by Anthony Vassallo
Tano Perez’s journey into the musical realm has materialized through his prophetic vision of a successful future, in which Tano The Prophet, will inspire and connect his audience while building something greater.
Perez, 22 years old, spends most of his time in the Bronx. During a Zoom presentation on Feb. 24, the SUNY Purchase alum spoke about the process of becoming a professional within the music industry.
“It started when I first laid my hands on production because I had no idea what I was doing,” said Perez. “The fact that I was able to translate what I was thinking in my mind, lay it out and create a sound, that's when everything shifted.”
In order to understand the music business, Perez hired a consultant. “When you have a consultant, this person particularly guides you throughout the process of the back end and the front end, of what you need to know,” said Perez.
“It (speaking with a consultant) showed me a lot of aspects of what I was promoting, how I was promoting it, and what I was doing wrong,” said Perez.
Artists have to give up some of their responsibilities in order to make their lives easier and business run smoother. After creating his own website, Perez decided to hire somebody to improve it, “Now that I put it into somebody else's hands it's going to come out better,” said Perez.
Whether it’s writing, producing or singing, artists often feel the responsibility of creating everything on their own.
Perez said, “I gave creative control to the producer I was working with for ‘Trust the Process,’ in fact I gave him 100% creative control and trusted him to make everything sound good.”
After presenting a Google document to the audience, it was clear that Perez was a master planner. Hopeful dates for singles, music videos and collaborations were laid out in a simple format. “Everything I'm saying here is set in stone, it's just a matter of doing the action,” said Perez.
Perez is highly influenced by exemplary artists like Shawn Paul, Kanye West and Travis Scott. His love for them pushed Perez to develop his own sound, while also trying to match his idols’ elusive versatility.
“There are times where I like to just disconnect and go on a trail, just go in nature and climb a mountain and be in the middle of nowhere and that's if I'm in a free-thinking state of mind,” said Perez. “There are times where I write in my studio and my studio has a lot of Egyptian statues so it’s very ancient in there, it puts me in an ancient mindset and it reminds me of how deep this experience we call life is, and how I can alter my message in a fun and cool way, so it doesn't feel like I'm preaching,” said Perez.
Outside of his spiritual studio, Perez has taken on meditation in order to improve his ability to sit with his own thoughts and enhance his sound.
“Before I was doing meditation my music had no substance within it at all,” said Perez. “When I was consistent with meditation, it opened up a whole other dimension within myself, and I started to gain some inner wisdom or knowledge as you could say on my past life, and that alone became a gateway for me to understand why I am here now, why I was born now, and what I have to do with my music in order to expand.”
Plenty of talented artists go unnoticed in today's hyper-social environment. “Always keep in mind how you’re presenting yourself and who you’re presenting yourself to,” says Perez.
“Marketing campaigns are very important at just getting brand awareness out there, what the sound is about and just expanding in general,” said Perez.
“At the end of the day attention is our new currency.”
Although Perez is an artist, he has a business mindset that he hopes will take him beyond the bounds of musical greatness. He expressed his interest in hemp oil and the business opportunities that lie there, as well as opening up multiple studios.
“It's not gonna be just music and just doing that, yes that's a main part of it but music is going to be the gateway in order for me to get hemp in there, or creating a certain drink, create my own liquor, I want to create my own wine bottle, I don’t know what I’m going to call it, but it's gonna be really strong, just different things to expand in, said Perez.”
“Whatever is internalized I can put it out and create something musically out of that and that changes everything,” says Perez. “I realized that we create change within ourselves and it emanates from the sound.”