Today we’d like to introduce you to Zayn Aguilar.
Zayn, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Sunday has always been my favorite day of the week. Regardless of what crazy weekend you may have had, Sundays, for me at least, always seemed to be reserved for my closest of friends. Whether I was waking up with a living room full of friends, crashing from going out the night before, or waking up from a weekend at home doing chores; Sunday was the official Funday. Sunday was always an easy day to gather up your squad and go enjoy brunch, a few drinks, and from time to time a spontaneous outing; just in time to be home early enough to be rested for the week ahead.
I was such a fan of Sunday Funday, that I created a Facebook group of all my friends so we could easily communicate and organize our next brunch spot. I was always scouting for the perfect brunch trifecta: a great patio, good food, and bottomless mimosas. There was never a spot that had the music right so I took care of that myself. Thanks to “daisy-chained” Bluetooth speakers and my own curated Spotify playlist. Our brunch crew rapidly grew. I quickly went from scouting places that could accommodate our party of 10-15 to a few times having a group of 50.
One day we were trying out a brunch spot in uptown and we noticed there was a rooftop. It was right at the end of winter so it was closed, but we asked if we could go upstairs and check it out. As soon as we walked up I was in shock at how large the rooftop was. I said “someone should throw parties up here” and all my friends immediately in perfect unison said, “YEAH YOU”! The next day on my way to work all I could think about was throwing a party on that rooftop. I had been to Miami many times and partied on rooftops a third of that size. By the end of the week, I had contacted a few local promoters who got a quick run-through on what I needed to host a proper rooftop party and Sunday Brunch Productions was born.
We had a very successful run of Sunday brunch parties that spring. All with talented local producers and DJs. However, I wanted to have more people experience this party so I figured it was time to host these parties on Friday and Saturday nights while booking bigger global talent. So we booked Sunny Lax, a favorite under trance label Anjunabeats. It was a sold-out show despite the slight confusion of Sunday Brunch Productions throwing a party on Friday night. For me, it made perfect sense though, Sunday Brunch is not a day of the week, it’s a state of mind.
After the success of our first night party, I decided if I wanted to be serious about this, we would need to rebrand. So, I called my best friend Casey Justice, she came over with a bottle or two of wine and we wrote out what would be PROPA Productions’ initial business plan.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Do smooth roads exist in Dallas?? No, it has not been a smooth road. My biggest challenge has been adjusting to a creative-driven field. There are constant struggles any new business owner deals with. However, I would like to take the time to use this opportunity and speak to the bumpiest road I am constantly trying to navigate, and that is the Dallas music scene. Most people would say I am a promoter, but before I can promote, I have to create the show. I have to scout a location, which usually means I have to educate the venue management on our production. Our artist/DJ’s aren’t your typical top 40 DJ you will see at most clubs. The DJs we host come from all over the world, they have global audiences, and most importantly they are producers. They produce their own music. Most of our party-goers come to our shows because they are fans of the DJ. They want to hear his tracks and his particular style and genre of music. I always say the biggest difference between our crowd and a club crowd is, the club crowd is going to go up to the DJ booth and request a song, but our crowd dances in front of the DJ booth anxiously waiting for a track they have never heard before.
Because our shows are essentially more like concerts, the vibe and culture of an electronic music party is a much more rewarding and positive experience. It’s an elevated experience with a loving and respectful community. The focus is always the music. So, the struggle is always getting venue owners and managers to understand the difference. For example, Deep Ellum, at one point used to be a common ground for the music community. The streets were filled with music lovers and dancers, that was there for the music. Now, with an endless choice of basic unoriginal bars, completely lacking in culture, and substance; Deep Ellum has become a literal stopping ground for over-served yuppies and thugs going out with no intention but to get drunk while “Instagramming” pictures and videos of them posing in an overcrowded bar with some stupid tag line written out in neon. It becomes a toxic dick-measuring contest of who can spend more and get more social media likes doing it.
These multi-million dollar establishments come in only focused on quantity over quality because they know the chances they can live out that neon sign flickering “living my best life”, are slim to none. When you only focus on selling bottles instead of creating a scene and culture, people tend to move on to the next influencer gimmick. This happens constantly in Dallas. It is hard to build a thriving music scene like you see in other major cities when venue owners don’t see the value in creating a culturally rich experience for their patrons.
The electronic music community is known for having 2, 3, even week-long festivals. Some with over 100,000 fans in attendance. Rarely is there a fight or even an argument. Yet these days you can seem to walk through Deep Ellum without the fear of being mugged or even shot. PROPA parties have never been shut down due to misbehavior or violence. If we have ever come close to being shut down is because “the music is too loud” another struggle, but thanks to technology, one we can usually overcome. If it were up to me, Dallas would have as many proper party venues as it does CVS’s and Walgreens.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the PROPA Productions story. Tell us more about it.
PROPA Productions focuses on taking the music experience and elevating it in some way. Usually by taking it out of the club scene. I love raving in the open-air! Our most requested party is “The Rooftop Party” we’ve sold out every single one. There is just something special about dancing with all your friends on a rooftop surrounded by Dallas’ beautiful and iconic skyline. We also have our popular day festival “Collective Effervescence” we debuted this day festival at Ferris Wheelers and it was a huge success.
I am very proud of Collective Effervescence because I think it finally established some much-needed trust from the music community. The Dallas community is great, but they are kind of spoiled. Really great acts come to town usually in one of the 3 major EDM clubs in this city, but I would say most of the Dallas music community is out of touch and a bit behind with electronic music at a global level. If it’s not happening in one of the 3 major clubs they either dismiss it or simply never hear about it. Collective Effervescence really established PROPA as an innovative production company. We know what we are doing and we do it well.
Something that is also unique to PROPA is our PROPA Coin Society. We have several people thought the world that carries PROPA coins with them. When they meet someone at a party or rave that they vibe well with, they may feel moved to give them a PROPA coin. This coin gives you access to many perks included PROPA Coin Parties. These parties are only for coin holders. With these coins, we have found ways to fill the dance floor with only the best ravers for an unparalleled experience. PROPA coins can only be gifted, never purchased.
I always tell my team, “Haus of PROPA”, that throwing parties is a very serious business. We take pride in elevating the music experience and that means paying attention to all the little details. We throw parties with intention. We tell a story from our promoting, leading up to the location, and ending with a perfectly narrated journey by curating and very well thought out music lineup. Excellence is our brand.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck? I don’t know how I feel about luck only to say that I am lucky to be someone that can see the silver lining in almost anything. Yeah, I get it raving on the rooftop of a taco restaurant in uptown or a bbq joint with a Ferris wheel in their patio, might not seem ideal or normal, but it’s actually fucking amazing.
I have been lucky to meet so many talented artists locally. Soon after, I decided to host my first party I met a very talented 18-year-old producer named Declan James. I asked him to play my party and we’ve had an amazing friendship and working relationship sense. This year he has played some of the biggest parties in this country, including the biggest festival, EDC Las Vegas. Next year, he will have several new releases on some of the biggest labels in both Techno and Trance. A lot of that has been in part of the work we have done together with PROPA Productions. I also am part of his management team.
This year, I also met the owner of a lounge downtown who believes and trusts the productions we produce. We have renovated the lounge into an amazing warehouse-style music venue. This venue will host our latest party series aMuse. aMuse is an immersive experience party with actors, dancers, props, amazing visual technology to bring to life all the worlds our creative team can imagine.
The creative team behind aMuse is where I would say I am the luckiest. This team is so innovative, creative, and above all very passionate about the work, they produce for a community they absolutely love. For anyone feeling down on their luck, I would suggest going to a PROPA party. You’ll meet future best friends and quickly find that WE are all we need.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@propaproductions.com
- Instagram: @propaproductions
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/PROPAproductions/
- Twitter: @realPROPA
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