by Anisha Bhat
Nicholas Casillas knew from an early age that he was destined to take the road less traveled—the road of a musician. He says, “I always felt that if I never gave music a shot, never did it, I would regret it for my life. So I went that route.”
Casillas was born on August 1, 1981 in Ontario, California. His mother, a nurse, and his father, a technician for the local phone company, are natives of Pomona and Ontario respectively. Casillas remembers his childhood in Ontario fondly, playing hockey in the streets with the neighborhood children, eating snow cones made by the neighbor, and frequently visiting his grandparents who lived across the street. His family eventually moved to Rancho Cucamonga, where he attended Etiwanda high school. He then went on to attend UCLA, majoring in Music and minoring in Anthropology.
Casillas first picked up the ‘music bug’ when he was just 9 years old. He started with the recorder in 4th grade. Next were piano lessons. In 5th grade he joined the school band and started learning the saxophone. In high school he learned to play the bass and played in a rock band. In college, he joined a jazz band and a Dave Matthews cover band, in addition to studying music full-time. Along the way he also added the flute and the clarinet to his skill-set.
Some of Casillas’s first paid jobs were with his rock band in high school. They recorded their own CD, played in clubs on the Sunset Strip, and were even played on the radio, 103.9. Casillas says that he would frequently come home late on weeknights after playing gigs at local bars.
Since graduating college, Casillas not only continues to play gigs all around Southern California, but also teaches music lessons and engages in recording and sound mixing work. His unconventional work schedule is hectic. One day a week he teaches at a high school, another day at a middle school, and a third day at a community school. The other days of the week he teaches private lessons. Additionally, he tries to do a gig once a week. Recently, Casillas has even started doing recording work at concerts, recitals, and weddings.
Of all of his jobs, Casillas finds teaching to be both the most challenging, and the most rewarding. “If the kids are really into it, and it’s something they really want to learn, it’s the most enjoyable thing,” he notes, “but if it’s something their parents make them do, that half an hour or hour of time can really be eternity.”
While Casillas has found a new passion in teaching, he continues to remain faithful to his original passion—musical performance. As he describes his craft, his voice is laden with admiration, “I think music crosses cultures, and crosses religions. It unites us all.” Pausing for a moment, he continues, “In a way, it is kind of a religion. And it’s a universal one. It really opens your mind, and reminds you that it’s not really about you, it’s about the music, it’s about something greater.”
Unfortunately, Casillas finds that the job of a musician is often undervalued and underappreciated. “Sometimes people only see the performance, and they don’t see all the time that you spent.” In fact, he spends hours before and after each performance setting up, packing up, and mixing down recordings of the performance. Sometimes he stays up into the early hours of the morning mixing down tracks. He goes on to add, “And that’s not even talking about the time spent practicing. All the hours, all the years.”
Casillas also points to the challenging task of improvising in the moment of a performance. “You practice, but at the performance, people play faster, people get more excited, so you have to adjust for that. It’s a very malleable environment. It’s just like a doctor, being prepared for whatever happens. But people don’t really understand these things. They just enjoy the sound.”
When asked if he feels that he has been a success, he takes a moment to deliberate. “I don’t want to say success, because success is something finite. With music, nothing is finite, you’re always progressing,” he reflects, “I feel like the moment I say I’ve arrived is the moment I stop growing. So I just need to keep that mindset, where I’m still hungry, still want to keep on growing, still have this desire. And I think as long as I have that, I’ll be successful.”
INSERT AUDIO CLIP: CASILLASCLIP1.MP3