Bullseye Mentality: Aaron Matsuura’s Shot at Music Greatness

With thousands of musicians saturating streaming apps, venues, and social media platforms, being a “good” artist is no longer enough to make it in the industry. Today’s artists must also be content creators, entrepreneurs, and marketers. In this difficult industry, local artist Aaron Matsuura is redefining what it means to be a musician today.

Matsuura sees the music industry as both an art and an enterprise. With a background in sales, he brings a unique edge to the industry, allowing him to experiment with how he fits into the market and how he can best find success within it.

“We're fighting one of the biggest battles in business making music as an artist,” he says. “Growing as an individual, growing your Instagram, and meeting the right people is a lot. I wanna make a machine that just wins every single time.”

And he’s making a machine alright. Beyond his producing, Matsuura has a YouTube channel, relationships with artists of all genres, and tremendous musical talent. Along with this, he continues to grow his presence in the Arizona music scene by doing pop-up shows and events at local venues. Hoping to be the Jack Antonoff of his generation, his work ethic is relentless, his momentum compounding over the last year.

Although his success seems to have come easy, Matsuura wasn’t always sold on a music career, and it wasn't until recently that he chose to stick with it. His dad encouraged him to follow in his footsteps and learn classical guitar, but Matsuura hated it with the strength of a thousand suns. During the SoundCloud boom of 2016, he began producing music instead and his passion for music reignited. After graduating college, starting a career in sales, and experiencing the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, producing became a true turning point for him.

“I was going to explode if I didn't have something to do,” he says.

As he slowly got back into making music, he transitioned into producing full time, joining bands and collaborating with fellow artists. Now, as a full-fledged professional in the music industry, Matsuura extends his reach beyond the alternative rock and house EDM genres he specializes in. As a producer, he experiments with everything from afro-beats to girly pop, collaborating with musicians from every genre, a process that creates the perfect storm to flex both his musical ability and his business background.

While Matsuura understands the challenge of being a musician in today’s economy, he knows he will find success within it.

“I know this is going to happen; it's going to be hard work, and one day I’ll hit the bullseye. After that, everything will be different.”

Whether it's on YouTube, TikTok, SoundCloud, or on the stage, watch out for Aaron Matsuura, because he’s throwing darts at the dartboard until he nails a bullseye.