A career rooted in the church
Musician Steve O Valdez uses his faith, talent to promote arts, culture in Houston
Steve O Valdez’s life has always revolved around music and church.
When he was a young boy he played piano, but he also loved the drums. Before he had his own set to play, his father, who was a pastor at a local church, would unlock the doors to his house of worship and let Steve bang away on the church band’s drums.
Valdez honed his musical craft during services at Church of God Seventh Day La Roca in the Aldine area. That experience would years later lead him to tour with pop musicians and develop platinum-selling music.
Now, in a nondescript commercial building in EaDo, with downtown Houston’s skyscrapers looming in the horizon, the 34-year-old Valdez works on making hit songs with longtime collaborator and singer Frankie J. The partnership has proven fruitful over the years, with Valdez helping make the song “Obsession” for the California singer.
Despite the star power, the studio itself looks modest if not for the industrial-sized sound board and the audio engineer working it. It’s a room that’s been the creative space for other accomplished musicians, many based in Houston, most notably Valdez’ business partner, the music producer and rapper Mannie Fresh.
Fresh, a New Orleans native who relocated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, is considered the musical architect of the Cash
Money Records sound that birthed superstar Lil Wayne and other rappers in that production stable. He and Valdez have been making music together for nearly a decade.
Now the two are collaborating on more community-minded concerns, such as a Houston arts and creative showcase that works to discover local artists, giving them an alternative to establishing their careers in hot spots like Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta. The artist discovery showcase that Valdez has created and promotes gives amateur musicians, singers, rappers and producers a platform to show their skills in front of a live audience, usually at venues such as Warehouse Live. The performers, who come from as far away as Louisiana get feedback from the audience in a talent show-style showcase. The winner of the showcase gets a slot performing alongside a headliner at the following show.
The duo’s work with the young people caught the attention of Mayor Sylvester Turner and City . Valdez and Fresh have since helped the city’s Hip-Hop for Literacy event, producing music for the program and free musical events coordinated through the public library and aimed at atrisk youth.
For Valdez, it’s about offering a creative environment for aspiring inner-city musicians. The giving back aspect of his career isn’t too far from his roots as a pastor’s kid in Houston.
“I did grow up in church and that was for me the platform that introduced me to music, and it was free for me,” he said. “Because I was able to go to church every weekend, and I was able to learn the skills, I was able to practice my skills on a big stage, and as I got older, the stages got bigger, my skills got better.”
Valdez remembers waking up early just to practice piano before school. Later, it was the drums. “I was able to fall in love with music so much,” he said about those early years learning his craft in church bands.
Miguel R. Valdez, director of Church Of God Seventh Day La Roca, helped create the environment for his son to dive deep into the world of music. “It’s not Seventh Day Adventist,” Steve explained, “but, it’s similar in the sense that we go to church on a Saturday. We didn’t celebrate Christmas, and we didn’t celebrate a lot of stuff.”
But music is always a big part of the experience and being ready to play at a high level during a weekend service was paramount.
The importance of being ready led to the younger Valdez developing a discipline about his music that was nurtured in church. “For me, that took over everything,” he said. “I would get home from school and instead of hanging out or whatever, I was at home practicing all day.”
His upbringing in southeast Houston exposed him to drugs or gangs, but for Valdez, a high school football player who performed in bands, there was always the music, and it was tied to church performance.
“Some of the best artists and singers came out the church,” he said. “Every single week, a few times a week, even when you don’t feel like it. Practicing, learning songs, performing songs your whole life, you’re so practiced at it.”
Faithcontinues to play a role in Valdez’s life. He says his faith informs his interest in creating opportunities for young people through his Houston Sound Academy, where he teaches music to church groups and provides individual lessons. The space is housed in the same building as his studio and offers lessons on drums, guitar, deejayFrankie ing and production.
This summer his school offered a YouTuber Summer Camp for adolescents; it focused on how to build a musical brand from production to promotion. Pushing arts and culture in Houston has become his new passion. It’s something that’s shared by Mannie Fresh as well.
The music partners spoke to the Houston City Council in June about efforts to help pass on the music business knowledge to young rappers, producers and singers.
“We’re tired of seeing people leave to California and New Yorkand Atlanta to go get their career started. We feel like we can generate that interest here,” he said.
Valdez said he’s looking for ways to offer music programs for free or low cost through partnerships with city or federal agencies and perhaps remaking his school as a nonprofit organization.
“A lot of these kids are idolizing some of these artists and their guns and drugs, and so it is like a negative thing, but we can utilize that same channel to turn it into something good,” he said.
He’s owes a lot to his musical upbringing to Houston. It was where he was discovered by Frankie J at a music store and where he eventually came under the wing of Happy Perez, the Houston-based super producer. He toured for two years with Frankie J, and scored a Top 40 hit with “Obsession,” a beat he made with Perez.
“I had another keyboard player that was already committed to going on tour with me, but he canceled on me a week before, and we were about to start rehearsals, and I was in need of a piano, now I was finding myself in need of a piano player,” said J during a recent studio session with Valdez.
The singer had been looking for a Yamaha Motif keyboard at a local Guitar Center. Valdez, who spent his days off tooling around the store and playing its new equipment, happened to be jamming away with a pair of headphones on.
Frankie J leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he would like to come to a rehearsal and possibly join his tour. But first, he remembers, Valdez needed to get his parents’ blessing, which he did.
“A week later we were in Puerto Rico. Sometimes it’s all about timing. In his case, it was perfect timing, it was God’s timing,” he said about discovering Valdez.
And as he tries to work with the city and help coordinate music events for young people, he maintains his commitment to music through the auspices of the church. He’s moved away from his father’s church into a more nondenominational Christian atmosphere. And the same guy who has helped construct beats for rapper 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne also makes sure the music at Grace Church in Tomball is top-notch.
“It’s a job, and I work at a church and I love what I do,” he said about his role as music director of the church.
He arrives two hours before services on Sunday to practice with the band. He admits it’s hard some weeks, especially if he’s played a show or worked late in the studio on a Saturday, but it’s his faith and discipline for music that pushes him to continue.
“I’m the guy who’s putting it together with the band, I’m on the keyboard,” he said. “We’re just molding the music, making sure it’s tight.”