Jaime Lozano on Art, Community, and Belonging on Broadway

A church choir, a missed criminology path, and a flyer for Jesus Christ Superstar—Jaime Lozano’s origin story doesn’t sound like a straight line to Broadway, but it sings like one.

We sit down with Mexican Broadway composer, lyricist, orchestrator, and music director Jaime Lozano to unpack how a series of gut-led choices, generous communities, and a stubborn belief in possibility shaped his art and life. From becoming the first Mexican graduate of NYU’s musical theater MFA to rebuilding after a visa scam forced him to return to Monterrey, Jaime shares the real immigrant journey behind Songs by an Immigrant and the musicals that center Latinx voices with heart, humor, and cultural depth.

We explore why representation in musical theater matters, how Spanish, English, Spanglish—and every accent—belong in the story, and what it means to write honestly when life is loud. Jaime opens up about composing with his child dancing in the living room, swapping projects when inspiration sparks, and choosing Times Square’s chaos or a quiet Rhinebeck lake with equal joy.

With wisdom on prioritizing the important over the urgent, trusting that deadlines serve the work and not the other way around, and measuring success by impact on his community, Jaime reminds us that art is a language for belonging.

👉 If you’ve ever felt “late” to your calling or believed you needed perfect conditions to create, this conversation offers both practical inspiration and immigrant grit.

🎶 Explore Jaime Lozano’s Work

• Songs by an Immigrant (Spotify)
  — stream the album there
  Spotify
• Songs by an Immigrant “Jaime Lozano & The Familia” CD (Broadway Records store)
  
  Center Stage Records
• Jaime Lozano — Offici

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Jaime Lozano
• 3:08 Why Community Comes First
• 5:38 Origins: Monterrey to Music
• 12:23 From Criminology to Choir
• 18:53 Falling for Musical Theater
• 24:53 Dreamer vs. Skeptic: Choosing Belief
• 31:23 Music as Language and Belonging
• 38:53 Immigration, Setbacks, and Resilience
• 46:23 Songs by an Immigrant and Representation
• 54:23 Process, Parenting, and Creating Anywhere
• 1:02:23 Honesty Over Urgency

Transcript

LisaHopkins: 0:23

This is the Stop Time Podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Hopkins, and I'm here to engage you in thought-provoking motivational conversations around practicing the art of living in the moment. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm excited to dig deep and offer insights into embracing who we are and where we are at. So my next guest is a true powerhouse in the world of musical theater, a visionary storyteller, a celebrated composer, and someone that Lin Manuel Miranda himself has called the next big thing on Broadway. Jaime Lozano is a proud Mexican artist from Monterey who has built an extraordinary career as a composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, music director, and producer. He holds the distinction of being the first Mexican to earn an MFA from NYU's graduate musical theater program. And he's gone on to collaborate with some of the biggest Broadway names on stages around the world. His original works have been seen at public theater, Lincoln Center, and off-Broadway, as well as internationally in Paris, London, Zurich, Berlin, and Mexico City, among others. His musicals explore powerful themes with heart, authenticity, and cultural depth. He's also the creator of Songs by an Immigrant, an acclaimed album and concert series featuring an all-Latinx lineup of Broadway stars, spotlighting the immigrant experience through music. His work has been featured in In the Heights, Tic Tic Boom, and his presence as both artist and advocate continues to break boundaries and build bridges on Broadway and beyond. I am so deeply honored to welcome the brilliant and deeply inspiring Jaime Lozano. Welcome.

JaimeLozano: 2:12

Thank you for having me. Thank you for this beautiful introduction. It sounds so beautiful in your voice. You have such a beautiful voice.

LisaHopkins: 2:21

Oh, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

JaimeLozano: 2:23

Yeah, I love it. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here sharing with you.

LisaHopkins: 2:28

Yes, it's it's um, as I said, pre-show, such a joy to know that I get to meet somebody new today, somebody wonderful and interesting, and just sit down and be in the moment together, right?

JaimeLozano: 2:41

Amen. Yes, amen.

LisaHopkins: 2:43

So actually, it's funny. I often ask, especially the guests that I don't know, right? I'm some of the guests I know, a lot of them I do not, or I've never met, we've never met. I'm curious to know what made you say, yeah, I'll have a conversation with Lisa today.

JaimeLozano: 3:01

You know, uh as as you were mentioning, I I strongly believe in community. I think that everything in in art should be about the people. You know, we write stories about people. We people write stories about people for other people. It's everything about the people. Uh and I love connecting with people. I just love uh like you know, expanding the community, uh what I like to call the family, expanding la familia because I I believe that everything is about just at the end of the day, you know, after this podcast, after after we recorded it, this podcast, uh the only thing that I'm gonna really keep from this podcast, even the podcast is gonna be out there. I mean, but the reality, the thing they're gonna keep after that is is you, the connection with you, you know. It's the same with a project when you're doing a show. I mean, that show you you might have a show off Broadway or Broadway, and then the show is gone. And the only thing that you keep after that is is the people you walk with, you know.

LisaHopkins: 4:03

That's that's so beautiful. I'm just gonna, we're done here. Okay, thank you. No, not at all. I'm not done. I'm not done, but you've just encapsulated my why. So there's I I believe there are no coincidences. I believe that we are here together for a reason. I don't even know why I asked you. You could ask me the same question. I'm not sure how you came into my orbit of thinking, but I thought, ah, I'd love to have a conversation with him. And you know, to full disclosure, I don't know that much about your music or you, um, although I've been really immersing myself in it since I knew I was going to speak with you and bravo. But but I just there was a like an instinctual feeling of I like to talk to him.

JaimeLozano: 4:51

Yeah, and I I I think that's something that have been really like important in my life. What when you just when one choice leads lead to the other one, when you just you just you don't think too much about it, you know, you just made choices and one choice like in theater, like action reaction, just you just go with the flow in some way, you know. Totally.

LisaHopkins: 5:12

I love it. So tell me a little bit about well, tell us all a little bit about your origin story. I think it'd be interesting to learn about you and and how you arrived here.

JaimeLozano: 5:22

Yeah, I am born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. It's a city in the north of Mexico, a few hours driving from uh from Texas, like three, four hours away from Texas. And I never came to New York City till I was like 28 years old. So back in the day when I was uh uh a child, when I was a teenager, I could never imagine doing what I'm doing now. I mean, like the word the word Broadway or musical theater uh or even New York, those words weren't part of my vocabulary. I didn't know what was New York, I didn't know what was Broadway, I didn't know what was musical theater. I was born in a very like modest family. I I won't say like poor, but but but we were like, I mean, my family really they worked really hard to to try to give me an education and try to raise me as best as they could, but I was never involved with anything like art related, you know. I was like, so uh it was what I'm doing now, as we were mentioned before. I I think my path was made from one from choices, you know, like one choice leading to the other one, and then that led me to to New York and to getting to know all this. But yeah, it it's it's it's it's crazy because no one in my family does anything like related with arts. Uh I wasn't like very involved. I would say when I was a kid, I didn't went to the theater maybe just once or twice. You know, it's not something that I could do when I was a kid. Um I like playing soccer when I was a kid, I like like other things, but but not really mu I I I love music. I have always loved music, uh and I have always enjoyed music a lot as a listener also, but I I could never expect to to be doing that for a living.

LisaHopkins: 7:24

Yeah. So what was your first experience? I mean, what was your first sort of we talked we talked already about intuition and following your gut. When for you, especially from a family that was not in the arts, your when was that feeling that said, oh, I'd like to maybe create, not just enjoy, but create this?

JaimeLozano: 7:45

You know, um funny thing, I was supposed to enroll in a criminology school. That was what I wanted to study for college, criminology. Uh I used to watch uh you know like these like shows like Lord and Order. Uh and I was really attracted to that kind of dynamic. But when when I was a teenager, I would say like when I was around um 16 years old, I was part of a of a choir in a church. I get involved with that, obviously, it was because when you're young, you do things, oh, because I want I want to get to know this girl, whatever. And so you I I get to go to this this this shorts and um and was part of this this choir. And it's when I realized that I had a uh like a decent voice. You know, I was good like like singing and doing harmonies. Harmonies was something that was kind of easy for me. I realized when I was in the court that I could do like a different vocal part and things like that. And so I started learning guitar when I was like 16 years old. Uh that was like my my the first instrument that I learned. That was like, let's say, like a one or two years before I was supposed to enroll to criminology school. When I was, I I even did the test, you know, like the admission test to enroll at school. And then when I was supposed to really like like now officially to enroll, something I mean, something in my head told me, I mean, you should wait. This is not what you want to do. And I was already part of the choir of this short choir, and I was playing guitar. So I took like a sabbatic year, and one year later, I decided to go to try music school. And my only my only precedent precedent, my only like you know, background was that I have been playing guitar for a couple of years and singing for a couple of years in this choir at a church. So when I went to enroll to music school, um I realized that most of like all of my classmates, they have been playing instruments since they were like four or five years old, you know. So I was the only one like like I felt like really like behind, you know, because they already knew how to side read, how to read music and all that. And I I didn't know. I was like learning, uh so they were like like reading music, and I was learning to read like to read music when they were already like doing it like very fluently, like side reading.

Speaker 01: 10:28

Yeah.

JaimeLozano: 10:28

So I realized that I needed to to you know like to to make up for for that for all the time that I that I that I wasn't involved in music. And I start like a really, like, really like studying like like crazy, like every single day, trying to make up for all the time that I was that I that I missed in some way because uh because I was just starting with music.

LisaHopkins: 10:52

That's it's it's so interesting because on so many levels, because most of the people I speak to um knew, like you said, from a very young age that, oh, I'm because most, not all of them, but most of them are Americans. So so they're very familiar, right? With or even even North Americans or even even British folk, they they're you know, they're aware of the culture. You come from a very, very different culture. And it's funny because I and it makes me wonder if the if not being influenced by that, by the big American Broadway yada yada yada, which is a very narrow and clear path, right? We're all taught if that's what you want to do, you gotta work hard, and then you gotta do this, and then you gotta learn that, and then you gotta audition here, and you gotta suck, you know. There's so many tropes and limiting beliefs that go with what the arts are and if you want to be on Broadway and so on. The fact that you that was not even in your head, but that you sort of found music, it sounds like, and then you realized, oh, I have a talent, and actually maybe I'm more interested in that than criminal law, maybe. And so, so you kind of, you know, you didn't go, well, I'm gonna be a musician, you know. You were like, I'm gonna check that out. And then, you know, you did the choir, you picked up the guitar, and then you're like, Oh, there's a music school, you know, you go, let's just see where I stand, right? I mean, that's interesting. Um, and then they, you know, you kind of let that make the choice. I have a feel I don't know you well enough yet, but I have a feeling that if the music school said, Yeah, you're not you're not strong enough, you you don't belong here, that you wouldn't necessarily have taken that as a hit. What would you have done? Actually, let me ask you that. What would you have done if you didn't get into the music school? Do you think?

JaimeLozano: 12:36

You know, I I'm a pretty uh I'm very easygoing in life. I don't like to say that. Uh, for example, uh, I know a lot of people that they say, oh, I I I I hate summer. And they're they like a winter versus uh summer people, you know, like things like that. Uh I don't care. For example, I don't care. I enjoy summer, I enjoy winter. Uh I I I enjoy like everything in life. I I like to say that you even have to enjoy when you're sad or when you're having trouble. So I'm it's it's you you should be able to enjoy every single moment in your life. When you are going through a through an issue, through a problem, and when you're going to something good also, when you're going through a through a challenge, you should be able to find a way to enjoy that. So I I I'm sure that I could find my my way eventually. Uh I'm glad that it was through music. And I do believe that it was in some way. I I won't say that it's destined to be like that, because it's have it haven't been easy. I mean, it's not something that some people will say you have a talent. Uh I I don't necessarily believe like in talent as as something that guide me. I do believe that I have some, you know, I'm good or I'm I'm fast doing something, you know, like I kind of learn quickly about music because I was able to, you know, to go fast and learn. Uh, but I I mean I don't have like a perfect pitch, you know, ear, or I don't like things like that that most of the musician, a lot of musicians they do because they have been doing that for all their lives. Uh funny story, when I was uh a kid, yeah, let's say I was around maybe um maybe seven, eight years old. Every Easter in um in Mexico, they used to broadcast this movie in one of the public channels called uh Jesus Christ Superstar. The 70s, the the film uh version of it. And I remember that I was I was like scrolling on the TV, different channels, you know. Uh I landed in that channel and watched that movie, and I say, What the hell is this? I don't understand what's going on, I don't like it, and I just go to the next channel, you know, because because being a kid, I couldn't understand it. It was interesting to me, like because I remember like like I remember the fact of see of watching that, but I remember that it wasn't like appealing to me. It was just interesting, but not appealing to the fact that I I got like you know, like grabbed by it. And I said, I don't understand why these people like in the middle of the desert singing and dancing, and uh so I I just changed the channel and and and um I wasn't like very, very, very uh um, you know, like I wasn't grabbed by it. And when I enrolled in music school, uh I was like nine, like 19 years old. So I start college a little bit late because I I decided to skip a year or two uh after trying uh to enroll in criminology school. Um because I was singing at uh at a church, the first thing that I when I went to to music school, I applied to be an opera singer. Even I was playing guitar, uh I have been always a little bit lazy, like practicing. I like playing music, but I I don't like too much like like practicing, you know, like scales and things like that. So this I I I thought, oh, I have a nice voice, I'm good with my ear, good enough. So I'm gonna go into opera singing. That's when I I wanted to be a uh a singer. I enjoy till today I really enjoy singing. And when I started school, I remember there was a flyer on the wall about auditions for a show. And and I said, Oh, I'm gonna go to audition. I mean, I guess it's like an opera or something like that. I'm studying opera. I went to audition, I got uh cast as part of the choir in the pit, not even uh not even as a singer on on stage, no, just in the pit. I I was I was cast, and uh that's the moment I fall in love with musical theater, and that show was you can tell me what show was what you tell me was the same show that I used to hate when I was a kid. No, that I that I couldn't watch. That's incredible. I would not have guessed that. That was that was Jesus Christ Superstar. Wow. So I I yeah, and Jesus Christ Superstar, that show that let's say maybe 10 years before I couldn't stand watching on TV that that show that I audition for, and I was part of, and thanks to that show I fell in love with musical musical theater, theater and storytelling.

LisaHopkins: 18:01

Wow. That's an incredible story. I'm hesitating because it's making my mind go. It's interesting because when you say you you wanted to go into criminology, we didn't talk about why, but let's just say you could understand what that was, and you you could understand that there was logic there that that it's so interesting because at the at the age when you first when you first saw Jesus Christ Superstar, it made you said it made no sense to you. So that's that's probably an important pattern for you. When when things don't make sense to you, you don't really worry about it, right? You just change the channel.

JaimeLozano: 18:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LisaHopkins: 18:47

So, but it's interesting that the the universe brought the same thing back to you, and it did make sense to you. And I'm I'm sort of feeling that maybe it's because you understood how you related to it. Because you were now a singer, so you could you could see yourself in it. Whereas in Jesus, when you see this movie with everybody singing, and you're not, you know, in it probably in a language you didn't understand very well either at the time. Exactly, yeah. Right? Let alone a cultural thing that was so random. You know, it's not your desert, that's not what it looks like in my desert. You're seven years old, so I I can imagine. But talk to me about that place where you know is it true that it's because you because you you you knew that you that you could fit. What was it about it? Because you must have, as you were singing, did you not ever hear anything else that made you kind of go, wow? It's funny that it was it's so cool that it was that thing, that it was the same show.

JaimeLozano: 19:51

Yeah, it was uh uh a full circle in some way. Uh I I don't know if it's because I I won't say that I'm someone who doesn't like things. I mean, when I was a kid, of course, I I couldn't understand it, and that's why I didn't like it. Yeah, but today I'm someone that I I try, I I think there's different lay levels in in and in the way that you have relationship with things, especially with art. Because I I I think I can I can like something that I completely don't understand. You know, like when you go to a show or when you listen to music and you feel there is something interesting, even you don't completely understand it, but you like the fact of whatever it is, the concept or whatever. Uh I do believe that, for example, there there are things that are very well done, that the craft and the skills and everything behind the show or the song or the music is so well done that it's good or it's very it's very good, but I don't like it, yeah, you know, and I know that I like things that they are not very well done, yep. That's not you know, I yeah, but I I I try to be very objective at about that. I know that that show, sorry about the word, is a crap, but I like it, yeah, because other reasons, because I connect with the show on a personal level, because I like the story, maybe not a waste of, but uh I mean there's something I'm a crier, I always cry. I went to a magic show last night with my family, with my wife and my son, and I was crying the whole show. Oh, I was like amazed by by by by by the storytelling. It was beautiful because it was a show with a lot of storytelling, yeah. And he says something that it that that I really the that I also um feel really connected to. He said there's two kinds of people that the way that they connect with magic. One the dreamers, the one that just see the show and enjoy the show, and they don't question about it, they just are there. And the second is the skeptics, you know, the people that they want to find what what is the trick? Or I I yeah, so I I I consider myself in life the part of the first group, the dreamer. The ones I can go walk on the street and see someone singing or see the sunset or whatever, and just enjoy it. Yeah, uh my son taught me a very important lesson a few years ago. It was around Christmas. He still believes in Santa Claus, Santa Claus. Uh, and a couple of years, he's eight years old. He's turning nine in September. But a couple of years ago, like two, three years ago, from the from from nowhere, I don't know why he mentioned this, but he said, you know what, dada, he called me dada sometimes. You know, you know why I'm not sure if Santa is real, but I choose to believe in him. And I say, Yeah, I think my life has been like that. I still believe in Santa Claus today. Yeah, you know, I I think that you have to believe in things. I I I think with with my connection with music was something similar. Uh, that I I choose to believe in music. When I was a kid, I come from a very modest family, we didn't have a lot of money, but for for some reason I was able to get a scholarship in a private school. So all my elementary, middle, and high school, I I did it in a private school when all the people at that school they had some um financial um you know um privilege. Yeah, you know, I I used to be very bullied about it because I didn't have money and all these people they have money. So I wasn't very good making friends at school because of that difference. So um I wasn't very good speaking at with people, I wasn't very good like connecting with people. And for some reason, as the years passed, I realized you mentioned something about when I was watching the movie that I couldn't understand it also because because the language. Yeah, I I could I I actually learned English in New York when I came, that story comes later. But when I was accepted at Nguyu, I didn't I didn't speak English at all. So when I discovered music as a language and made a choice to enroll in this school and learn this language, I think that I realized that was the language that I needed to speak in order I could communicate with others. In order I I think that was I think this is the language that I'm gonna be fluent enough so I can now talk about myself because I couldn't do it before in Spanish when I was a kid, because I couldn't do it in any way. So I that's why I think that I make all these choices that led me into music.

LisaHopkins: 25:26

Yes. Yeah, that makes that makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. I would I would guess that if music didn't exist, if music wasn't a thing, that you would find somewhere else. I'm still thinking about what you said. I mean, we're gl we're glad that you did, because the world is enjoying your beautiful music, um, and learning about you and and your culture and all of that through through that through that channel, which is beautiful coming from you, from your heart. But it's when you talked earlier, when you said it stuck with me, you were saying, you know, we should be able, even in grief, to find joy and and so on and so forth. First of all, um it's funny because I am a very much about words, and when we say should, I call I should could with shame. Uh-huh. Because it makes you feel like if you don't, then you're then you're shameful. You're missing. And I understand what you meant, but and maybe that's just a nuance that's not important to you. But but it is interesting because I agree with you. Um, what I would say is you get to, if you open your eyes, you will realize that you know, there's rain and there's sun and there's all of these things happen simultaneously, don't they? Or not simultaneously, but they well, yes, it's a paradox. Life is is is a paradox. And if we only follow the grief, which we are actually hardwired to do, right? As as as uh humans, um, then you're right. You're absolutely right. We we miss the joy. We we we miss the joy, the inherent joy that is always there. It's just we don't choose to look at it. And don't we need more joy when we're grieving? That's when we actually really need the joy. We always think that joy is a place to, oh, as soon as I get over this grief, I'm gonna maybe find some joy. It's like, no, how can we blend some joy into the grief so that it dilutes it a little bit and helps us realize that it's all part of, you know, the essence of who we are. And and that's where I feel the the texture of life, right? Or the timbre of the music, or right? You like you don't just do happy music, or me as a coach, I don't just do positivity. You know, it's about shading, isn't it?

JaimeLozano: 27:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and and enjoying, like, for example, there was uh yeah, enjoying every moment that doesn't mean necessarily enjoying doesn't mean it's necessarily living with joy, but being able to just be in the moment uh and and let it be. But I think you you need to find a way to not rush anymore every moment, you know, like like everyone has different like like like timelines and different ways to live. Because now you've been in the states for how many years? I mean, 2007 was the first time that I came here. Do you still live in Mexico or do you live in New York? I live in New York, yeah, yeah. I live in New York, yeah, yeah, yeah. I came to study at NYU. It was a two-year program with a student visa. Then when I applied, I started working like what in musical theater like off Broadway and with the Broadway community and all that. And when I was applying for my artist visa, my lawyer was a scam. Oh he's he stole all my money. I wasn't able to get a visa, so I have to go back to Mexico like around 2011. Like in 2011, so I was here 2007 to 2011, and then I was living in Monterey. I was back in Monterey, like uh teaching at the university there. Then I met in Mexico uh this beautiful, talented, smart girl who's now my wife. Thanks to thanks to to my lawyer, that was a scam. I have to go to Mexico, and I met my wife, my my now wife wife there. I moved to Mexico City, and then we got married in 2015, and we came back. I was in Mexico from 2012, 1112 to 2015. Those years I was in Mexico, and then I came with my wife only for our honeymoon. We were supposed to be here from December 7th, 2015, to January 7, 2016. But two, three days before going back to Mexico, I told my wife again, I think we should stay. What if we if we stay? Yeah, and my wife said she's also an actress, uh performer, a writer. Uh, and she told me, Yeah, let's do it together, let's stay. We didn't have it, was January, January 2016. We have only one suitcase with no winter clothes. We didn't have savings. We didn't have an apartment. We didn't have jobs. We didn't have even a visa to we stay as tourists with our tourist visa. And we decided to stay. That was January. A few weeks or a month later, we realized because we we were here for our honeymoon. So we we realized that our honeymoon was very successful and she was pregnant. And um that was February 2016. We didn't know should we stay or go back. So we decided to stay. Even we were pregnant, we decided to stay. Our son was born here in New York in um September 27, 2016. Before that, I had to apply again for our artist visa. I reconnected with my friends from back back from the time I was living in New York when I was at NYU and after I graduated, and after getting a few jobs, gigs, blah, blah, blah. And I was able to pay for a lawyer, now a good lawyer, and I was able to get my artist visa in 2016. Um, but yeah, that that was my whole like um journey as immigrant. Uh I consider my mission, most of the work that I have been doing since I started like working on musical theater, is telling stories about myself of people like myself, of my community. That's why I have this project called Songs by an Immigrant, where all the stories are about the immigrant experience. And if you get to know my musicals, right now I'm writing a musical about Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo that is this big Mexican artist, you know. Or I have another musical called El Otro Oz, the other Oz, that is a Latin adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. I have another musical called Roja, that is a Mexican adaptation of Red Little Riding Hood. Uh or Little Red Riding Hood, yeah. Uh I have um, yeah, like most of my musicals or my or my songs in some way are influence or tell the story of my community or my background, and I use Mexican or Latino music mixed with musical theater or some uh you know, some other kind of music like jazz or things like that. Uh, but who I am is always there, you know. I I consider myself and they ask me a lot, uh oh, so you only you only write about Mexican or Latin uh subjects or things, you only can do that. And I say, no, I I can do, I mean, I can't I could write a story like Phantom of the Opera or or whatever or Les Miss or whatever. I mean, I I could I could write like other kind of fiction that is not necessarily related with my background, but I also feel strongly connected right now that it's important because I didn't, as I mentioned before, Broadway and all that wasn't in my vocabulary. Yeah, and then I realized that for a lot of people that they have even been born in the United States, Broadway and um musical theater and uh art is not either in their vocabulary because they haven't seen someone like that look like them on stage or doing the thing that they or doing things like that. So a lot of like Mexican Americans or people with perfect English that they they haven't had the chance, the opportunities to see themselves in positions that other people has have been, you know. So I think representation is really important, and that's why I have been doing this focusing on these kind of stories and this kind on and the kind of story that I'm telling, because I want people to see themselves on stage or to hear themselves on on these songs, you know. That's why uh that's why language has been so important for me. And I do a lot of I still write songs in Spanish or songs in Spanglish, or uh, or I encourage people in my shows to have their accent. If they have an accent and it's right for the character, they should use their accents, uh, and things like that that I think that is important that we need to welcome into the storytelling, you know? Yeah.

LisaHopkins: 34:55

Yeah, no, for sure. I think that's that's that's a wonderful mission. Um, and and very important. I'm curious to know, you named a lot of projects that you have going, and I'm curious to know, does that excite you? How do you decide which which way energetically you want to go? When you sit down to work and you don't have a deadline particularly, you're just self-motivating yourself, you have all these ideas and projects. How do you how do you choose? What's your process? Do you do you like to work alone? Do you like to work, you know, uh do you need quiet? Do you work at night? I'm just so curious.

JaimeLozano: 35:32

Uh I'm very bad organizing myself. I have definitely deficit of attention. For example, I have these three, four, or five projects at the same time. Sometimes I'm working on one project for half an hour, and for some reason, I I got an idea for another song for another project. So I just switch, I go to the next to the other project. Yeah, and then I go back and forth. You know, I can be like more of a certain period period of time just focusing on one project. I I'm always doing everything at the same time. That's some that's very bad because I mean that's the way I work, but I I would say that instead of yeah, instead of you know, like working this in this project and just you know, like getting this project to here, I'm like doing this with all the projects, you know, like like small steps, like small steps with every single project at the same time. Also, I have a uh eight-year-old son. During the pandemic, we spent 24 hours, yeah, yeah, like 24-7 together, you know, like like and I was writing songs, and my son was at home the whole time, and he wanted to play with me, and he wanted to be on top of me. He wanted to he wanted me to put attention to what he was doing. So let's say I was writing a song, I was doing maybe the verse, verse, and then he was on top of me, and we were playing, and then I was, yeah, I I went to do something else, and then I go back to another project, not to the same song I was working before, but uh I oh I have to work in this project, and I move to another project, and then he has the TV or like all the volume up, and then so I have learned to work and enjoy, enjoy whatever are the circumstances around me. I can work. We are just back from a writer's resident. I think we went upstate to Rhinebeck, to this house in the middle, just by the lake, in the middle of the woods, with with my creative team, even with my son and my wife, because I'm uh my wife is directing that show, and we were there in the middle of nowhere griding, but we have to find time to go and play soccer because my son wanted to play and things like that. And there are other times that I like sitting in the middle of Times Square with all the noise and just griding in Times Square. I love Times Square. I have a uh something like this weird relationship with Times Square. I know most of people hate Times Square. More of people, most of the people living in New York, they hate Times Square, but I kind of love what it means, and I love the energy, and I like going there and just spend time there. Uh, so as I mentioned before, I enjoy summer, I enjoy winter, I enjoy being by myself writing, I enjoy being in a noisy environment also writing. Sometimes, sometimes I'm writing a song, and my son is in the living room that is the same room where I'm working, uh dancing through another song. Yeah, even I'm writing a completed original song right now, and usually I don't get mad, usually I don't tell him, Hey, oh, please, please stop listening now to music, or please uh whatever. Usually I just let it go. There's special occasions that I I need to ask him, oh, can you please lower the music? Or can you stop listening to music or can you stop watching the TV right now because I need to focus in a different way on this? But usually I don't care about that and I just keep going. Um I don't know if that's good or bad. I just that it's just the way that I I'm doing it.

LisaHopkins: 39:35

Yeah. Yeah, like you said, it's just the way you are. If you could change it, would you?

JaimeLozano: 39:40

I don't know. Maybe I I don't know. I actually live just outside New York, just crossing the river in Union City, New Jersey. Uh it's a small apartment, a little bit bigger than living in in the city, but it's a small apartment. Of course, I would like to have my own recording studio. Uh but I don't know. I I kind of enjoy the moment I am at. Eventually, if I have if I'm able to move to a bigger place and I have a room just for me to work in that room, I I could yeah, I could, I I could take it, but it's not something I'm worried about it right now. It's not I don't need of other things to make things happen. Yep. I'm gonna make things happen with whatever I have right now.

LisaHopkins: 40:30

Yeah. I mean, I think I think you're really talking about your definition of living in the moment.

JaimeLozano: 40:35

Yeah, yeah. That has been my mantra for yeah, for for good or for bad. Uh I I I'm always go with with my honest choice, with my honest decision. I don't think too much. No. I I do it, but I I go with my with my God. I I go with with whatever is inside me is telling me at the moment to to do. Uh, sometimes it's very extreme. For example, back in the day when we moved together to New York with my wife, I remember that they invited me to do a project in in Paris, in France. They told me, we're gonna pay you a little stipend here, we're gonna put you in a room, we're gonna pay your living expenses, but we don't have a budget to fly you. My son was a few months old. I remember that I have the money to pay my rent, and I decided to buy the flight to go to Paris instead of paying my rent. Because I needed to say, they told me, yes or no, do you want to come? Uh okay, yes. My wife was flying with me and my son, the three of us together. And I say, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy the flight to go to Paris to this project. I didn't have a stable job by the time. But I knew that I I needed to take that choice. I took that choice, and a few weeks later I found whatever project, I put together the money and I paid the rent. And I I don't know. Uh as I mentioned at the very beginning of this conversation, I believe that one choice has led me to the other one, and that is the reason why I'm here now talking to you.

LisaHopkins: 42:18

Mm-hmm. Absolutely. No, I I agree with that. And it's it's interesting because what comes up for me when I'm listening to you is it sounds like you don't worry about things you can't control, like the weather. You are aware when things that you don't know what the outcome will be, that you you can influence by putting yourself in it, like buying a ticket, making those choices. So it's that and it sounds like you're open to it because you don't worry about things you can't control. So you're not saying, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go to Paris because then I'm gonna do this and do that. And even when I asked you if you didn't work the way you worked, you're like, well, I mean, I wouldn't mind having a studio, but you you were very disconnected from that. I mean, you know, you're like, it's fine. It's you know, and it's not like it didn't sound like it's fine, like, no, no, I'm I'm okay, you know, like it didn't sound like that. It sounded like you're really totally fine. You're quite happy with where you are, you're not attached to where you are being connected to where you want to go because you trust that where you are and be putting your energy in where you are now will take you wherever, right? Is that kind of what I'm hearing?

JaimeLozano: 43:37

Yeah, yeah. And also in in in life, I think that I I have learned I could say that I really care about what I do. I really care about it, yeah, but I don't give up F. Yes, you know you know what I mean? Yes, it's like I do I really care. It's not that I don't care, yes, but I'm not of obsessed with whatever it's the you know, it's yep, this is not gonna, it's not death or life, you know. It's that's it. Let's say I have learned like that if if I don't make it to the deadline, there's gonna be always a tomorrow, you know? So I I'm not gonna kill myself. Uh and I'm not saying that I don't fulfill my deadline. What I'm saying is when for because my process, I I try to be very honest with what I do. I I think that that is the only if it's it's something for sure you're gonna find in my songs, in my projects, or in any whatever I do, is that everything comes from honesty. I I try I'm very honest with what I do. Yep. I have learned that whatever happens, it's okay. You know, it's it's I I'm gonna find a way to to make it true or to or to to find a way to to go to another path uh when things don't go the way that you plan it, that something is hard, that doesn't things don't go the way you want to. Uh and I really care about it, but as I say before, as I say before, with a stronger language, I don't give an F about that. I care about it, but not in a crazy way. Yep. And I think that that that's that's the way that I have been trying to to to lead myself into my journey. Yes. And also other don't forget what is important in your life. Never quit what is important for something that is urgent. You know what I mean? It's what is important, important is my son, important is my family, important is my health. What is urgent? Maybe a deadline, maybe a phone call that I agreed to have. Think that they're supposed to happen, but it's more important my son. So I know I'm never gonna try to do something that is urgent instead of something that is important.

LisaHopkins: 46:09

Yeah, that's brilliant.

JaimeLozano: 46:10

I mean, I think how do you want to be remembered? Being an artist, and we are we always have a lot of ego in some way, and of course, we want to be remembered for our art, you know, because at the end we do what we do, not to have it in a box in our apartment. You know, we we do it so other people listen to our songs or come to our shows, and they could they can remember what we do. So that's in some kind of our legacy. But I would say that I would like to be remembered by my son. I mean, I think that is beyond if people out there remember who I who I am or my music or my shows, as long as my son remembers me as his dad. And that good or not as good human being I have been, I think that is enough. Because he's gonna be able to pass the legacy. I mean, he is he's the one who is gonna take over, and if I'm doing any any good, he's gonna be a uh good person. And that and at the end, right now, I think that's the only thing I really care.

LisaHopkins: 47:34

What would you say you're most afraid of?

JaimeLozano: 47:37

Hmm. I'm I'm afraid of many things. In in in I'm gonna go first to the practical side. For example, I'm not I'm not a very uh extreme guy. I don't like like extreme activities like uh like getting into the ocean and swim or like roller coasters, like those kinds of like like like extreme activities. Uh I'm not I'm not a fan of. The thing that doesn't scare me, it's to to be myself. I think that's something that doesn't scare me. And I think that thing that scares me the most is again, I'm gonna I'm gonna I have to go with my son again. What is gonna the life that he's gonna have? You know, that that the thing that is not on our control that maybe doesn't allow him to be himself.

LisaHopkins: 48:31

What what would your younger self be proud of? If you think about that seven-year-old self that first saw Jesus Christ Superstar and went, eh, and now where you are now, what do you think he might be proud of? Or or what he would think about where where you are now?

JaimeLozano: 48:47

I think he in general he will be he would be proud of the man I have become. Why? All the kids used to bully me. I wasn't I wasn't very good communicating, talking, and now I can't believe that I am living in the biggest city in the world right now, like being very fluent in a language that I could never imagine to be speaking, yep, having this conversation with you, leading projects, you know, like like being some kind of uh I I I consider myself a leader in the community, you know, in what I do. I'm an advocator also. I'm I'm an advocator for my community, for the Latin community, for Latin stories, for my people. I have been working hard and making choices, trying to uplift my community and uplift my stories and finding opportunities for myself and for my people, for my family and for my community. And as a kid, I uh I don't think that my kid version could imagine that I would I could be what I am today. So I think he would be very proud of me just being who I am, even with all my you know, all my not very good sides that as a human being we all have. I think the only fact that being in this city, doing a living, doing what I love and and speaking up and communicating what I feel and being honest about it, uh, he could be very proud of that.

LisaHopkins: 50:27

Yeah, for sure. Hey, if we were to talk, I don't know, 10 years from now, and you were and you're like, Lisa, oh my god, I'm so excited. This is what's happened in my life since we last spoke. What would we be celebrating?

JaimeLozano: 50:41

I I would like to keep celebrating who I am as I as I am, you know, yeah, with with all my background, with all who I am. Uh and again, this is not coming uh from an from an ego place or something, but as an artist and as a human being, I could love I I I I'm always using my platform and my art to speak about whatever is going on, you know, in society, you know, like all my shows in some way. I I I strongly believe believe that art should be a reflection of the times we are living. Uh so I always say that oh I I would love to be famous, not by the fact of being famous, but because I know that if I get a bigger platform, first all my family and my closer circle, I can be able to pay back to my to you know to all those friends, like like these albums that I'm doing now, this concert. I have in this group of amazing friends that they are recording for me sometimes for free, or I pay them a little bit less than well what they deserve, you know, or sometimes we do concerts and they say, Oh, I'm gonna sing this one for free. Don't worry, because I believe in in you and your project, and things like that. Or designers, I have this designer, she has been designing all my the covers of my albums and and many of my posters for free, sometimes for many, many years, and sometimes I'm able to pay him a little bit, like things like that. That I know that if I get to another level, I could be able to give work to all of them that is well paid, you know, to be able to if I do good, the people around me is gonna be good, it's gonna do good. So I hope that one day I can be celebrating me like being in a better place so that people around me can be also be in a better place. And also because the way that more people I I know that some people listen to me and they listen to my songs, that they come to my concert right now. We have this big challenge that we're be we're doing this big room that we have haven't done before. And I'm I'm afraid of that we might not be able to get a lot of people in that room, maybe, because it's not a lot of people know me yet. So I hope that tomorrow in 10 years, more people get to know who I am and my stories, not because I wanted to know me, but because I wanted to know what we can do as a community, you know, together. And I think that that that is important. I would like to celebrate myself and my community for the things that we're doing and where we are getting to places. I think that that that that that is something I would like. If if if I have to be more specific, yeah, I could like to have a Broadway show that hopefully is what happened with one of my shows in a couple of years or two, three, four years. I don't know. I could like to fill a big room like Carnegie Hall or things like that. Uh I could like like millions of people streaming to my music or buying my albums. Uh, but more than that, I think it's about the community, like like how to translate that into the impact that I can have in the community.

LisaHopkins: 54:22

Yeah, 100%. Impact is exactly the word that was in my head. Most people think that I am fill in the blank, but the truth is that I am.

JaimeLozano: 54:35

Uh oh, it was I I'm gonna tell you the answer that my wife told me. This is not a good answer because I I was I was talking with my wife, and uh, I'm not gonna give the answer that I gave. I'm gonna give that one. She told me, most people think that I'm friendly. What would she say? That's what he she said. I don't know why. But yeah, I kind of like introvert, extrovert, yeah, like this weird personality that uh it's weird because sometimes we are with our friends in this like friendly reunions, and I'm just like quiet, not saying anything. And then you see me right now talking to you, like being very friendly, a bit open, and and in my concerts, I'm also like making fun, making jokes, I'm very, very open. Yeah, it it's it's yeah. I I yeah, I I I kind of like his her answer uh about that because uh that's the way that I explain it. That that that yeah, as human beings, we're complicated, right? We it and and everything as long as we don't hurt others, I think that it's okay. It's okay to be sometimes a little bit introvert and uh sometimes a little bit extrovert and to change ideas and to shame things uh as long as we're not hurting others.

LisaHopkins: 55:54

Yep. Let's do this. The um I'm gonna say what makes you and I'm gonna say a word, and then you just say whatever comes to your mind. Yeah?

JaimeLozano: 56:04

Okay.

LisaHopkins: 56:05

So what makes you hungry?

JaimeLozano: 56:09

Uh work.

LisaHopkins: 56:11

What makes you sad?

JaimeLozano: 56:18

What is happening in the world right now?

LisaHopkins: 56:20

What inspires you?

JaimeLozano: 56:24

Everything around me, uh especially my family.

LisaHopkins: 56:29

What makes you frustrated? Um Injustice. What makes you lowercase frustrated? So okay. What makes you irritated? What irritates you in your day-to-day life?

JaimeLozano: 56:50

Oh, um lack of commitment. Lack of what? Commitment. Of commitment.

LisaHopkins: 57:00

Love it. What makes you laugh?

JaimeLozano: 57:03

And my son.

LisaHopkins: 57:04

What makes you angry?

JaimeLozano: 57:07

I don't get angry a lot, that's why it's hard to to to to answer. Because I say I always enjoy everything. I I could say uh um I I could say that that people don't be able to enjoy things.

LisaHopkins: 57:26

I'm smiling because when I became a coach and we were doing our training, everybody, it was easy for them to to to catch on to their the what they called their inner critic and their gremlin and and all the things that made them and I was like I had such a hard time. I said, I don't know, I don't know what makes me angry. And and and I I searched and I searched, and then I realized, or I, you know, when I when I found something, what what makes me angry or frustrates me, what makes me lower energy and lower frequency is when people can't see what I see, not because I want to be right, but because it's so beautiful out here.

JaimeLozano: 58:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

LisaHopkins: 58:14

Yeah. So when you said that, I was like, yes.

JaimeLozano: 58:18

Yes.

LisaHopkins: 58:19

Do you ever get angry at yourself?

JaimeLozano: 58:24

I I gotta say I got frustrated with myself sometimes. Sometimes not not maybe not angry, but yeah, frustrated.

LisaHopkins: 58:31

Hmm. Do are you comfortable telling me what frustrates you about?

JaimeLozano: 58:36

I would say what what when um when I'm not being able to figure out to figure things out, uh let's say how to help my son with something, or how to help my wife with something. When I I'm not able to provide. Yeah, I have always this arguing with my wife. When my wife has a problem or an issue, I always want to fix it. Yeah, I always give an answer, a solution, and then he gets mad and tells me, I don't want you to fix it for me. I don't I'm just telling you how I feel. I'm gonna find a solution, don't worry. I just want you to listen. And I always want to, I don't want others to to suffer. I don't want others to to to go to complic through complicated things, and I always want to to give solutions. So at the moment, when they really need a solution or when they really need something to get fixed, and I can find the answer, I think that gets me bro, like frustrated. Yeah. What makes you grateful? Being where I am today. I'm grateful for today.

LisaHopkins: 59:44

I think you're just gonna be the poster child for my stop time mantra. No, it's great. I mean it's that's it's beautiful. Because what else what else do we have, right?

JaimeLozano: 59:54

Yes.

LisaHopkins: 59:55

That's so beautiful. What are the what are the top three things that have happened so far today?

JaimeLozano: 1:00:01

One, uh when when my son woke up and come to kiss me on my sheriff. Two, because I I was running a little bit late for this podcast. Usually I I make coffee to my wife like around like in the morning or around noon, I made the coffee. And today, because I was late. I I put the coffee, but I didn't finish her coffee, so she finished the coffee. And she was she was the one who made coffee for me today because I was late for this. But usually I do it every single day for her. And three, I was sending the material uh for as I mentioned before to all my to all my musicians, all the scores. And one of my musicians realized there was uh uh a mistake in some of his his music that was good because he realized it today and not during the rehearsal. He checked that he checked his music right away. He told me, Oh, I think this is wrong and this is wrong. So I told him, Oh, let me fix it right away. And I was fixing it this morning right away, and I sent him back the correct versions. So I think those three things.

LisaHopkins: 1:01:12

Yeah, that's cool. I love that. You know, it's it's not a lot of people when when I ask them that, it slows them down, but it makes them panic because they think, oh, I don't know, it's early, or or I, you know, nothing, you know, or they're they're like they have a criteria for what you know great things are supposed to be. But what it does is it brings you closer to gratitude. Like we can be grateful for opening our eyes in the morning or for, you know, and that and what you described with your wife. I mean, that is that's beautiful. I mean, that is truly something to be grateful for, right? Or to be to be something, I mean it's a gratitude exercise, really, isn't it?

JaimeLozano: 1:01:49

Yes.

LisaHopkins: 1:01:50

But it was no surprise that it was easy for you. Um, as we finish, I um I like to ask, what's one thing that you're looking forward to today? Later today, and what's one thing in the future that you're looking forward to?

JaimeLozano: 1:02:07

I think later today, because I'm done with this, a lot of work that we have to do to prepare for that concert. Yeah, I'm gonna go out with a soccer ball to play with my son. I love it. Sometimes he asks me every single day, and there's some days that I can't do it. Uh and he gets a little bit mad. But you promised me, I'm sorry. Sometimes some days I can't do it. But I think today is early in the day, and uh we have time to do that. So uh I yeah, I'm gonna do that. We're gonna go to the park to play some ball.

LisaHopkins: 1:02:42

That sounds amazing. That sounds amazing. Yeah, it has been such a pleasure speaking with you.

JaimeLozano: 1:02:47

My pleasure, my pleasure. I love the title of your show, and now I'm connecting that the script for the show was perfect. Based on the title and everything, yeah. I I love this conversation. Thank you for your beautiful energy, for your beautiful vibe. And and and um, yeah, uh call me as one of your friends now. Anything you need, I'm here.

LisaHopkins: 1:03:10

So tell me, is it tell me how to say your name again? Jaime Lozano. Jaime Lozano. I want to say that right. I have been speaking today with Jaime Lozano. I'm Lisa Hopkins. Stay safe and healthy, everyone, and remember to live in the moment. In music, stop time is that beautiful moment where the band is suspended in rhythmic unison, supporting the soloist to express their individuality. In the moment, I encourage you to take that time and create your own rhythm. Until next time, I'm Lisa Hopkins. Thanks for listening.