(V)eronique Log: Happy 10 Year Anniversary to Encantadora!

Happy Anniversary!!!

10 years ago today I had just graduated from college and spent an entire year working on my debut album that would launch 10 years of stories and adventures on the road. I thought at 18 years old that the journey to becoming a professional singer would be "easy". College taught me different. There was a lot of training and rejection and creative growth within just living.

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Music has been a means for me to engage with a force that has no name. It has provided me a sense of safety to express and explore the human condition in a way that has brought me closer to the spirit of creation. I have shared stories of love, pain, forgiveness, longing and so much more.

I first started this album on what was supposed to be my last semester of college in December of 2012. As life would have it, that didn't happen cause I was "suddenly" needing one class to complete my degree. So it would be a year of school and graduating and just overall figuring out life 'after college', when I finally finished the album and put it out into the world. I was nervous to say the least.

I had spent years away from music and when I was in it, and to top it off it wasn't in Tejano. It was in Opera, Mariachi, Jazz, and Musical Theatre. It was so different. When I first released the album with my own little fun twist and style the album didn't sell well. I had to redo the concept for the artwork 3 months after the CD's were printed and that was a lot of investment to REINVEST. It was a learning moment that bruised the ego, but taught me so much about being adaptable in the music industry.

I look at the woman I've become now. The teachers that brought me to understand the meaning of creating art and furthermore, straddling the line between art and business. Not getting lost in its machinations. Don't get me wrong, nothing was "perfect" in my journey, and the trials and struggles I endured were brutal. But my art was out there and to be here to continue to make art is one I wish to celebrate. My lighthouse shining brightly; with the the stories of the dark times and the lessons learned saved for another time.

I didn't song write right away. I didn't trust my voice or my writing. I came from writing poetry and fiction, then journalism. I didn't know how to verbalize all the different experiences I had up to that point, so for the first album I only wrote one song,"TekJano Jam". It was my fun way to celebrate the gay clubs and their acceptance of my creativity and fire when they allowed me to perform or used my music. I was enveloped in safety of creating my way, and was a way to celebrate. From that album onwards I was writing music in Spanish and just allowed myself to express in song.

I wanted to have a creative career in which I could look back at the creative risks I took and be proud of them. So what if I had to change my album cover, or if I had an entirely animated music video that had never been done in Tejano. I did it. The same can be said of my ability to write. I've gone from thinking that I would never write creatively to writing a comic book (coming out in March 2024), and poetry and so much music those first days in the studio. Some songs that have seen the light of day and others standing in the wings ready to be seen on stage.

If I could impart anything to anyone in the music and arts it is simply this, that in 10 years I can look on the past proudly because it put me exactly where I am today. With songs and stories and friendships and my impact on the industry that came with simply growing up and finding my creative voice. I hope you find yours too.

Puro Amor, Puro Besos, Puro Tejano

Veronique