ARTISTS & PERFORMERS FROM CURIOSITY TO PERSISTENCE
Migs Villaluz BY ROBERTO A. OROSA DESPITE THE hustle and bustle of fine art student-life, Migs Villaluz (4 BFA ID) has managed to release his own EP, make his own art, and consistently DJ in gigs. Pursuing passions in both music and design is no walk in the park, but Migs has pushed himself to excel in both throughout college.
“My lyrics and subject matter tend to be about people and fantasizing about relationships or situations that I have or have not experienced,” Migs says. “[Doing this] is more than just making beats…I really want to show myself for what I was after those two years as raw as I could, complete with all the good and the bad.”
Beats and phases Migs discovered his knack for music during his high school days, when he spent most of his time playing video games. After a while, it dawned on him that the time spent in front of screens could be spent learning something new instead.
Check and balance From his musical experiences, Migs knows that if he wanted to, he could teach himself just about anything. Before college, he decided to give Photoshop a try as well and discovered a newfound passion for design. Migs then entered the University as an Information Design major, hoping to pursue design alongside music. However, he admits that he underestimated the course. There were several programs Migs had to learn apart from Photoshop. The load once made him doubt his capabilities, as design only came second to music in his life. “I [felt] overwhelmed and a bit guilty for being too overconfident with what information design really was,” Migs says. “I definitely [felt] like I was in the wrong path at times.”
Back in 2012, he was obsessed with dubstep, with artists like Deadmau5 and Skrillex playing a big role in his artistic awakening. “I [then] did a lot of Googling: ‘What’s a DAW [digital audio workstation], what’s a DJ, what’s a producer?’ The fascination just kept on building until I started [making] beats,” he says. Migs, then, enrolled in production classes to feed his curiosity. While learning the basics, Migs explored a variety of sounds. “I realized [electronic music] could be loud and chaotic and doesn’t have to be stale and repetitive,” he explains. He then ventured into trance and house, describing the genres as “euphoric—smooth-sounding yet danceable. “That’s when I realized these spectrums [of music] exist, [and] seeing these two extremes of it really opened my eyes,” he says. Migs currently leans towards soulful R&B, which dominates the sound of his solo artist persona LUZE. His first EP entitled Personals. (2019) has five tracks inspired by contemporary hip-hop and boasts colorful beats alongside a bevy of rappers and vocalists. This project was the result of a two-year introspection.
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But eventually, he decided to face the challenge of juggling both design and music. Whenever Migs feels like he falls short in either design or music, he remembers that he has the other to lean on. “[When I have] specific projects or plates [for my course] I felt that I was really lacking...I would take comfort in [knowing] that I’m not just a designer,” he adds. “I [used] my frustrations with my inadequacies in design to push myself to write better music and vice-versa.” In balancing these two paths, Migs has learned one important lesson: Persistence. He has no plans of restricting himself to his current sound anytime soon, as finishing his EP was never his end-all and be-all as a producer. With “more time to explore” music and gigs
post-graduation, there’s no limit to his art. The feeling of mediocrity surfaces from time to time, but he has learned to accept this and now sees it as a part of the process. “You can start from nothing and eventually make something you’re super proud of one day,” Migs says. “The whole idea of progression and self-development and learning is something you can apply to just about anything.” Now that’s sound advice, from someone who has carried on in pursuit of growth—in more than one field at a time.
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