TRANSCRIPT:
Beatrix Lozach: Hello. This is Talking on Sunshine. I’m your host, Beatrix Lozach, and this is…
Riley Pita: Riley Pita, co-host.
Beatrix Lozach: Today we will be interviewing theatre major Pablo Arteaga on his experience working on McCallum’s musicals, as well as his experiences working within the metal scene and his band.
Pablo Arteaga: Hello, I’m Pablo Arteaga, theatre major junior here at McCallum. Recently in Mac Theatre, I was Prince Oliver in Between the Lines and Prince Hamlet in Hamlet.
Beatrix Lozach: What initially drew you to theatre?
Pablo Arteaga: I just generally enjoy theatre as an art form. Here at McCallum, I just kind of realized that I wanted to do theatre, and it’s just a long-going passion of mine that I’m really attached to. There’s really no feeling to me like doing theatre and performing theatrically on stage.
Beatrix Lozach: Did you have an initial show or a theatrical experience that fostered that love?
Pablo Arteaga: My love for theatre stems from seeing the original Mary Poppins movie in elementary school and then bearing witness to the soundtrack for the musical, and then it just kind of bloomed from there because I just did whatever shows I could.
Beatrix Lozach: Did you have any formative experiences at Lamar?
Pablo Arteaga: I transferred to Lamar when I was in eighth grade looking to do more art. The formative experiences mainly were like the first, like the musical I did on the PAC stage, which was Shrek Junior at Lamar when I played Pig Number two.
Beatrix Lozach: For listeners who may not know the PAC refers to AISD Performing Arts Center, while Lamar refers to Lamar Middle School.
Riley Pita: What would you say is your favorite role you’ve done so far?
Pablo Arteaga: I think my favorite role I’ve done so far was Prince Oliver in Between the Lines because I got to do so many like, really fun things that I hadn’t got the chance to do previously. I got to sing a lot on my own, and I got to just do a bunch of weird, goofy things that that character does.
Beatrix Lozach: How do you think that the challenge of taking on two lead roles, Prince Oliver and Hamlet, caused you to grow as an actor?
Pablo Arteaga: What I realized from taking on two lead roles in theater at once was not just that it would be exceptionally challenging, but that I enjoyed that challenge and I enjoyed chasing after it and working for it.
Riley Pita: What initially drew you to metal?
Pablo Arteaga: The thing that drew me to metal specifically was because I was obsessed with a specific artist that did video game fan songs, and he also had this metal side project that got me really deep into the sound of like, metal core and alternative metal, and then I wanted to learn more from there. I had an online friend who knew a bunch of genres, and I was curious about it, and so I just expanded my taste from there.
Riley Pita: What inspired you to want to create metal music?
Pablo Arteaga: I just sort of fell into, “oh, I want to make music that happens to be metal.” I started producing music of questionable quality when I was like 12 years old, and I wanted to follow my creative vision with the music that I wanted to make. I wanted to follow my dad, who’s also a musician. And I just wanted to make music and have fun with it. And I just sort of fell into making music that happens to be metal.
Beatrix Lozach: Did you have any formative experiences growing up watching your dad be a musician?
Pablo Arteaga: He plays a very different style of music than anything that I’m, like, into and seeking out. But the music that he plays, which is Latin music, is very, like, close to me. It’s very emotionally close to me. It furthered my experience with music. It just inspired me to pursue it further. And of course, my parents wanted me to be musically educated. So like when I was very young, I got piano lessons. But I did learn music theory and a lot of stuff. And I got into metal, of course, and I really wanted to play guitar, and my dad’s been encouraging me with my band and playing guitar, especially ever since, not just in the metal context.
Beatrix Lozach: What connects metal and theatre? What essentially makes you, you as an artist?
Pablo Arteaga: Because theatre was like the art form I started with, theatricality is very close to me, and it comes very easily to me. So basically the metal music and music in general and whole musical ethos and my love of theatre combine in their presentation because I’m into music that is especially theatrical, that tells stories and is conceptual.And the music that I make is also focused on storytelling and gives me another outlet of storytelling that isn’t theatre. But it’s close and it’s and it’s very fun in a different way. But all of it really goes back to theater for me.
Beatrix Lozach: This has been Talking on Sunshine, we’re your co-hosts, Beatrix Lozach
Riley Pita: And Riley Pita.
Beatrix Lozach: Go Knights!
Talking on Sunshine is co-hosted and produced by Beatrix Lozach and Riley Pita, edited by Pita, with original music by Lozach.