Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Castro.
Hi Michael, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I started playing piano when i was 5 years old, it became an escape for me after a couple years of practice, I put down my xbox controllers snd focused on music every day, 4-10 hours a day spread out between the morning, during school, & after school. I focused on virtuosic composers like chopin, liszt, rachmaninoff, ect. This set me up to teach myself other instruments & i went on to play 12 different ones.
During middle school punk rock stood out to me as something raw & real. Around this time i began experimenting with smoking weed in a band & began to be more social allthough i was really awkward at first i made friends.
I performed in my band for the first time in 2012, playing a messy cover of Juke Box Hero for some reason, I think our bassist wnated it that way oue something. I wore sunglasses up there because i was scared to do it, as i was in rhe midst of some gnarly social mess ups with girls & getting caught with weed from my family while also totalling my car in the school parking lot after just getting it back for a week after i had previously hit a tree while off some harder substances. I really was just wildin out, it was around late freshman early sophomore year of high school now. I wore black, eyeliner, skinny jeans, had long hair, it was pretty cool i was ballsy. I took all my anger out on other kids who were deemed “the jocks” or “frat kids” i just was really synical at that time and blamed them for my insecurity i guess. So i was constantly getting sent to rhe office. Really all i did now was smoke weed, go on dates, and constantly practice and weite original songs all my instruments. a lot of which are still on spotify and on my latest album today, just remditioned to the times. I was concinced i was the next kurt cobain, a total rockstar with a divine right to fame. I was really dilusional because i had no idea what rent was, that college is important, and that a plan is all i needed.
Then, I get busted with weed again by my family. I was then cued for the next 4 years in/out of rehab. I cut off everyone i knew dropped out of school and soley focused on sobriety & going to AA by 16 years old. All i knew was this rehab facility, almost cult like, for the next 4 years. I ended up going back to high school in this time, dropping out a second time, going to a new high schoo lwith friends i knew in rehab, and graduating. I saw many friends pass away from overdoses/self harm from leaving the rehab, getting dumped, financial failures, ect. Said people, inteoduced me to nee music called DUBSTEP & showed me to the isea of finding better sibstances to do, being convinced at the time that it would give me more creativity and rid me of my social anxiety/stage fright when performing. I really just wanted my head to shut up so i left the rehab ans relapsed with an ex i knew was on heroin. That night I OD’d & died i think, i remember it pretty vividly. I woke up 12-15 hours later in a daze and went to my best friend’s house for help then went on to actually get sober this time.
couple ywars pass and i inevitably relapseon that, blow up my life and focus on music instead, but this time utilize friends from the rehab to make money.
covid & lockdown hits, im going to the skatepark a lot and meet a shitload of people.
Cue the next 4 years of me being an absolute degenerate that i cant talk about here. Eventually, i got my name out there pretty big in all the wrong crowds. I felt as if my town was too hot, so i skipped off to lawrence kansas for a year-ish. Met more people, who inteoduced me to the dubstep scene in kansas city, so i came back to live with my family when that spot got hot too. Finally stopping all the shenanigans, only focusing only music only this time Doing dubstep. I got myself a mixer for the first time, started practicing it hard while playing piano simultaneously, and just used social media & my snapchat following to slowly get my name known for music rather than street stuff. 6 months into it, i score my first dubstep show in Topeka and just ran from there.
i figured i had been overreacting to life, im licky to be alive, and now i had this drive to chase the real music scene. I focused big on edits, promotions, music videos that are still on youtube, instagram, snapchat, wct.
I cojstantly went to shows 7 days a week meeting people asking who runs shit, who can i play for, who produces, ect. I got myself ableton as a gift from one of my closest homies abroad and got to work producing.
I got my name in the scene built up over many show slots but it was all for mixing and just being a dj. How could i express my own talent?
i focused everything i had from then on of this idea of Alternative Dubstep, mixing grunge and sound design all together to make something new, something still in the time with bass culture. I started going to frstivals more, shows as much as possible and online always. My goal was to play dancefestopia
I moved into my best friends kitchen on a cot with my laptop and dab rig for a few months and wrote my album
This took me decently far, i had a team built up of nine friends, got a tour bus, tour van, and toured my album and focused on videography and lromotion to keep mt name in the face of everyone online if they liked my music or not.
I played most the big cenues here in KC like aura, uptown, blvd nights, the ferns, warehouse, so many underground production companies built by many froends i happened to know from rehab. So it felt like a calling, and a blesisng to tour with my friends who invested so much time and love into my craft traveling all over the us for big and small shows and festivals. I ended my tour with a bang, performing at dancefestopia for the first time.
Then i spent the last year focusing on myself, my girlfriend, my life and finances as the economy worstened. I plan to weite a new album as soon as i get a 3rd job.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
So many as forementioned, I’d say musically the biggest roadblocks were work, money, and not having my own car along with legal sustem issues.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I cook the best burgers in Kansas city, I also work at Morton Amphitheater as a security officer, and lastly im looking for a morning part time job to fill in some of the free time ive got going.
I work hard, but i enjoy life nowadays
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Learning to be okay with the pace life goes. Choosing daily what the next best loving thing for yourself is, and to do what you love regardless of the end goal.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikey.castro.360277
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC7XDw8mQAFYt6KJyoazO95Q?si=e-dKKlplkFGZm3qw
- Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/ZOCSpxh44VTwJ1Avtk
