Today we’d like to introduce you to Jaelyn Valero.
Hi Jaelyn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I attribute everything I do now to my family and growing up in Austin. My parents prioritized bringing my brother and I into the city and being immersed in the excitement of the creative community. Whether it was finding free shows, art or dance festivals, I was constantly aware of how art and music were at the foundation of bringing people together in Austin. As a family, we never sat still. I felt like every weekend was an opportunity to see what exciting new things could be happening in our city. Now, as an adult, I still struggle to sit still – as eager as I was to watch it all happen in front of me as a kid, I’m more eager now to be a part of it, as both a musician and also someone capturing and archiving it all through my zine.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Hmm, I am always feeling like the luckiest person alive. Everything I thought was cool as a kid is constantly happening around me, and I love knowing that me and my friends have a hand in that. I generally have never had a plan other than just collaborating with my friends and making sure the community around me feels the way I idolized it to be when I was just observing it in my youth. Any bumps in the road in that regard have never really felt like an obstacle but more so just a part of the thrill in experiencing the kind of adulthood and creative life in Austin I always knew I wanted. However, the hardships of grief hit my family and community hard during the pandemic. I lost my dad during this time and that changed a huge part of me. The person who was directly responsible to exposing me to so much of the community I idolized was gone and it felt like that magic was no longer there. I’m lucky that I had my friends and family around me who practically forced me to play music and keep contributing to the projects we had started.
Prior to these losses I wasn’t doing as much to contribute and was still I guess just an observer and appreciator of what was happening around me. The losses we experienced did have a heavy influence in pushing me to create and also my desire to archive the joy of the creative community.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Playing music is the biggest part of what I do right now. I play in a few different bands; Farmer’s Wife, Almost Heaven, Eighty Six Truth, Hysteria. Eighty Six Truth is my personal project that I started and I have my first EP releasing in August! I’m super excited to showcase songs that have been sitting with me for awhile. I also have my brother playing with me in this project and it makes it feel so much more special. Outside of music I have my zine, Locket Magazine, that’s meant to serve as an archive to all of the fun that’s happening in the creative community right now. We released our first issue in March and the second will come out in September. If you’re a friend of mine, you’ve already been wrangled in to be a part of it in some capacity, and if you haven’t already then I will probably be texting you soon. 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/86truthgrl_/?hl=en
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/locketfuxx/?hl=en
