Award Winning Music Producer Jake Carmona
Jake Carmona, the award-winning music producer from Mexico was asked what advice he might have for aspiring artists and producers. He said that it’s fine to have been inspired or influenced by other artists but one should never imitate them. When you emulate someone else, then you are not trusting yourself, you’re not giving yourself an opportunity to be the best that YOU can be. He also feels that people make choices from two different and opposing emotional states: either out of fear or out of love. Trying to imitate somebody is a decision that is made out of fear, that is, the fear of being rejected or judged in a negative way.
Jake is in his early thirties and has been in the music business since he was fourteen. He started as an assistant engineer for his father Kukin Carmona who is also a well-known music producer in Mexico at Universal Music Group. He has worked in many music genres such as, Mariachi, Norteño, Pop, Rock, Hip Hop and Metal and Electronic (synth pop). Jake has been nominated for a Grammy for Nadia’s A Puro Dolor (Best Regional Mexican Music Album) and Costumbre’s Siempre won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Norteño album. Jake was the Recording Engineer on that record. He said that the nomination and the actual Grammy win was extremely important to him because it was amazing that the music, the musicians and he, as producer and Recording Engineer, were recognized by the Academy.
He has worked with a lot of great artists over the years including, the Pop Latin artist Cristian Castro, who Jake feels is one of the best singers he has ever worked with. He is also well known for his work as a record producer and engineer with bands such as, Los Claxons, División Minúscula, Nadia, Mind Cinema and The Warning.
He is currently producing The Warning’s 3rd album, which is due for release later this year. The Warning is scheduled to play at the legendary Whiskey a Go Go and their two shows are both sold out. Jake is also happy to be working with the band Mutum. He produced their first album eight years ago and he is looking forward to producing another album for them this year. He has produced three albums for Mind Cinema and has written songs with them and even performed alongside them. Besides producing 3 albums for The Warning, he also collaborated as composer and arranger. He has several projects in the works, one with San Miguel Pérez, the Cuban singer/songwriter and Jake’s personal project called, Kincaid, which will be released later in the year.
