From frat house music to underground techno, 22-year-old Andre Zelaya is making strides in his journey to establish his brand and achieve success in the music industry. With an intense passion for techno culture and meticulous business planning, Zelaya reflects on his journey of turning a hobby into a career.
Zelaya, an entrepreneurship student at SDSU, was no stranger to music when he moved to San Diego from Orange County, after having been born and raised in Costa Rica. As a kid, he experimented with many different instruments, including the violin and piano.
“I never got super good at the technical stuff, like actually playing the instruments, but I felt like I understood music really well,” Zelaya said.
It wasn’t until he attended a John Summit concert during his freshman year that he was introduced to the world of electronic music. From there, he started to DJ and analyze the tracks he listened to.
Diving deeper into electronic music, Zelaya found his home in the techno subgenre, which he describes as “very unique” and containing a “rich culture.”
“To me, it is so deeply moving because it’s a demonstration of how powerful music can be,” Zelaya said. “[It’s] something more than dancing. It’s something very deep and personal to large groups of people.”
As Zelaya started finding his style within the techno genre, he began to outgrow the space he originally started DJing at – his fraternity.
“Your job as a DJ is to play something that fits the crowd,” Zelaya said. “But it got to a point in which, if I played the music that they wanted me to play, it wouldn’t have been me DJing. It would be like putting on a facade, which takes all the fun away from it for me.”
Parting ways with the frat parties, Zelaya started exploring the underground rave scene.
“Once I played my first underground show, and people were dancing to the music that I always wanted to play, but was never allowed to play. That’s when I was like, ‘Oh, okay, this is how things are supposed to be,’” Zelaya said. “That’s another reason why I started South Star: to have ultimate control and freedom to express my own taste without limitations.”
South Star is the manifestation of Zelaya’s dream for “an all-encompassing company revolving around underground music.” He takes inspiration from Teletech, a U.K. company known for throwing some of the biggest techno events in the U.K.
“The vision that I have for South Star is very specific to myself,” Zelaya said. “I see it as like an extension of my brain and a physical manifestation of my own music career and my own artistic style, vision and storytelling aspects.”
Zelaya enjoys crafting his creative expression, not just with the gothic-style DJ equipment he builds for South Star, but also with his appearance. Tattoos sprawl across his upper body, and rings and bracelets decorate his hands.
He describes his tattoos as not just a creative expression, but “confidence in [his] taste.”
Along with crafting his brand and aesthetics, Zelaya also works to build the funds necessary for his pursuit of music. One way the aspiring artist hopes to manage this is by starting a marketing company with a friend, something that would give him more freedom than a corporate job, allowing him the space to chase his dream.
The productivity he puts into career building is partly fueled by anxiety, according to Zelaya. For him, putting so much work into one path comes with the fear that not succeeding would be “a complete embarrassment.”
“I don’t want to be the failed DJ. That’s not the vision I have for myself,” said Zelaya. “I’m taking it all the way.”
In contrast to his worries of failure is his immense belief in himself. Zelaya takes pride in his ability to turn ideas into reality and feels he has worked hard to earn his self-confidence.
Mason Versosky has known Zelaya since his freshman year and has seen the change in Zelaya’s pursuit of music.
“Over the last year, I’ve seen Andre’s progression of music go from a hobby to a full-time job and profession,” Versosky said. “It has progressed from just being fun and now being about art. It’s very cool to see.”
Working to build his social media presence has been a consistent goal for the aspiring DJ.
Stuck with low view counts in the beginning, Zelaya thinks what separates those who make it from those who don’t is resilience — how long one can go without seeing results and not giving up.
“I have a very clear vision of my future. I have pretty much the next 10 years planned out step by step in my head,” Zelaya said. “I know what my full potential is, I know what it takes to get there and I know that I will never get there if I’m not working every single day towards it.”
