Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Saldarriaga.
Hi Tony, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Music was always a passion of mine, growing up my family was always listening to music no matter what we were doing, usually old school hip hop, like Pac, Biggie, Digital Underground, Snoop, Warren G, but it ranged all the way to Madonna, mariah, Whitney, Alesha keys, Aaliyah, even clear to Michael Jackson or Billy Paul. When I was young, I’d like to say, around maybe 7-8 years old, I started dancing. I did hip-hop for about a year. In that same time frame, I started to investigate and dig through the lyrics of songs to, truly understand what they mean. I remember being in YMCA camp around maybe 10 years old and I would sit on the bus with my friend Karter, and we would listen to imagine dragons. And that’s when I realized music could be an emotional outlet. About a year later my biological father passed, we had a good relationship all things considered, but he was involved in things that I couldn’t be and he was a pretty heavy alcoholic so he wasn’t really around. I used to see him in Florida every summer, but the summer he passed, that stopped. That year was the hardest year of my life, having to see my father put in his grave broke me and took a huge part of me that I will never get back. It messed me up and at 11 years old, I had no clue what to do. I started cutting myself, I always made empty threats to myself about suicide, all sorts of dumb stuff. Eventually that all came to an end. I started to just block out everyone and everything by putting in headphones and listening to super sad music. I would listen to artists like, Powfu, Sad Boy Prolific, Xxxtentacion, and Eminem. That continued for a few months and eventually, I realized that music is my emotional outlet. Still. 11 years old, I tried writing my first song. It wasn’t good, by any means, but it was deep. It was sad, and quite frankly scary, but it made me feel good. I continued to write about true events that had happened throughout my life that were traumatizing. This went on from 2016-2020 where I would turn these traumatic events into songs, and then in 2020 Covid hit, I was stuck at home with a lot of time to think. And that’s when I realized that within those 4 years of me making those songs, not only did I progress majorly, but it saved my life. Music is the only thing that kept me alive. I realized music was my purpose. In August 2020, I released my very first song called “you” and I assigned myself the stage name Asic (which I do now go by) it didn’t get a lot of attention from anyone other than my homies. My peers were very supportive and encouraging of my dreams. So I continued to release music. Then in 2021, I dropped a song titled “Goodbye dad” which got lots of attention very quickly, it’s now one of my top three most played songs sitting at around 200k plays. I then started to connect with other local artists in my area, working with some of them, I worked with my friend junior a lot for quite some time. We were both a part of a group at the time we went by the name “Riot Boiz”. Riot boiz eventually started a record label that became “RBR short for Riot Boiz Records” and I then started to take music very seriously. That same year I got into a very serious relationship. I was with a very amazing girl, and just when I thought that music wasn’t doing anything for me and started to lose interest in living again. She pulled me out of this crazy dark hole I was in. And she saved my life. I wrote songs about it and about her, I started posting them to social media like (Insta, TikTok, Snap, Facebook) and instantly my following started to grow pretty immensely. I started to get an older and more reactive fan base, i started receiving messages daily from people telling me how much they relate to my music and how “real my lyrics are” etc.. everything was going perfectly, I had a good job, music was taking off, I had the most perfect girl to ever walk this earth as my own, and on august 1st of 2021, that all came to a quick ending. She had to move away and didn’t wanna date from a distance. She didn’t even wanna try to save it. She took away 5 years’ worth of pain. And rained it back down on me doubling that pain. I got very depressed again. Stopped making music for a little while. The suicidal thoughts took over my body mind and soul. And I started writing about it. I turned our relationship into a song, and then I turned it into 10 more songs, and they all just keep grabbing people’s attention and then blowing up. I started traveling around Utah doing shows, pretty consistently for a few months. And it’s been nothing but growth and progress in the past year. And I’ve once again realized my purpose. Music is what I’m here for. It’s the only thing keeping me alive, and according to fans that have reached out to me personally, it’s the only thing keeping them alive to. So I’m not gonna miss this shot at saving people’s lives. I’m passionate about what I do, I have been for 6 years now, and I’m not giving up until I see my name in the hall of fame. Everyone will know Asic. Trust me.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My mental health is my worst enemy. When I get depressed, it’s always really bad and I usually can’t even get myself to get out of bed, let alone make a song. So it has been a bumpy road due to my mental health struggles.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I make music, of all styles. I mainly work with computer-engineered beats, but one thing that sets me apart from others is my limitless musical talent and abilities. I taught myself how to play the guitar, drums, and piano, I can also play the trumpet. I’ve written many songs on the guitar and piano. I’m most proud of my progression from getting about 1-25 plays on my songs to now getting hundreds of thousands of plays on my songs.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I like to say that overall I’m a very humble and intelligent person. I think those two qualities are very important for success because intelligence is limitless and it will never do anything less than benefit you. The smarter you are the bigger the words you use in your lyrics, the bigger the words you use in your lyrics the more interested people are, the more interested people are the more plays you get. Being smart has an endless list of benefits. And being humble is also limitless, you always be more humble, and it will always have good results. A fan sees you in public and you treat them like they are some royalty. They remember that experience for the rest of their life, they talk about it forever, you gain more attention for your kindness, and you’ve made somebody feel good. Another quality of mine is how musically inclined I am. Every single thing I do in my life relates to music whether that be my own music or someone else’s. I’m always thinking of new lyrics, or a new beat/style. If not I’m thinking of and it singing someone else’s song.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/asic/?fbclid=PAAaY7viaqhMC1mav_9a7qJKEaAaFGghon5rQHOk0R1KVWVBAX1wIhw8gULUk
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/somekid_001?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tony.saldarriaga.39?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- SoundCloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/HmxdTRFvqLbog6ZUA
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4vfvp3tbuxP1dSmQI1KDm2?si=XjPSt-U-QUOR1l1HyGRWiw
Image Credits
Nathan Pasquali
Ashley Christenson
