I was born into a household of Puerto Rican parents. With a father who played saxophone during his junior high school days and a mother who spent much of her time dancing while playing salsa and merengue on the stereo, it’s no mystery that I was born into a musical family. Around the age of 3, I was gifted a small electric piano by my parents, thus locking me into the life of music.

I would play on the piano and unintentionally train my ears to hear scales, which would come in handy later on down the road. There was a point at which I was able to play some pretty complicated pieces on piano, including those by Beethoven and Chopin. However, the piano practice would come to a halt when I decided to learn saxophone in the 7th grade.

Most other students began learning their instruments in the prior year, but I had the competitive edge over everyone, a father who had experience playing saxophone, who learned in the city that breeds the world’s best musicians, New York City. After the first half of my 7th grade year, I was able to beat the competition and move up to first chair in band class thanks to him.

The following year, I started to get into heavy metal, so it was about time to pick up guitar as well. System of a Down gave me a huge push in this direction. So did Killswitch Engage. The guitar really stole my heart, and even though I continued to play saxophone, there was no greater joy than when I was rocking out on the electric axe.

This pattern continued into university, where I decided it was time to “grow up” and choose a career that would “actually make me money.” At the time I decided to pursue a degree in business. Since I still enjoyed doing music, I also auditioned for Salsa Del Rio in Texas State University and made it in as a freshman, which was virtually unheard of at the time. This exposed me to new opportunities, and the invitations to gigs started to roll in. As I got to perform at gigs more and more, I quickly realized that I had chosen the wrong profession and that I needed to switch my major to music. My mother was a big factor in this change of heart, as she was the one who told me many times that I love music so much and that I shouldn’t waste time chasing something else.

Even though I switched to a music degree, I still did not feel secure, so I chose music education. This would at least guarantee me a job as a band director should nothing else work out. However, as I got to learn more about the ins and outs of being a director, it was a no-brainer that this path was not meant for me either, so I made the switch again to jazz performance.

My year in jazz performance was perhaps the fastest I’d grown musically in my entire life. This was the period in which all theory clicked and my ability to discern the musical devices I was listening to skyrocketed. Unfortunately, continuing in jazz performance would have delayed my graduation by 2 years, and it was not a feasible financial decision, so I finally ended my college career with a BA in music and a minor in business.

Some jobs I had after graduating included the following: delivery driver, tech support for two contracting companies, chat support for a large phone company which frustratingly was changed to phone support in the billing department, and data entry.

During my post-graduate life, I was fortunate enough to join a metal band called Fear Control, well-known in the Austin, TX area. During my year with them, I traveled to various cities to perform at live shows and even got to experience fans wanting pictures and autographs. This rock star lifestyle was great but short-lived, since the band was disbanded due to a terrible incident involving one of the band members.

At this point, I had been studying Japanese on the side and was heavily involved with the Japanese area in Austin at the time. While things were progressing with that, things were regressing in my music career. Money wasn’t coming in, with some gigs paying $5 for the whole night. Lugging around gear and damaging the trunk of my car did not seem worth it, so I decided to go with the thing that seemed promising: a new life in Japan in which I could experience a whole new world.

With the help of a really good friend and some other very nice people from the Japanese community, I was able to level up my Japanese and prepare for my life in Japan. First, I got my first experience doing a presentation in Japanese in front of the Japanese community that was about Japanese hip hop and rap. Next, I was able to join and place 1st in the 2019 Texas State Japanese Language Speech Contest held in Rice University, in which I was awarded a free plane ticket to Japan. That trip to Japan is what made me decide that I definitely wanted to live in the country.

Once it was confirmed in my heart that Japan would be my new home, my good friend and my community helped me to find a job opportunity as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) teaching English as a foreign language. With their help, I was able to get the job. Although I did not pass the initial interview, I was added to a waiting list from which I was then contacted to live in Kyoto City! The joy I felt in that moment is indescribable.

Fast forward to my second year in Japan. By this point, it had been many years since I had seriously done any type of music-related activities beyond playing a few notes on a piano or something. And even though I had purchased an electric piano my first year in Japan, it was mostly just sitting there, almost like it was decoration. Nonetheless, the moment had eventually come when I missed doing music so much that I knew I needed to get back into it. My passion had not faded, but I had run away from that career only because the path I had chosen had not been working out. But, how could I get back into something that I knew wasn’t going to pay me well?

Trying to live in Japan was just me trying to escape from the reality that I needed to face: Nothing comes easy.

Here I was thinking I had found another way out of my previous situation, but all it did was bring dissatisfaction and disappointment and more struggles. Living in a culture that generally doesn’t accept people who are different, and who will at many times deny you housing simply because of the country that is listed on your passport, without even knowing how well engrained you actually are in the culture. They don’t even consider all that you have left behind to be a part of their country.

These experiences were like a collection of small cuts that eventually become so numerous that I could no longer bear them, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I left a hard life for something I thought would bring me peace only to be faced with a worse situation than I had before. After the emotional suffering, I finally came to a conclusion:

If I’m going to suffer it might as well be for something I truly enjoy.

As a result, I began deep reflection:

“My passion is music. But I know damn well if I go back to what I was doing I will be poor for life. I know it’s going to be tough, but this is the best talent that I have. It needs to work out somehow, but what can I do?”

This type of thought process continued for what might have been months, until I finally realized something else:

“What’s something that I normally do when I need to just get away? It’s something that takes me back to my care-free days in my childhood. Yeah, that’s right. I usually play video games, specifically Sonic games from the Genesis and Dreamcast eras.”

At this moment, it clicked:

“Aha! I can be a video game composer! I enjoy music. The creation aspect of it is especially what I love, and I’ve enjoyed video game music my whole life! Games are a big thing, and they always need music! This is it! This is what I need to do!”

I began to research online resources for video game music. I came across resources such as Berklee, which seem very good but are way too expensive considering the student loan debt I had racked up at Texas State University. It wasn’t until I came across Matt Kenyon’s low-priced video game music composition course on Composer Code that I finally found something to help me get started.

This course was incredible, and I quickly developed the skills needed to put a piece together. Shortly after finishing the course, I went to YouTube and uploaded a midi score that I had composed in Musescore. Within a few hours, I got my first hit to compose music for a video game! I did not feel prepared at all, but I emailed Matt to see what he thinks, and he told me that he feels I’m ready. So I took the dive and was hired as the composer for the indie beat’em up mecha-themed game called Godgear Ragdrahod, developed by SquireGrookTook.

After that point, I began to build upon my experience and quickly grow as a composer, taking on projects such as the following: Mind Dive by a group of students from Kyoto University of the Arts, Sulo the Sidekick by Ruby Ursus, Gameoff 2024, OST Composition Jam #7, Boss Rush Jam 2025, VGM Reimagined #1

The best thing about this whole journey into composition is that I was dating the woman who would eventually become my wife when I first began. At first, she did not think that I was actually putting much effort into composition, that it was just a hobby I picked up. However, when she heard the very first full track I put together, she was blown away and saw a talent in me that she knew I needed to foster. Ever since she realized what I can do when at work in my DAW, she has been beyond 100% supportive and has been doing whatever she can to help me push forward.

A few months after I started my journey in music composition, my lady and I got married on October 22, 2024. Although my time in Japan has not been the best, she has been the one thing keeping me positive throughout all my negative experiences. And, when it comes to composition, I am not alone. She is always there doing whatever she can to make sure that I have enough time to perfect my craft and that I have everything I need to succeed. My dear Kyoko, I love you very much!

Currently, I am working on so many things, but I aspire to be the guy that game devs can rely on to enhance their projects with high quality BGM. Keep a look out, as I have many things planned for the future, including a series for beginner composers called What I Learned My First Year Composing, a blog called Random Thoughts with Jezza, a limited low-cost membership for game devs that can get one free custom track per month, a super cheap membership for beginning composers to get private lessons online once per month, and a music theory course that will help musicians to learn how to write quickly and effectively without jumbling their brains trying to figure out all the music theory terminlogy and just get straight to the application of it.

If you made it this far, I want to thank you very much for taking part in my journey. If you have any inquiries or any questions about what you’ve read in my blog, feel free to contact me, and let’s chat more.

Always remember, “I work hard to make your BGM sound great.”