talent management. I tell my friends that film and tv is paying for the bills, I never dreamed of winning a Grammy— I’m here because I found artists I believe in and I genuinely think I can help them. When I pitch to an artist, I’m not thinking dollar signs; my rent is paid. I just want them to try something that might help them even 1%. I hate using the word “business” because that feels transactional, it feels like money, and this isn’t that. I’m here to shape artists and help them find their voices like my friends and mentors helped me find mine.

Has it been easy? God no, musicians are literally insane. I’m sorry to John and Fajardo, but musicians need God. (I am completely kidding.) Jokes aside, I know how to work with personalities and I love finding out how we can talk to each-other and work with each-other. The hardest part has been fighting with myself. When starting my management company, the loudest voice in my head was my own asking if I was doing this because I thought I was good at it, because I wanted it, or just because I was bored? But then I talked to my therapist (shout out to Andrea, congrats on the baby) and she told me I had already found the only reason I needed—I thought it was fun. If there’s two things you should take away from this interview, it’s this: be nice to people, especially when you don’t have to, and never be hard on yourself for doing something just because it’s fun. That’s how the best memories are made.

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?
This might be the hardest question. Listen, I hate a day-to-day itinerary when you can just choose to vibe instead. But, in terms of listing some potential activities, here are a few places and things I’ve done on days I remembered most:

– Go to The Sunset Restaurant at Point Dume, drink until standing up feels like a laborious effort, and walk over to the sand thirty feet away to watch the sun set.
– Go to Universal Studios, drink like hell on the way in, take a Hydroflask mixie in with you (they don’t check) (also for legal reasons, I have literally never done this), have the time of your life in the park, end the day with a movie on CityWalk.
– Don’t plan every dinner, sometimes you can just spot a taco truck on Venice Blvd, swerve three lanes to pull over, and have some of the best food of your life.
– End a day with a bonfire at Dockweiler. You have to fight for your life to claim a fire pit, but you get to drink, get toasty, watch planes take off and land, hear the water hit the earth, feel the wind on your face.
– Go out in WeHo. Not in like a cute grab dinner kind of way but in like a nearly-black-out-at-the-pregame, ask for the aux in the uber, jump from club to club until it’s 2 AM, nearly forget the uber ride home kind of way.
– See who’s playing live that week. Doesn’t have to be Beyoncé, just find a bar, find a showcase, find anywhere with a mic and I’m sure you’ll find someone new you love.
– Stay in. Watch a movie. Bake cookies. Open a bottle of wine. Catch up on life. You don’t need to be anywhere special to have a good time. Just find someone special and exist in the same room.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I find myself moving within this city at a high-speed rate. I keep myself busy, I drown myself in non-stop work (I don’t recommend it, talk to your therapist if you find that relatable), I find it hard to take a moment to breathe. But, when I do, I find myself extremely overwhelmed with gratitude. I am a gay, son of Mexican immigrants and grew up broke on a farm in the Central Valley of California. My mom spent her time raising my siblings and I, setting her dreams aside to help us reach ours. My dad is a truck driver, now having driven the circumference of the Earth over 30 times just to make sure we had what we needed at home. It’s hard to describe how emotional it feels when I realize I’ve reached a lot of dreams that didn’t seem possible. I went to my college of choice, I’ve worked on a movie lot for four years (and counting), I sold a half-hour comedy shortly after graduating, I have a team in film and television that love and supports me, I have two incredible musicians who have put their faith in me to get them to the next level, and I have so much more on top of that. It all feels like someone else’s dream that I was lucky enough to fall into.

I attribute a large part, if not nearly all, of my success to the people who have taken a chance on me when they didn’t always have to. My parents who chose to love me. My teachers who saw something in me I didn’t always see in myself. The admissions officers at UCLA who saw a kid with zero concrete experience and let him in anyways. The friends I made in Los Angeles that gave me the time to figure myself out and the confidence to live within that when I felt like it was my time. The professors and former bosses-turned-friends who knew I could always get the job done. The comedy team at Sony who told me I was funny and gave me a shot when they realized I had something to say. My manager and lawyer who took a chance on a kid who called them, emailed, and bullshit a little in an intro meeting to get them to sign. My new friend-turned-brother who opened the door for me in music when the only experience I had was “liking Ariana Grande.” And the artists that have trusted me along the way, to help them and to let them help. The people listed above didn’t have to do that; we are all able to wake up and choose kindness or choose violence. But it’s the kindness that really gets me. It’s what’s helped me, what’s shaped me, what’s given me the space to grow. I don’t take any of that for granted, even on the bad days.

Website: https://245management.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victormoralesrocha/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vmr1998/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vro1998

Other: https://vimeo.com/victormoralesrocha

Image Credits
Cover Photo: Almarosa Estrada Additional Photography: Nora McCoy, Iris Lee, Michael Choi