Neida Alcantar 
MUSIC CRAFT – Although the Valley’s music scene is halted because of the pandemic, there’s one producer and DJ who’s taking the opportunity to make music at home. Diego San Roman, known as 5K, has been producing music since 2016. He started his junior year of high school and quickly learned how to produce music by just watching YouTube videos. Within a few months, 5K grew a community of supporters by frequently throwing concerts.
“It’s one of the things I like to do for sure as well, like event planning and just helping with putting together concerts, events like that,” said San Roman. “Everything that goes into it is just super cool.”
In August of 2017, 5K and three other producers came together and formed a musical group, called December. The project consisted of an album and six singles before hosting their official concert at McAllen’s Yerberia Cultura.
“I had only been doing [music] for a couple of years. They had only been doing it for a few years as well and I don’t think any of us had ever really worked on a project like that. We were literally working, like, almost 24/7 for those three months. It was just nonstop work. You know, our parents were on us because we were never home and stuff like that,” said San Roman.
In 2019, December also performed at a Cine El Rey concert called ‘Callow’. The creative collective, Missiya, hosted the show. Missiya consisted of photographers, graphic designers, producers, and artists.
“The turnout was great. It was better than we could’ve expected and yeah it was great, it was just a great concert,” said San Roman. “I had a lot of fun putting that together and being a part of that.”
5K has produced for other local artists, such as Isa Lux, and is currently producing music for artists Local and Geral.
You can find 5K’s music on Soundcloud as well as the streaming services Apple Music and Spotify.
5K hopes to open a recording studio in the Valley with other local producers and artists in the next few years.
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