An Interview With The Award-Winning Actor and New Recording Artist, REINALDO ZAVARCE!

Reinaldo Zavarce aka “Peche”is an award-winning actor and recording artist. He is a multi-talented musician with a fast growing social media audience on both Instagram and Twitter. He is now preparing the release of his first musical project as a solo artist. His new original single “FOOL” is a departure from his musical group of ISA TKM. He is also set to release two new singles in early 2018.

Best known for his starring role as Alex in the hit Nickelodeon Latin America/Sony Pictures/MTV Tr3s drama series ISA TKM, the show, dubbed the “Latin American High School Musical” by the New York Times, became a phenomenon among teens across the Americas (US included), and was #1 demographic in over 28 countries in its first season. The Los Angeles Times deemed the fan frenzy around the show and its cast the “Isamania”. Zavarce won 4 Kids Choice Awards including favorite actor twice, and was featured on the covers of the biggest magazines across Latin America and Brazil. Zavarce recently appeared in episodes of CW’s Jane The Virgin and Cartoon Network’s Level Up, and a supporting role on “The Ingenious Gentleman Of La Mancha” starring James Franco.

Learn more about Reinaldo Zavarce in the following All Access interview:

Happy New Year! Thanks for your time today! Where does this interview find you?

I’m Home! It’s crazy to say it, because I’m in Los Angeles right now! I’ve been living here for a while now. Since the first time I came just to check it out for a bit to 6 years now.

Overall, how do you think 2017 was for you and your music career? What are you most excited about for this year? Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? Care to share them with us?

I think it was an amazing year! I recorded a bunch of songs I love, I released my first single as a solo artist and closed with a solid strategy to release more music in 2018.

My New Year’s resolutions… The main one is to always feel grateful with whatever destiny has prepared for me. Sometimes we’re up there and sometimes we are not. But from every moment on…the way we learn, we grow, we evolve, we get stronger… For that I want to be grateful no matter what.

Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Can you recall your earliest musical memory? Was there a time where you thought of doing something completely different?

I did but It really just happened. It wasn’t something I was consciously pursuing. One day I learned how to play the guitar and then I started writing songs. My friend from High School was putting together a band and invited me to sing. I liked it so much that I joined “Las Gaitas” from my school Colegio Claret in Venezuela. It’s a tradition where every school has a musical group that plays typical Christmas Venezuelan music. We won a bunch of competitions. It was a really fun beginning. Later on I had my own rock band and then I was acting on a Nickelodeon musical TV show and it was such a hit across Latin America that we ended up getting many platinum and gold records. It was crazy. We toured all over Latin America and Brasil! Brasil was really fun. I went back many times with different projects. My own rock band and now… Now it’s just me, and I feel that the most exciting is yet to come!

I always like to ask artists about where they came from and how that city or town has influenced them as an artist now. So how do you think your home has affected you and your music today?

I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. Then I lived in Colombia for a while and had more than brief stops in Mexico, Brasil and Miami where I stayed for a year before moving here to LA. I think every place influenced me a lot. And I think that’s why my music has so many different flavors. If you hear to each song, there’s a line that tie them all together but there’s also a ton of different base sounds that I wanted in. Also have had the opportunity to also mix people from different places to be in my songs, produce my songs… There’s people from the US, Peru, Brasil, Venezuela and even Indonesia.

What was the inspiration for your new song, “FOOL”? How do you think it’s such a departure from your work with your previous group, ISA TKM?

I wrote FOOL about a girl who doesn’t want to fall in love with me because she’s afraid of getting hurt. This wasn’t really happening to me at the moment that I wrote the song, but literally started happening to me when I started writing the music video, so the music video is basically my life 2 months ago haha… I guess this song is the perfect transition from who I was and the music I made before and what I’m doing right now. And in that sense, FOOL is a very important song for me because it expresses the transition towards the music that I’m about to release right now!

What has been the easiest and most challenging thing to get used to as a solo artist? Do you find that you are enjoying being solo more now?

The fact that I’m doing exactly me. Exactly what I design is definitely the easiest. But the most challenging is that you are on your own… At least until you decide to have a team! But at the very beginning I would say that’s the hardest part.

How do you think being on ISA TKM has helped you become the artist that you are today? Can you remember what you were even like when you first landed that role?

YES! For sure. I think ISA TKM helped me see the real music industry. The radios, TV Shows, big award shows, etc. It gave me the experienced of performing for over 100K people all over the continent! I remember I was driving going on a vacation when my manager told me! I got really excited and didn’t even know the magnitude of the impact we were gonna have in Latin America!

I am such a huge fan of Jane The Virgin so I was excited to learn that you recently appeared in a few episodes of it. What was that experience like for you? Do you think that you will be back on it in the future? (I am behind on watching it so no spoilers! )

haha… Thanks! I did 2 episodes already and loved it. They said they could bring me back for some more so let’s see. I love the show too, so… Fingers crossed!

You have a very fast growing social media following so I am curious what you think about it all? Has it been difficult to stay on top of? How often are you updating all your accounts? Do you try to have fun with it all? 

Thanks! I think social media is such a great tool to share what you do. Whatever it is. From music to cooking, or just talking about yourself and your experiences on camera. I think social media has changed the world in such a way and it has the power to be used for good, so I use it all the time and have fun with it because I know that the more I grow my accounts, the more positive influence I can have on people about things that from my perspective can change the world in a positive way.

I update my accounts every week. Sometimes every day. It really depends on what I’m working on and if I feel in the mood 🙂

Where do you find that you at your happiest- on stage performing, in the studio recording music, writing songs or elsewhere?

I’m happy at every part of the process. Each one of the ones you name are rewarding in such a different way. The adrenaline of performing, the completion of recording and the empowerment of writing…  Love them all.

We are living in a crazy and at times rough world right now so I am curious how you think being a musician gives you the most joy in life today? How do you think that new music being created today is going to reflect these difficult times? 

Music is so important in my life. Especially through these crazy and at times rough world. Music can speak out for us as a protest. Music can take us away from our problems for a bit and simple entertain us. It can reveal things about us. Problems. Needs. Music is everything. So, I’d say that people will still today create new love songs that will make us fall in love, and protest songs that will remind us where we are and to speak up. It will still come in every shape and form.

Who are some of your favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? What musicians would you absolutely still love to work with in the future?

Michael Jackson is always the first name that pops up in my head of course. And there are so many many artists in so many different genres that I could mention but today I really love what The Weekend is doing, Choclock, Jesse Baez, Lana Del Rey, and would love to work with all of them of course!

What do you hope your fans take away from your music? Do you find that a lot of your music has a greater meaning behind it? 

I’m making music in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian language… I want them to take that there should be no frontier for what you want to accomplish. We live in a world that is tied together online. So globalized. Everything is possible.

Where can fans see you perform next? What are some of your first few tour dates in 2018?

We are planning the dates right now. Most likely, my next performance might be in Miami and then Brasil but there’s no dates confirmed yet!

Is there anything else that you would like to share about yourself or your music with our readers?

Get ready! 2018 is gonna be crazy! I’m releasing 4 singles in the next 6 months! That’s what’s up.