[ep 096] Priscilla Jimenez on creative flow, the evolution of music and tech & remembering your roots

Priscilla Jimenez has a sharp intelligence and curious gaze, and to call her talented is an understatement. She’s the founder of Push More Buttons—a multidisciplinary creative studio merging music, tech, and design—as well as a music producer and DJ. An established creative & art director, Priscilla has designed work for Madonna, Eric Clapton, and My Chemical Romance, as well art directed for clients Pinkberry, TNT, TBS & more.

Born to parents who immigrated to Los Angeles from Mexico, her upbringing was shaped by a vibrant East LA culture. Her mother was a seamstress and her father an upholsterer, working hard to build a life for Priscilla and her brothers. She spent childhood summers in Ensenada, Mexico, where her parents are from, a memory she recalls in detail to this day. 

Priscilla spent solo time as a kid watching films and playing with photography, media & computers. Her music love began with her siblings and an uncle, who influenced her through the genres they listened to and instruments they played—when she was 14, one of her brothers got into DJ-ing and opened her up to a new world of music-making.    

In her early 20s, a mentor encouraged her to apply for a @warnerrecords internship—the creative director there hired her full-time, before she left for the ArtCenter College of Design. She began posting DJ routines on her YouTube channel, racking up millions of views, and eventually created her own agency after landing scholarships from Kit Hinrichs of Pentagram and working at other agencies.

In this episode, we get deep into why cooking for others is so important to her, how music & creativity wove into her life as a kid, and what’s currently emerging at the intersection of music and technology. We explore her approach to blending systematic thinking with free-flowing creativity and love letters to her family & East LA.

[TIMESTAMPS]

3:40 - Growing up

17:11 - Where her love for music came from

21:37 - The origins of Push More Buttons

31:15 - Her creative process and if she feels that its the same with music production 

37:23 - What she is seeing in music and technology that is piquing her interest 

42:04 - How she has seen the music industry has evolved

45:32 - Love letters to her family and East LA

47:19 - Final Question

48:47 - Where to find her

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