Today we’d like to introduce you to (531.am) Armando Cajide.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Thanks for having me. I started up my brand 531.am just this last year in 2025. I’ve been living in Austin since 2005 when I originally moved from Dallas. I was born in Miami to first generation Cuban immigrants. Music has always been a part of my identity since I’ve been young. I spent many summers with my grandparents in Miami listening to their collection of classical music. My older sister was an ice skater and a dancer at the time and she would bring home these mixtapes of crazy electronic music remixes and mashups of pops songs I would never hear on the radio. This was my first taste that got me obsessed with the art. Thankfully right as I was getting in to all of this music stuff the internet was coming around and I still remember doing a search for classical music that sounded like electronic music. That’s where I first leaned about my first eternal love which was Trance music. Since I was a very young child I had a severe case of what we now call ADHD that would cause me to get hyper-obsessed with things, this included the art of DJing. Once I learned about the world of electronic music all I wanted to do was listen to it non-stop and learn how to make it. My dad worked for American Airlines which I am forever grateful for because it allowed me to fly frequently to visit family and go to shows in other cities. I had family in the New York area that I would visit often, my sister would eventually move up there for work during the dot com boom. There was a period of time there I was non-stop going between cities with very little money to buy batches of records at record shops because they had all the european releases that I could not find anywhere here in Texas. My older sister knew how much I was falling in love with the art of music and bought me my first record crate for my 18th birthday which I still have today. I’m grate for my time in New York City because that’s where I got my first taste of what the underground nightlife was supposed be like. I remember after getting back from one of my trips my mom took me to Fry’s electronics so I could purchase a set of Technics 1200s that I always wanted. It didn’t take long before I found myself in the underground scenes of Dallas, New York City, Miami and eventually Austin. While I was in college I was building a name for myself to make sure I achieved my parents dream of obtaining a college degree. This is what led me to move to Austin in 2005. That was also a huge year for me, as I had been going to Winter Music Conference every year prior since 2002, attending the first Ultra shows and meeting likeminded folks who loved trance and electronic music. That year I ended up meeting and making lifelong connections with a lot of great artist that I still talk to today that are out there playing festival stages all over the world. I’m proud to have seen my friends rise up from humble beginnings from when we all sat on the beach together at the afters dreaming of the moments they’re living through now. Once I graduated college in 2008 the financial crisis hit and there was no place for me to go really. DJing was my only source of income and Austin was booming at such an incredible rate it was hard for me to keep up. I feel extremely lucky to have had opportunities to play at many clubs here in Austin that are now gone. For the record I will say I miss Lanai, later Ethics which was my favorite rooftop clubs, and legendary Sky Lounge and Barcelona. As Austin kept booming and closing clubs I ended up meeting my studio partner Mitch Mallory who ended up being a great friend and mentor until he passed in 2016 from Stage 4 colon cancer. He got displaced during hurricane Katrina and he always wanted to rebuild the studios he would frequent in Louisiana here in Austin. Before he passed one of our dreams was to have a Moog Voyager as the center piece of our studio setup. When Moog discontinued building them in 2015 I reached out to them to ask if they could do one more custom one seeing it as Mitch didn’t have much time left we wanted to see if we could go to tour the factory and go pick it up there. They obliged and it’s still one of the best memories I have. He would unfortunately pass away two months after never really getting the chance to make any music with it. It was during this time as well our studio hard drive crashed and I had lost all our projects including everything I’ve done since I started from my parents house. Everything was just gone overnight, just like that. I knew I had an external offsite backup somewhere but I couldn’t find it at the time. It wasn’t until I was looking for my birth certificate for an upcoming trip in 2025 that I ended up finding my hard drive backup. I vividly remember in that moment thinking this couldn’t be real, the rush that came over my body was like nothing I ever felt before. It literally felt like the universe was giving me a second chance to follow my dream and pick up exactly where I left off before everything in my life felt like it was collapsing. While I was looking through the studio hard drive I glanced over at my birth certificate and noticed that the time I was born was printed and it said 5:31 a.m. And that’s when it all came together for me. That was the identity that I wanted to musically be identified by. Authenticity is important trait to me and the relationships I build with people. Music has always been my identity which is why I’ve been doing this over 20 years now. I want people to know the version of me that has been through so much and is still here. From playing to empty rooms to packed clubs, house parties, festivals, warehouse raves, ranch raves, even below the city streets you walk and drive over in the sewers I’ve partied through every one of those moments as a DJ. The thing is for me DJing was and still is never about the fame for me. It was always about trying to fit in in a world that was hard to accept a kid like me. I had a hard time making and keeping friends growing up. Somehow along the way, over the years hundreds of strangers have become friends to me. Random nights turned into memories I still talk about today. I hope people who find me and my music will feel the same way and come to appreciate the stories I try to tell through my DJ sets. Peace, Love, Unity, Respect are very important to me. As a Virgo who feels emotions deeply I try to translate that feeling through my music. Towards the end of 2025 I made a promise to myself and everyone else that has been apart of my life at some point, to follow through with my dream of playing and releasing my own music. To never loose the passion for what I love. At the beginning of this year I went to a networking event where I ended up meeting the founders of austinelectronic. After throwing a few underground shows in the tunnels of Austin we immediately could tell we clicked as a group. We’re very community driven and grateful for the opportunities this city has given us. We’ve been throwing many underground shows since 2025 and most recently now started doing club shows. We did a sold out show at Brushy Street Commons in July which I can’t thank this city enough for showing up to that. We’re currently working on building a record label where we plan to release music from our own collective of DJs. I’m appreciative of every one of the members of austinelectornic because they’re so talented, they’ve opened my ears to so many other styles of music. We have so many great shows planned ahead I hope to be able to catch some of our readers at some of them to learn more about why they also love electronic music and hopefully bond over our love of community and music.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Rebuilding the last 10 years of my life as been the biggest hurdle I’ve had to overcome. During that period of time when my hard drive crashed I couldn’t locate the backup drive it felt like one of the darkest periods of my life. My whole identify was wiped out overnight. I can vividly remember scrambling because I had a gig and there was a USB I had with maybe 140ish songs left and that was it. At the same time my studio partner got diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and the inevitable was staring me down the barrel. Either get a job to stay in Austin or move back. I chose to stay because I love this town and I believed in myself, I love the relationships I’ve built over the years with the DJs in this town. I knew that if I moved away all of what I built would go away in an instant and I would have to start from scratch all over again somewhere new. During this period I fell in to a deep depression musically, I really thought that was it for my music and the story I had left to tell. I never stopped fully making music though, I actually spent a lot of this time period working on ambient projects which I think helped me to overcome some of my mental challenges and roadblocks I was facing. Not being able to create is a huge challenge for any creator and one that really impacts every aspect of ones life. Most of my friends that DJ’d with me over the past decade have ended up quitting or moving away as Austin has just become too expensive of a place to live and maintain a true artist lifestyle. The covid era came, and while everyone was rushing to rediscover themselves I was stuck in survival mode trying to figure out where to go with my music. It was during this time I spent a lot of time reflecting on my past, it was facing the reality of my past and even harder trying to operate as a shell of the person I once was. This is the point in life where I learned a lot about grief and how it honors what was real. Not everything or everyone is meant to be forever. Some things are meant to be turning points to shift your path gently in life. It was at this point I remember saying to myself I may never find my music again, but I can move forward and honor what made my heart feel so full at one point, and just… start over. I had the memories still in my heart and in my mind and I could just work off that which is what gives me the motivation today to overcome any current challenges and obstacles I face.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I made it a goal by the end of this year to focus on my performances, and to bring more live musical aspect of electronic music in to my DJ sets. I would like to see myself become a hybrid DJ where I will still mix traditionally with DJ equipment you see at clubs and festivals, but I want to bring live instruments on stage with effects to improvise live with my DJing. I don’t see many artists taking this level of a risk to separate themselves, it’s truly a skill you have to work for to achieve. As I mentioned earlier I spent many of my early years in my career roaming around Dallas and Austin working in music studios just doing odd jobs trying to learn from people who knew the craft better than I did. I’ve always had a fascination with tape, and tape machines. If you ever spend time in my studio with me you’ll see that I have a vast collection of little machines I like to use to create my musical art with. I have a passion for hardware synthesizers and boutique music instruments. I recently acquired a Roland TR1000 drum machine to use as a live drummer since I am a single live act I have to wear many hats. You’ll sometimes see me with gaming consoles like a PS Vita or a Playdate making music from traditional gaming consoles. I am a quirky person when it comes to making music, I enjoy the tactical feel of physical instruments and hearing them make noises without the assistance of a computer. I have been exploring new ways to level up my shows by learning visual art as well to tie in with my music. I want to incorporate more of these things in to my live sets to give the crowd something to immerse themselves in. In an increasing world of artificial intelligence I see myself trying to do the opposite. Working with austinelectronic this year has opened my world again to house, techno, garage, breaks, trance, leaving me feeling like I have a lot left to contribute. This past year I’ve been on a journey of rediscovery, I hope you will follow my journey as I begin the process of working on documenting and building a dream I once I had long ago..
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I would like to say something I think a lot of people tend to forget to say nowadays. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me. Thank you to anyone that I’ve met here in Austin, that I’ve talked to in person or through social media, even if ever so briefly you all have changed my life for the better this year. The underground scene and the ravers in this community are so loving and caring. I can’t thank them enough their kindness, their warmth, candor, their willingness to share tips and strategies for DJing with me. Thank you for staying late to help clean up events and make sure we look after one another to get home safe. Thank you to everyone I’ve met along my DJ journey over the past 20+ years I have so many incredible memories that live with me to this day. Each and every person I’ve talked to has made me better as an artist, as an individual contributing to my local music scene. Everyone’s musical journey is different, there’s no direct path to where you want to go. Showing up and networking with your local community is the best thing you can do for yourself. Austin’s musical artist are some of the best people I’ve ever met. Thank you to all the venues that have let me and my DJ friends come in and play, thank you to everyone that comes to our austinelectronic shows you mean the world to me and the rest of the gang. We started way underground and now we’re hosting club shows and it’s all because of the love of our community. From the bottom of my heart Austin will forever have a piece of me. .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://531.am
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its531.am/
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/531_am
- Other: https://www.mixcloud.com/531_am/
