Sara Gonzalez, or, per her Spotify profile, Sara the G, has been pursuing a music career for nearly five years now. The Paisano had the opportunity to interview Gonzalez. Born and raised in San Antonio, Gonzalez moved around quite a bit, so she feels her art reflects a little bit of all aspects of the countdown city.

Creativity has been paramount to Gonzalez’s life. She currently sells visual art and creates music. She also directed a music video in 2023 for her song, “Melatonin.” When she was younger, though, her artistic career almost took a very different path. 

“I’ve always been so creative,” Gonzalez commented about her artistic origins. “I don’t know. I would always draw as a kid. Actually, when I was little, I wanted to be a fashion designer, so all I would draw was just mannequins and clothes. I did that for the longest time when I was little.”

Upon entering college, Gonzalez wanted to explore film, specifically cinematography. She enrolled at UT San Antonio in the fall of 2017, but because there was no film degree, Gonzalez opted for business. Eventually, she left UT San Antonio in her second year to invest time and energy into her other creative outlets, but she still holds film close to her heart.

Her 2024 song, “Bangz,” refers to Lord Farquaad from the “Shrek” movie series, and the art for the single features Gonzalez in a green dress lined with gold fabric reminiscent of Fiona from the film. Before her interview with The Paisano, Gonzalez was rewatching “Shrek 2,” a nod to her love for cinema and the iconic ogre. 

She currently works as a bartender, but her creative endeavours are much more than an avocation. Gonzalez’s creativity is both an urge and necessity.

“It just comes out of me,” Gonzalez said. “I feel like I don’t really have a choice. It’s just something that happens.”

Equipped with some crayons, markers and pencils, Gonzalez expressed herself and the world around her through a visual medium. However, her desire to produce art was just too much for her to contain herself to one medium. In her early teens, she ventured into music. 

“In middle school, I was in orchestra — and in high school,” she recalled. “I was an orchedork, so I played violin. And, I don’t know, I really enjoyed orchestra, and I kind of miss it now that I think about it.

“But even throughout middle school, my dad was the kind of person that always wanted us to do extracurricular activities. So, he got me into guitar lessons for a while. And it was just for a few years, and then I stopped doing that, and then I started lessons with drums. Obviously, things get pricey and the lessons had to stop at some point, but it always kind of just stuck with me in that way.”

After years of practicing drums and guitar, Gonzalez’s humility regarding her expertise remains intact. She claims not to have mastered a single instrument — despite the head-bopping symphonies she creates. Recently, she has begun to toy with the piano, but Gonzalez acknowledges that her inability to read music gets in the way a bit, so her piano explorations quickly devolve into a ruckus. However, she views her lack of music-reading abilities as a strength when creating music.

“Sometimes people get really technical with things like, ‘Oh, that’s not called this. This is actually called this, this and that,’” Gonzalez expressed. “I feel like sometimes that can put, I guess, restraints on the flow if you start putting rules to what things are supposed to be.”

In her time as a musical artist, Gonzalez has quickly learned that the rules must be ignored to make it big. Having thick skin and being able to pick herself back up in the face of adversity has helped her book gigs and continue to release music.

Gonzalez plans to release three more songs by the end of the year, with the next song, “The Neighborhood,” likely to be released this month. On Oct. 25, Gonzalez will perform at Demon Gang’s “The Nightmare Before Halloween,” located at 2008 Alexander Ave. in Austin, Texas. Doors open at 7 p.m., and there will be a costume contest with a $150 prize. Tickets can be purchased online for $20 or $25 at the door.