{"id":2624,"date":"2023-07-27T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/?p=2624"},"modified":"2023-07-26T00:02:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T00:02:37","slug":"manny-torres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/articles\/manny-torres","title":{"rendered":"Manny Torres on Working Hard at What You Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/artist\/3Ndxx0FRhKrIWKtPO95UuP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manny Torres<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was born in Michigan but his heart belongs in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/cities\/chicago\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chicago<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The musician has made a name for himself as a solo artist performing mostly acoustic originals as well as covers which he shares on <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/CiTXdI9pv7B\/?igshid=Y2IzZGU1MTFhOQ==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">social media<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but his true career can only be appreciated in the Windy City where he is constantly performing at clubs and festivals as well as fronting a cover band he describes as \u201csome of the best musicians in the world.\u201d We caught up with Manny Torres to talk about the importance of our immediate community, the life of a working musician in this age, and songs as legacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Sofar: What made you decide to pursue music?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Manny Torres: My love for music started in church. My father is a pastor, so I would sing in church every Sunday and Wednesday. That\u2019s where I discovered that I have a special talent and that I could do this for a living. When I was in Junior High, I auditioned for <\/span><b><i>The Voice<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and made it all the way to the blind audition but the teams had already filled up; I didn\u2019t get a chance to sing in front of the judges, but that experience made me realize that this could be a possibility for me. <\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>What made you want to pursue this particular path in music?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I love how music can change the atmosphere of a room. You can have crappy music at a party and the vibe would be all wrong; but if you get a hot band playing the right songs, the energy of the room can liven up and bring the people together. That\u2019s what I\u2019m interested in doing with my music.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I moved to Chicago [from Michigan] when I was 18, I fell in love with the music scene here and I wanted to be involved in it. I was very ignorant of what it takes to make a living playing music, I didn\u2019t know any better and could only think of getting more gigs. But I\u2019m very entrepreneurial and I\u2019ve always had ambitious goals; being a starving artist was not a possibility for me. I figured there\u2019s a way to make a living playing music that wasn\u2019t going the popstar route. You can do what you want to do in your own backyard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The key is to be constantly working on my craft, demanding the most out of myself to give the best possible experience for people. I\u2019ve always wanted to be honest about singing stories, performing, and having fun. I\u2019m still figuring it all out. I take it day by day. If I keep being a local Chicago guy playing for people who support me, I\u2019m cool with that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manny Torres - All For Love | Sofar Chicago\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aBoPZDvFiIw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5><b>What drives you to keep the life of a working musician?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have done some side hustles. My wife and I started an Airbnb management business during the pandemic because there were no gigs. What keeps me going is that my greatest fear is being on my deathbed looking back and wishing I could have tried harder. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I don\u2019t care what age or where I am in life, I need to keep going. I was gifted with this talent, I can\u2019t not use it. I always expect to try to be the best I can possibly be, not just in music but as a person, husband, in church, in my band, and as part of my community. It\u2019s the operation I\u2019m trying to run. I always try to move forward.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>How do you find a balance between playing originals and what covers you chose to perform?<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I moved to Chicago, the way to make money was singing covers at restaurants and hotels. Making original music has been a challenge because of that. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in Michigan, I used to write songs with my brother Zeke who still lives there, it\u2019s a very fun thing to do with family. I have a lot of pressure to be perfect to the point of feeling like self-sabotage. I\u2019m trying to lean into [writing] because that\u2019s what I\u2019ll leave behind for my family. It\u2019s the stamp I\u2019ll leave in this world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manny Torres - Say Goodbye | Sofar Chicago\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SW4zXhO4wes?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5><b>Your Instagram page has you playing a mixture of covers and originals while also giving us a glimpse into your life. What do you think about how to navigate social media as an independent musician nowadays?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I look at it as a tool to promote my music. I\u2019m not the type to post rants or do Lives even if that\u2019s what fans want. I\u2019m not that person, it would be inauthentic. I think that giving away all of you can\u2019t be healthy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social media is the present and the future but I think you should approach it in a way that stays true to your values, you have to find a way to do it your own way. You have to tread carefully because, in the process, you can lose yourself and your values.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>How do you envision yourself in the future?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My vision of the future is staying in Chicago and being a part of the community. Represent the scene, tour a bit and grow. I would love to put out more original stuff and lean towards something like <\/span><b>Leon Bridges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or <\/span><b>Allen Stone<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with my own style and own the sound of Chicago. To be known as an artist driving this music community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ready to discover more artists like Manny Torres? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">See shows.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Marcos Hassan<\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: Manny Torres, photo by Orel Chollette<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manny Torres was born in Michigan but his heart belongs in Chicago. The musician has made a name for himself as a solo artist performing mostly acoustic originals as well as covers which he shares on social media, but his true career can only be appreciated in the Windy City where he is constantly performing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-2624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-manny-torres"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sofarsounds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}