Interview with .irg.
Interviewed by: Sarah Evangelista
Artist by the stage name of .irg is one you need on your radar right now. To get to know him a bit better, we got to chat with him about music. Read more below.
First off, where did the name ‘.irg’ come from? Does it stand for something?
.irg stands for ‘Isaac Renato Gutierrez’. I thought that my initials were very similar to ‘.org’, so I thought only switching one letter would be cool. I always envisioned my music being all over the INTERNET(.org) one day and reaching many people.
How have you been coping with this new way of living while being an artist?
Honestly I’ve been thriving. If I could live my life fully remote I would do it. I’m such a homebody and I could be stuck in my house for months and be totally fine. The only thing that is difficult, would be finding new things to write songs about when you don’t actually go and live life.
Do you have any tips to give to aspiring musicians?
My advice would be to go after your dream no matter where you are at or what skills you currently do or don’t have. I started making music in 2018 and that was also the first time I ever picked up a musical instrument. And also, things such as your voice can improve over time. It’s a muscle that needs to be worked everyday. My final tip would be for those who have a hard time getting out music because they’re perfectionists. Keep releasing music no matter what. The only goal you should have in mind should be to be better than the last track you released.
If you could live in a music video, which music video would it be?
If I could live in any music video, it would have to be for the song ‘What You Got - Colby O’Donis’. The track dropped in 2008 but for a kid in elementary school, it was the coolest thing ever. I think it was prob the first song that ever got me excited about music.
“falling for u” is such a good tune! What came first; lyrics, beat, or melody?
First of all...THANK YOU! For my process specifically, the best usually comes first and then the melody. If the melody is right, the words just fall onto the page. That’s why in my opinion, the songwriting stage is the easiest part.
Your debut album, too much to type, was released last year, what was the production process like?
The debut collab album with Christian Currence was so much fun to make, but also one of the most challenging. I collaborate with a lot of artists, but usually it’s done remotely. So being locked in the house with my whole team for a week at a time working on music took some adjusting to. This whole project from start to finish was done at my parents house and everyone involved flew or drove in from wherever they lived. Quarantine was to thank for all of this because we were able to work for a whole week in a row and not have any outside responsibilities. We even had my buddy record the whole process and edit everything into a documentary:
This project was also very different from any other project I’ve done because we brought in a ton of live instrumentation. My buddy plays the cello which was a prominent instrument used throughout the album.
About two weeks ago, you posted about releasing new music soon on Instagram, what can you share about that?
Yes! My new track titled ‘talk to me’ will be releasing on Friday March 12th at 12AM EST! This has been a track that has been in the works for 2 years and the reason it took so long was because the topic and lyrics needed to be perfect. Usually my music screams stability, but I remember a time when my life wasn’t stable. I wanted to go back to that time in my life for this track. It was a lot easier said than done.
Our music website focuses on up and coming artists, do you have any favourites at the moment?
Yes! All of my current favorite artists are people that are a part of the collective I created called ‘loa collective’.