Today we’d like to introduce you to Rodri.
Hi Rodri, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
It’s been a bit of a journey to get me to where I am that has been a bit all over the place, so bare with me.
My name is Rodri and I created a project called AREYOUSTILLDEPRESSED.
At my core, I am an experimental musician and multidisciplinary artist.
Anything I do is always with the goal of sharing my art.
The first phase of starting AREYOUSTILLDEPRESSED was when it began as a passion project where I could showcase and sell my art during the beginning of the pandemic. I lost my job in March of 2020 and didn’t work until September of that year, so I tapped back into my passion for art during those months. I had worked in the education sector up until that point and hadn’t had any time anymore to invest in myself or my art, so when the pandemic occurred, I was suddenly able to take a look at myself and my life and ask, “where do you want to go next? What drives you?”
During this time, I was also in grad school getting my Masters of Science in Medicinal Chemistry and researching the pharmacology of psychedelic compounds and their antidepressant effects in order to adapt these qualities to novel formulations. I felt like there was a poetic dichotomy occurring in my own life where I was doing academic research on what it means to be depressed and how to treat it while concurrently dealing with my own depression during this time of not really knowing where my life was going or what I was doing and the only thing that was making me remotely happy was making art and sharing it online. The initial response was great and I was able to sell some of my pieces to get a little bit of income. Thus, AREYOUSTILLDEPRESSED was born.
Many people raise an eyebrow at the name, which I honestly love. It’s better to have a reaction than no reaction, in my opinion. The name comes from a time I, quite condescendingly, asked my boyfriend one day, “are you still depressed?” when he was feeling down. It was such a stupid question that it made us laugh at its absurdity. I then used this phrase as my own mantra during 2020. I would create a piece of art — whether it be a painting, sculpture, or collage — and would internally ask myself, “well, are you still depressed?” as a way to remind myself to find joy in what I made and live in the moment.
During the same time, when I didn’t want to create a physical piece of art, I would turn to music. I began crafting my sound more and evolved as an artist, which is how my music persona Rodri was born. As Rodri, I experiment with my voice and what it means to create music. I am inspired by looping and what multiple layers of one’s voice bring to a composition.
The more I began to feel more confident in my music, the more I wanted to be able to play live for people. This began as, what felt like a far-off dream of wanting to perform live. All throughout 2021, I would lock myself in my room for hours and experiment with my vocal looper and equipment to create weird little jams made solely with my voice and minimal synth and drum production. At the end of the year, I decided I wanted to put on a show for my friends of what I had been working on up until that point, so I wanted to throw an event for my birthday in January to celebrate my 27th birthday. The number 27 holds a lot of importance for me, and this year is said to be the year where Saturn returns to the same place in the sky when you were born and is supposed to signify the start of your astrological adulthood that brings forth some of the hardest years of your life. I thought it was poetic to embark on this next phase during what is considered to be a very hard period of life.
So I decided I wanted to throw an aptly-named event called The Return of Saturn where I curate a lineup of local artists, drag artists, and art market vendors to showcase the DIY scene in Houston, with a big focus on BIPOC and queer talent. I got in contact with the owner of AvantGarden to ask if this would be something she would be interested in hosting at her venue, and she was very supportive of it and allowed it to be a recurring event at AvantGarden.
From here started the next phase of my journey where I aim to create a community of like-minded people who are able to share their art with Houston. I aim to make The Return of Saturn a staple in the Houston nightlife scene where people know that’s the place to go to see a unique set of talent at every iteration of it.
So that’s my story. My name is Rodri and I created AREYOUSTILLDEPRESSED; I took it from a personal art project in my bedroom to a wide encompassing brand that aims to showcase all facets of myself and my community. I want this to be something that leaves a mark in Houston. Something of substance and value that helps propel the culture forward and help my community stand out.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I think the main struggle I have experienced is just finding inspiration and motivation within myself, as well as the time to do everything I want.
I suffer from recurring long periods of artist block, so that’s really tough. I want to create something, but my brain doesn’t let me. It can be discouraging and debilitating. This often leads to me getting overwhelmed and feeling like a failure and spilling over to other facets of my life. It’s…tough.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Well, I graduated from the University of Houston with my Bachelor of Science in Biology and from The Open University of the United Kingdom with my Masters of Science in Medicinal Chemistry with a focus on neuropsychopharmacology. I have lived many lives in my professional life. My first “adult” job during college was working for Warner Bros. Music as a College Marketing Representative for the pop/rock division. I then became a high school science and AP Biology teacher and did that for four years before switching to oil and gas where I worked as a petrochemicals analyst. I hated the culture at that job, so I then became a substitute art teacher for a few months before the pandemic left me without a job. At the end of 2020, I transitioned to the clinical lab sector where I currently am working.
I am currently the Development Supervisor at a molecular biology lab.
I am most proud of my grad school education and thesis, and I believe this is what sets me apart from others. I researched the way psychedelics (specifically psilocybin- and LSD-derived compounds) bound to a specific receptor in our brain to see how long-lasting antidepressant effects occurred, in order to be able to apply that knowledge to the development of future antidepressant therapies. This thesis was my heart and soul for almost two years where I conducted a wide range of analyses and computational simulations with psychedelic molecules to learn their theoretical mechanisms of action and their pharmacology. I am a huge proponent of psychedelic therapies and want to be able to provide meaningful contributions in research in this field. My Master’s degree is in psychedelics as they are applied to medicinal chemistry, which feels like such a weird, cool niche thing to be able to say that I basically graduated with a degree in drugs.
What were you like growing up?
I was born in Mexico City and grew up an only child living with just my mother and grandmother. I was a very talkative, flamboyant little boy who didn’t quite fit in a lot of times.
I would get in trouble a lot in school because I would talk a lot in class, yet my report cards always said I was a pleasure to have in class. I just liked talking and sharing my opinions. I remember butting into the conversations between my mom and her friends because I just loved how they looked when they talked: so sophisticated and adult-like. I just wanted to talk and share what I thought, too.
At an early age, I’m talking maybe 5 or 6, I grew a fascination with music. My mom often bought me new CDs to listen to, which I would then get lost in their sonic world.
At school, I never fit in. When 3rd grade started, I would get bullied a lot because the other boys would see me as gay, even though I didn’t know what it meant to be gay until much later. This bullying lasted until I graduated high school.
I found myself drawn to being friends with girls more instead because boys were either relentlessly mean or only agree to be friends with me outside of school as to not become the subject of ridicule amongst their friends.
Because of this, I didn’t care much for sports or playing with other kids. From an early age, I became very solitary. I was an only child and my mom worked at times three jobs when we first came to the States, so my room became my best friend. I would lock myself in my room and watch movies on mute while playing records very loudly on my mom’s ’80s record player that I took as my own. I would read a lot and play video games to get lost in their worlds, too. I had friends, but I always kept to myself. It sounds a bit sad, but I wasn’t a sad child; I was resilient and resourceful as an only child.
I was very interested in finding new music and it’s been like that to this day. It’s my favorite thing to do. When my mom was home, we would play board games a lot or watch movies. Virtually every weekend we would go watch a new movie at the cinema. I remember trips to Blockbuster were ritualistic, too. Movies shaped me as a child a lot, too.
Contact Info:
- Website: areyoustilldepressed.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/areyoustilldepressed
Image Credits
Rodri
