Rising Stars: Meet Mikey Flores

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikey Flores.

Hi Mikey, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers.
One of my favorite pieces of trivia I like to drop is that I was inspired to start playing guitar by the game Guitar Hero! My creative journey would have manifested very differently without it. That was back around 2008. For those keeping track, I’m a 2000 baby.

My guitar learning consisted of “noodling” around and learning parts of songs that built my musical vocabulary. I rarely wrote or performed entire songs back then. My writing journey would start with a copy of the music workstation program FL studio that I bought when I was 12. By 2016 I’d have full songs, but nothing I was comfortable releasing… yet.

The freedom of college really poured gas on my creative flame, wherein the short span of 2018-2022 I would release my first single, 3 mini EPs with a band, go solo with the release of my own EP, then start a new band which is gearing up to put out some great material.

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?
It has most definitely not been a smooth road, but what musician can say it has?

In my time as a musician, I’ve encountered classic struggles like mental health, making a living off of music, and inter-band drama. Much of the time they overlapped and fed into each other. On the bright side, it gives lots of material to write about!

I had the fortune of growing up in a middle-class household, which sheltered me, but that life came with a different set of struggles. The race for conformity in a suburban upbringing severely limits how one is able to express themselves, and I definitely found myself running into unspoken walls as I grew up. Much of my adulthood has consisted of freeing myself (and others) from these societal chains. Since I left for college, I’ve been on a journey of self-love. When you grow up being told that expressing your individuality is wrong, it can lead to a negative self-image. I had to vanquish a lot of the self-hatred conditioned into me, and for many days (if not years), the goal was to be self-neutral as it’s still a step above self-hating.

Along with my self-love quest, I’ve had to find out how I could safely navigate a music scene. In my second year of college, I sought to form a band to perform music that I had written. In a lapse of judgment, I ended up joining a band that I did not share many of the same values with. While It was fun at times, it wasn’t nearly as productive as I would have liked. I had to take a leap of faith to go solo, but in the end, it was worth it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
While I would broadly consider myself an artist, right now I am a musician. I lead a band called The Enjoyers as well as do solo projects/collaborations on the side.

The thing that sets me apart is the sound and feel of the music I’m involved in. Whenever I get on stage, accompanied or not, I aim to sound like there are more musicians up there than you can see. I normally play in a trio, and we hit well above our weight class – probably due to the instrumentation and the quality of the musicians I find myself playing with (shoutout to Nick Martinez on drums and Cass Stork on keys – they’re fantastic). I feel that the “norm” nowadays for a trio is to be guitar, bass, and drums with one of the members also singing. My group, The Enjoyers, consists of a keyboard, guitar, and drums (I play guitar and sing). It’s a different setup than what people have been accustomed to in this scene, which in my experience, is more rock-oriented, while our musicianship (as well as instrumentation) stems more from jazz.

What are your plans for the future?
I’m not really planning any big changes right now, per se. I’m currently just moving ahead with projects that have been in the works for a while already. That doesn’t mean that there are no big things in the future.

The Enjoyers is expanding our instrumentation, adding on another guitarist to allow me to focus more on vocals, and a bassist to really fill out the lower end of our sound.

We’re also recording an EP, with a single off of it coming soon. That’s all the info that I’m able to pass on at the moment.

In the longer run, I’m aiming to tour! It’ll take some time to get all the details and funds together in order to do so but It’s something I’m looking forward to.

Contact Info:

• Website: mikeyflors.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikeyflors/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mikeyflors

Image Credits
Jerrett Bennett and Brian Mencinas