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[0:39] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, thank you for coming back and joining me on this bonus episode with Jaime Lozano, musical theater composer. As I mentioned in the previous episode, in my spotlight on Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Emilio was one of the founding members of the Latin Grammys. And as it turns out, Jaime is a voting member of both the Grammys and Latin Grammys. He'll also be answering the final five questions. But in all actuality, awards aren't really that important to Jaime.

[1:12] Jaime Lozano: I've realized, I mean, to be honest, I don't believe in any kind of awards. What I love about awards is that it's a way to materialize the community. I don't know if that makes sense. I mean, the award is not about the awards; it's about that community, being part of the community. So as soon as I have enough credit, like recordings and all that, I needed to be part of as many communities as I can. I mean, one is the music community, and I applied to be part of the Grammys. I mean, with all the recordings that I already have, working with different people. For me, knowing that I am a member and I can vote, it's not about that; it's being able to belong to a community. It's just the same. I'm not a Broadway composer.

I have never written a Broadway musical, but I have been able to work with many, many Broadway people. So just being part of that community is what makes me feel better that I'm doing something. It's not about having a Broadway show, but it's about being part of that community in some way to give them something, and they can give you something as well. It's like this; even friendship, even marriage, it's not about loving someone just with all your heart, and that's it. You need to have something back. And every kind of relationship is about that reciprocity, you know? Like I give you, you give me. It's not because you ask or they ask, but it's just this energy that is going back and forth, and this music going back and forth.

And I think that is what community is. So being able to be part of the music community through the Grammys, being able to be part of the Broadway community, even not having a Broadway show, but knowing all these great Broadway performers and Broadway composers, it's something that just makes me a better artist, you know.

[3:27] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, and so I assume that your voting then takes a lot of that into consideration. You're not just voting for the top artist, the most popular. You're looking at the actual work to see the story that it's telling, the type of passion that goes into it.

[3:43] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, yes, it's really hard. It's really hard because you have to commit to do that. I mean, you have hundreds of songs or albums in each category, you know, it's like many, like a hundred. So it's hard to actually listen to all those thousands and thousands of artists, you know. But you do your best. And of course, you just start trying to support your own community as well. I mean, that's the way it is. So I don't take it wrong, but of course, if I have a friend with an album being considered, of course, I'm gonna take a listen to that album. And I'm gonna see if that album for me has had the standards to be nominated or whatever, you know. So yeah, in some part, you always try to help and support your own community, and at the end, I mean, we need to support each other.

So definitely, I mean, to find a way to listen to as many as you can, you try to support your people in some way. I mean, I think that's the reality. I think many of most, I mean, a lot of people do that.

[4:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right. So once you receive these hundred or so nominees, I guess, per category, then do you just vote once? Do you vote like in order, like this is my first choice, second, third? How does that voting work?

[5:10] Jaime Lozano: You vote in every category, depending on the category, but for example, for best song, I think you can vote till 10 songs or something like that. Because you have no priorities, you just vote 10 songs. Okay, and then wherever are the songs with more votes, they make it to another round, and you know. And how many rounds generally happen for voting in a particular category? It's just, I mean, it's just the consideration. I mean, when you say actually, when you got considered for a category, you are not supposed to make any kind of promotion. You can say, "for your consideration, Jaime Lozano, blah blah blah," any like the name of the song for your consideration, but you can't like actually ask someone of the members for the vote. You know, you have to, I don't know if that's still the same, but there was a time that you couldn't tag the Grammys in social media.

[6:17] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, interesting.

[6:18] Jaime Lozano: You couldn't tag them if it was consideration. This is not nominal yet. You are being considered to be nominated. Of course, if you have a very close friend, you ask him, "Oh, can you listen to my material and see if you can vote for me?" Yeah, you can do that, but you can't do that with a regular person. I mean, people need to listen to the material. I mean, you have to in a way that doesn't feel like you are trying to buy votes.

[6:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Of course, of course.

[6:45] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's wonderful to hear all that music, and at least it's gone through one process. The Grammy thinks, "Okay, this could be considered," and so you're listening to hopefully the best, you know, selections. But yeah, it sounds very time-consuming to go through not just individual songs, but then you have to listen to whole albums.

[7:06] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, yeah, it's also being honest. I mean, most of the people is gonna take a listen to the most famous performer. I mean, that's why it's very hard to get in. And mostly when you're talking about these big categories, like best song or best album, I mean, it's really hard, like an indie product being able to get to be nominated in a category that big because here you have all these big, huge artists.

[7:38] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[7:39] Jaime Lozano: I mean, it is, but there's another like folk music or like children's music. Maybe children's music doesn't have that many submissions. I mean, you have for best album, you have thousands of submissions. But for best children's album, you have maybe 40 or 50.

[7:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: So how many categories do you vote in? All the categories or only certain ones?

[8:00] Jaime Lozano: You are able to vote only in a few of them. I mean, you don't have to vote in every single one of them. For you, which categories are you specified in?

[8:11] Jaime Lozano: I mean, I vote on those that I feel that I have a better perspective. You know, I have to vote on main and best song, best album, best artist, those that like the big categories, and besides that, I usually vote like the musical theater category, something like the Latin music or the Mexican or the, you know, like those categories that I feel that I relate to.

[8:40] Jaime Lozano: The pop category sometimes, you know, the arrangement category. I don't remember the number, I don't wanna lie to you, but it's like if there are 30 categories, you have to vote for the five main categories and 10 more, something like that. And you can't vote more than those. So you have to decide, okay, I'm gonna vote for this category or for this one. I mean, there's a moment that you have to decide, okay, I already voted for as many categories as I'm supposed to. So I can vote for more. Interesting. That's it, it's such an interesting process. But yeah, as you said, it's a way for you to at least give some voice or at least give some vote to artists who may not get seen or heard that much.

Yeah, it's hard. It's a hard business. I mean, the music, the theater, I mean, because there's a lot of people coming from the bottom. I mean, and we need to help each other in some ways. Not about being on the top, it's more about being able to reach other hands and try to make it up all together in some way.

[9:56] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right, so here we are at the final five. All right, Jaime, if you could have any other job outside of the arts, what would it be?

[10:06] Jaime Lozano: Um, it's funny because I started music very late when I was 19 years old. And just one year before I applied to study my music bachelor, I actually applied to study criminology. And actually, I passed the test. And when I was about to sign in into classes, I decided, no, no, there's something, no, no, I don't want to do that. I don't know. And I decided a year after I was applying for the music school. So I was almost getting into this criminology school, you know, like being a lawyer, being a yeah. I love Law & Order, for example.

[10:48] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right, and of course the show Law & Order.

[10:50] Jaime Lozano: And of course, being Jaime, you would want to do it all. You'd want to be the policeman, you'd want to be the lawyer, the judge, you'd want to do all the jobs.

[10:56] Jaime Lozano: Of course, yeah, of course. Even the criminals.

[11:03] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right. What is a bucket list role or show or that type that you hope to do one day?

[11:10] Jaime Lozano: I mean, I mentioned this. My bucket list role maybe is a Broadway composer. That's one, and the other should be. I mean, I just want to create as many roles for other people, no. Yeah, you want to be prolific and writing. Is there a particular story, or maybe whether it's a book or maybe even a movie that you've seen? Is there something that you've thought I want to turn that into a musical one day?

[11:34] Jaime Lozano: I went to do musicals that are related with me in some way. I mean, you know, I mean, of course, I have the skills, and I could write a Wicked, I could write, I don't know, Next to Normal, you know, I mean, but that's not maybe the stories or the kind of music that I feel more related with, and that people are amazing doing that. I mean, Stephen Schwartz and Tom Kitt, I mean, they are amazing. So I don't want to do what they are doing because they're great. I just want to do what I want, what I can, and I feel better and more related. I tell my own stories. I mean, that's why I have all these immigrant stories talking always about Mexico, about my immigrant experience. That's the kind of shows. I mean, talking about my Mexican people, about like Frida Kahlo, you know, about immigrants crossing the border. I mean, that's the kind of story that I feel related to now. And I feel I need to tell those stories.

[12:34] Patrick Oliver Jones: And so number three, who is it that you look up to either as a mentor or someone that inspires you?

[12:40] Jaime Lozano: But I have learned that the best people is always the most humble people. One of the people that have been like good mentoring in some way. I mean, it's not my mentor. We are more like friends and we have collaborated a lot, but just being having the chance to learn from Alex Lacamoire, for example, and that being in the room with him and looking at the way that he works and how he relates with other people. Well, I mean, he's like one of the most amazing human beings I know, and that's why he has all this success because he's just the nicest person. I mean, and he's nice with everyone all the time. So I think Alex Lacamoire definitely Lin-Manuel Miranda is a good inspiration. Um, that's another person that he he's great collaborating with people. I mean, he knows how to delegate everything. Lin-Manuel Miranda, he's amazing, but just follow I'm following their lead in some way.

[13:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I mean, it's great to see the people who are just ahead of us so that we can see a path that may be good for us to take as well. So I think it's important for us to have those kind of people in our lives, definitely. Um, number four, what is a lesson or trait that took you a while to learn, or maybe one that you're still working on to this day?

[14:07] Jaime Lozano: English.

[14:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, I know.

[14:11] Jaime Lozano: Yeah, English. I would love one day to be an English lyricist. I mean, I do lyrics in Spanish. In Spanish, I do book musical lyrics, but I don't feel comfortable to do lyrics in English. So I wish one day I could do that. And there are many, many, many things. I mean, collaboration every single day and learning to collaborate. And I'm not that well organized. I have a lot of problems. I'm very messy. I mean, because I say yes, yes, yes, and I'm writing a song, and five minutes later I'm trying to write another song for another project, and then five minutes later, another song. I mean, like I'm just trying to do many things at a time. I don't have like a calendar or a schedule. I mean, I need to find a way to do all that. I mean, I always go with the flow, you know, like just do and do, but I think I need to organize better myself.

[15:06] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah, it's so easy to be kind of caught up in the flow of this project or that one or the next shiny object over here that you want to focus on. So yeah, I totally know what it means to have your eyes everywhere and not be able to focus on one thing. The fifth and final question, what is the best advice that you have received?

[15:28] Jaime Lozano: I come from a family that is not related to the arts. I'm actually the only person in my family doing something with art. And I remember my father when I was a teenager and I didn't know what to study, he told me it doesn't matter what you want to do. If you wanna be, if you wanna swipe the street, you know, if you wanna be any profession that you wanna be, just be the best in what you do. And then I realized that it's not about being the best, it's about the journey trying to be the best, and it's more about trying every day to be better and better and better and better and better. So I decided to be a musical theater composer, and I just try every single day to be a better version of that, you know, and not just as a composer, but also as someone collaborating with other people, being a better human being because our work is closely related with who we are as human beings, so that's something good. Being the best person that you can be is gonna make you a better artist.