Live, Breathe Music

Hello Blogosphere!

My name is Michael Villegas and I warmly welcome you to my little corner of the internet.

Ever since I can remember, I have loved music.  As a child I was fascinated by the people who made music and the art they created.  I still remember when I was 4 years old and the first record I ever received was a 45 RPM single of “Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings.  I loved that song and my mother would sing it to me every day causing me to giggle uncontrollably when she would sing “…you know you did, you know you did, you know you did…” while shaking her finger at me and smiling.

I grew up in a house where music was always on.  In my house you could hear the likes of Santana, Julio Iglesias, Joan Baez, Bread, Camilo Sesto, Silvio Rodriguez and many other American, European and Latin American artists.  This diversity of sounds and cultures created in me a curiosity that follows me to this day.

Fast forward to my late teens and I had already picked up my first guitar for a few years and learned to play it.  I started my first band in 1987 and from then on carried a solid 20 year career making and performing music with many bands and even as a solo artist throughout Latin America, the United States and the Caribbean.  I toured and performed for thousands of people and had the time of my life doing it.

At the end of those 20 years I reached a point where performing music was not giving me the satisfaction it used to.  Making music still excited me but performing it (and all that comes with that) was making me feel tired and this caused a feeling in me of lack of creativity.  I needed to do something else and I needed to find it quickly.

Enter Photography…

I had dabbled in Photography during my early twenties with an old Canon AE-1 film camera.  I learned how to process the negatives in my own darkroom and played with making images to express emotions the way I was already doing with sound.  After reaching a point in my music career where I felt it was time to switch gears, I picked up the old photography bug again, only this time, with digital cameras.

Which brings us to today…

Photography has provided me a way to tell my story as well as the story of others.  I take deep pride in being able to tell these stories through an inanimate image and although I do love doing travel and portrait photography (you can view and learn more about those here), music photography really fulfills me no to end.

To me, Art is the ability of human beings to express their innermost thoughts and emotions.  It doesn’t matter which media is used.  I choose music and imagery – and being able to combine the two is even better.  Once again, I welcome you to my home on the web where I explore the music of others and try to capture their essence through photos.  Visit often to find out about great music being made and performed and to share a coffee with me as I show you and tell you about the artists that are out there today.

Enjoy!

Michael Villegas