Tell us about yourself as an artist, and what you do here at Norco Music.

I am a musician and an audio engineer. As far as musician goes, I mostly just work as a session musician where I will play on other people’s songs and collaborate with other songwriters. I do write my own songs, however I don’t really have much to show. Most of my work as a musician is collaborating [when it comes to] writing the song… Like I said, I’m a session musician so that goes as far as vocals, guitar, bass, or drums; I also produce, which means that I can help the musicians pull out a particular style or performance during their session or songwriting [process]. As far as engineering goes, I also do the physical recording of the artists, I mix songs, and I also work as a live sound engineer. I’m also a voice actor and I have done some composing for video games and for films. I also have recorded Foley for sound design and have actually done sound design for various projects.

Tell us about your time at Norco, in the Norco Music department. I know you run the live sound for anything anyone needs ever, so tell us more about your experience here.

As far as my time goes here at Norco College, like you said, I do work as the live sound engineer so any kind of performance events, showcases, award shows, anything that would require some sound to be reinforced, I am the go-to guy. I handle the set up and operation of all the live audio equipment so I coordinate with the performers and the event coordinators… and assess the situation based on the parameters given to me.

Do you have a favorite memory or experience from being at Norco Music?

It’s kind of hard to say that there’s one. I would say my favorite type of experience here is doing live sound for the emerging songwriters and musicians here. It’s really fun to work with such talented people and such humble musicians; that’s probably my favorite thing to do here.

What are you doing now as far as anything regarding school, anything professional, musical, etc?

Right now I’m mainly just working as the live sound engineer [at Norco]. As far as June 2017 goes, I’ll be acquiring my certification in audio engineering/audio production… I’m [actually] going to start producing a record for a friend of mine who is a guitar player/singer, and he writes his own music. I used to write songs with him… and we’re going to take all of the songs that we’ve written and that he’s written and I’m going to produce a full album of [our] work… I’m going to play as a session musician on the record—as a drummer and a bass player, and possibly vocalist, but the biggest thing that I’ll be doing is producing [that].

Do you have any hobbies outside of music?

I… shoot… What do I do outside of music? I guess I… [long pause, very awkward time for Adam, so we gave him a little help]

Here’s an example: Shaka goes kayaking.

I’m completely drawing a blank… There are so many things, but there’s one thing that I do and I’m trying to think of what it is—especially if I’m gonna say it, like the ONE THING that’s gonna be on the page… ummm… I guess it would be… playing baseball?

Does that feel right? Playing baseball? Is that what you wanted to say?

I mean I haven't done it in a while… All of my hobbies kind of revolve around music, that’s the thing. I mean… skateboarding! I like to skateboard. There, you can use that one.

Maybe a better way to say it would be: what do you do when you’re not doing Norco Music stuff? Because I know right now you’re still really involved with Norco Music stuff, so what do you do when you’re not doing Norco Music stuff?

Pfft. Work… OKAY I would say that when I have the chance to do what I want to do, it’s basically skateboarding or playing some type of sport.

I just want to mention that you were on—were you on the first album?

I was on the first album that Norco Music put out (Take Me There). I was supposed to just play drums on one track, but when the group brought the track to me it was very confusing because it didn't seem like it was formulated all that well, so what I did was I grabbed a guitar and worked with the songwriter and the guitar player and developed that song into what [eventually] got recorded. And during the session I still was only supposed to play the drums, but I kind of ended up vocal coaching the lead vocalist and I was trying to kind of coach the secondary vocalist on how to go about singing and recording her parts, and it kind of turned into me taking over her part entirely. So I ended up being the secondary vocalist on that track; it’s called “Shut Down.”

So have you been here for everything?

I have not been here for everything… I went off into the workforce for four-or-so years [and recently] came back and got back into the music program.

But you do have a lot of experience coaching musicians and helping them develop their songs?

Yeah, I’ve done it a lot with the bands that I’ve been in. Whether I was solely the bass player, the drummer, or the vocalist; I’ve always been involved in the songwriting [process] and helping the other musicians attack how they perform on those songs or how they write the songs themselves. I've even kind of had a hand in it here [at Norco Music] a little bit with some of the sessions I've been on, and even some of the sessions I [wasn’t] on. I was able to lay a hand or [make] a few suggestions in the production of [some of] the songs.

So you’re pretty well rounded as a musician; you have a few instruments up your sleeve and you have ample experience with all of these instruments?

I would say that I [do] have some experience with each instrument to some degree. I’ve been playing drums for 15 years and I’ve played in a few different bands as a drummer—around Southern California, at some minor venues and some major venues. I’ve done the same thing as a vocalist and as a bass player. So I have some experience outside of school as a performance musician and as a songwriter, and I have some mild experience in live sound outside of school, doing live sound for parties and [other] bands.

Alright, so you’re definitely well rounded in every aspect… How do you identify yourself as a musician? I would hate to say label, but do you label yourself as, let’s say, a drummer, or a vocalist, or a bassist, etc?

I don’t label myself. I almost kind of dislike to be labeled, but I do feel that in some cases there’s a necessity to have a little bit of a label or to be associated namely with something. It’s kind of hard for people to understand what you do if you’re a little too vague, but if I [had] to label myself I wouldn't say that I’m [solely] a drummer, singer, or engineer; I would just say that I’m an audio engineer/studio musician.

Do you have any goals that you’ve set for yourself, either short-term or long-term, that you want to accomplish?

As far as short-term goals, I want to continue working as the live sound engineer here at Norco. I also want to get into working here as the recording engineer and I would like to use those experiences to help me get to a point where I can work in a professional studio as a recording engineer or even a producer, and/or work for a professional production company as a front-of-house engineer or a monitor engineer, or even just a production manager… I would love to be a professional session musician; I don’t know if that’s in the cards. As of right now, my goals have been more geared towards audio engineering, but I will always be willing and available—possibly even seeking—to play with other bands/musicians and record with them as well.

Adam Jauregui

Album Credits:

Collision Course

• Missing Piece

• The Lucky One

• The Last Petal

Compass Heart

• Clarity

• In Stone

• Spectre

Take Me There

• F(r)iend

• Shut Down