Today we’d like to introduce you to Miguel Castro and Adrian Villarruel.
Miguel and Adrian, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Me and Adrian met when we were attending Townview Highschool back in 2007 I believe. Immediately we became close friends partly because of our love for music. As with many teenagers our age, we aspired to be rappers and started booking shows here in there. This phase faded as we left our separate ways to college, but our love for music didn’t. I went off to study music and business, and Adrian studied Kinesiology.
Adrian, however, became heavily involved in the EDM scene and became fairly known on twitter as Plurizard. He used this to start helping out with EDM shows when he finally decided, “Hey, what if I start throwing these?” He brought me on to help with the business side: Budgeting, Finance, Business documents, while he was the face of the company. He networked, made connections, and studied the industry.
Together we formed Nocturnal Waves to try and bring some of the best underground talents to various cities in Texas, mainly focusing on Dubstep. We have helped to promo various shows such as Lights All Night and Wobbleland while starting some of our own showcases such as Grimefest with Full Grind and Zen with Good Vibes and PRIME.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
For the most part, the road has been smooth with some bumps and detours here and there. Obviously, as with many businesses, we have made some losses along the way. The hardest part about the industry is properly planning the budgets for the acts and the venues.
Although we want to make profits, we also want to have events that aren’t emptying the pockets of our audiences. We want them to enjoy the shows without having to worry about if they can afford it. Additionally, sometimes unexpected technical difficulties happen, but you just have to learn to hold your composure and go with the flow.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Nocturnal Waves – what should we know?
We bring some of the hottest underground artists, mainly in the Dubstep scene, to Texas. The main cities we usually try and hit with our showcases are Dallas, Austin, and Houston.
We are in the field of Talent Buying, Event Organizing, and Promotion which means we reach out to the artists’ managers to negotiate proper performance prices and the rent out venues to hold these events. What we always try to do is bring some of the best local talents from each city as well. We want to give some of the locals a chance to show everyone what they are capable of.
Hopefully, they will all be headlining an event of their own one day. What me and Adrian have always agreed on is that even though this is a business, we don’t want to view other companies in the same industry as our competitors. We want to work with all of them and build relationships because why should we try and make each other lose when we could use our resources together to help each other win?
Nocturnal Waves is also always looking for promoters, but once they get on they aren’t just that. We have daily group chats about life in general. If you’re feeling down or stressed out, you can always reach out to the chat and get hyped up or support. Everyone is like family, and we even arrange meetups where everyone can hang out when it’s not just for business.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Knowing the industry and networking. First, we have to know how the headliners we are trying to target are doing. What is the quality of their production, their stage presence, and how do they fair with their audiences?
As stated, me and Adrian want to network. We would not have made it where we are today if we had tried to do this on our own. We befriended a lot of people and companies who mentored us in the beginning and still work with us today.
Contact Info:
- Email: management@nocturnalwaves.com
- Instagram: nocturnalwavez
- Facebook: NocturnalWavesLLC
- Twitter: @Nocturnal_Waves
Image Credit:
After Hours Visuals, Trey Villarreal, Spiderweb Media
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