Conversations with John Quinonez

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Quinonez.

Hi John, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
At the age of 12 in 6th grade, I took piano lessons for about a year. After that, I fell in love with the creativity, production, and behind-the-scenes of how a song was made. I pay homage to my parents who gave me the opportunity to take piano lessons and I was also brought up in a household of being introduced to different genres and musicians of old, new, underground, and mainstream. I’m very thankful and appreciative of being exposed to different artists at a young age while growing up. In high school starting my freshman year a great friend of mine exposed me to a lot of underground music and I was able to further expand my music catalog of other known artists. He is also an amazing street graffiti/tag artist, (Instagram @wonkyoner) he sells his work and is a real down-to-earth guy.

My music production is heavily inspired by Metro Boomin (Leland Tyler Wayne), Wheezy (Wesley Tyler Glass), & Pi’erre Bourne (Jordan Timothy Jenks). My sounds are strongly influenced from their artistry and I hope one day to be able to meet them in person and work alongside with them while still developing my own signature sound. Metro’s executive collaborative production album (with 21 Savage & Offset) “Without Warning” was what truly inspired me and got my attention in really wanting to start creating music and wanting to become a household name as a music producer.

At the age of 14 in my freshman year of high school, I took photography lessons and learned how to develop my own film and print my own pictures all while in a dark room. It is a great art form to learn and experience and again I pay tribute to my parents for being able to give me an opportunity to take photography lessons. Though not film, I still enjoy photography while using a digital camera. Eventually, I would like to get a dark room set up and develop and print my own pictures again.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. I started taking my arts, (being music production and photography) seriously starting back in the summer of 2018 after a breakup of a 2 1/2 year relationship. Literally, after the breakup is when I started putting myself in motion and realized if I want this I need to get out and start learning, connecting, networking, and just open up and start gaining exposure.

At the time before my relationship had started and a little while after my relationship had ended I was and have just recently returned to working back in the oilfield again. What can be challenging is that the job requires me to be away from home for long periods of time which can be difficult while trying to work, rest, and create. But the job has also helped me meet other people of different backgrounds who hold the same interests and I have been able to network and make connections with people who live in different areas of the state and country.

After my relationship had ended I was in full force of wanting to just completely change everything and do a complete 180. I ended up leaving the oilfield and working overseas as a civilian contractor for the DoD (Department of Defense). I worked throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. With that, there were challenges like the oilfield of trying to work, rest, and create while being far away from home for long periods of time. Though the line of work really did help me out in connecting and networking with people who held similar interests, especially in music and those of who are from strategic areas and points of interest within the music industry.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I specialize strictly in just the creative process of music production as of right now. I hire a post-production engineer named Andre Mariette (Instagram/Twitter @mariettemusic) out of Minneapolis, Minnesota who handles all my mixing and mastering of my music productions. Andre and I connected through Twitter a few years back through following each other and DM’s. I still haven’t met him in person yet but I’m looking forward to the day we do meet. He’s worked with artists such as Lizzo, Atmosphere, Marlon Craft, and Asher Roth to name a few. He also does music production on top of post-production.

Right now my area of production is a lot of Hip-Hop and Trap productions. For my third album, I wanna gear towards more Rhythmic/Club, House, and R&B while still continuing to produce Hip-Hop and Trap and also have those genres included in my 3rd installment. A good example of what music productions I would be going for and like to hon are artists like Ari Lennox, Snoh Aalegra, Solange, Khalid, Summer Walker, and Go Crazy (Chris Brown & Young Thug single). Also within the last two years, I’ve gained interest in wanting to produce Reggaetón music so I’ve been studying up and listening to more of the genre while simply still enjoying the music.

For photography, I sometimes plan a day or 2 to go and take pictures of certain areas or points of interest to me for my enjoyment and post them on my social accounts for the public to view. Most other times I usually carry my camera with me and if I see something along the way while driving or walking about I’ll capture the moment right there and then. If I’m in the area and I know my friends are going to be performing live shows I’ll go and photograph their shows while still enjoying and having fun in the moment with them.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Having grown up in between the Austin-San Antonio corridor I enjoy the diversity of the people, and cultures, the landscape of the big urban cities and small rural towns, and the natural beauty of the lush prairies to the beautiful wooded rolling Texas Hill Country. I enjoy history and this area of Central Texas has such a rich and diverse history from the Indigenous people of settling the land to Texas becoming an independent nation to becoming a state in the Union to the present day.

Having grown up here in Central Texas and being a native Texan, all that this area has to offer has attracted people in droves in wanting to move here. With that housing prices have risen, crime rates have increased, and some of the best agricultural and natural land settings are being developed on. I also feel that some of the Central Texas cultures is at risk of being changed or has somewhat changed. Some of the originality and novelty of this area has long worn off and you can see that, especially in Austin.

I understand that with time things do change and I am very fortunate to have grown up in a time when this area was still quiet and calm.

Thank you so much for having me on as a guest today. It’s been a pleasure!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/j_equinonez
• Twitter: @j_equinonez
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQAkff7kMpqYy3WVrXYdXkQ
• LinkTree: @j_equinonez

Image Credits
Photographs by John Quinonez (Instagram/Twitter: @johnequinonez).