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Interview

Work Hard. Play Hard. Drive Inspired.

Happiness? You can force it. Through hard work, for example. Says Montez. The twenty-nine-year-old is not only one of the most successful songwriters in Germany at the moment, he’s also an entrepreneur passionately realizing new ideas.

Or you can just get in a car and go for a drive. Says Montez as well. We met him for an exclusive interview in Berlin – and brought along a BMW i4 M50, an iX M60 and an i5 M60.

  • Interview
    Michael Köckritz
  • Fotos
    Julian Essink, David Breun
For those of our readers who aren’t familiar with the name Montez, who are you? And who is the person behind your stage name?

My full name is Luca Manuel Montesinos Gargallo. I’m twenty-nine years old, I’m from Bielefeld and I’m mostly a ­musician.

Why do you say “mostly”?

About five years ago, I discovered the entrepreneur in me. I realized that, in addition to my passion for music, I was also passionate about realizing new ideas, about building and successfully running companies.

Do all your companies have something to do with music?

Most of them do. I founded a marketing company as well as my own label. I use one of my companies to invest in start-ups, but I also help out with my network and my expertise. I have a merchandising company and a fashion label. I run a construction company with my father and my brother and a hairdressing salon with my mother.


»Mit 13 fing ich an, meine ersten Texte zu schreiben, weil das für mich ein Ventil war, um Erlebtes zu verarbeiten.«
With all these commitments, how do you find the time to make music?

That’s the challenge. Other artists just go into the studio every day and make music. I really have to find time for it, to schedule it in.

But you want to stay “mostly” a musician?

Yes, because even my entrepreneurial self understands that music is what makes me happy. Music is my passion. It permeates my innermost being.

How did you get into hip hop?

My cousin had a big influence on me. I must have been six or seven years old at the time. He was almost twice as old and listened to Eminem, 50 Cent and Tupac all the time. The first time I heard “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, I was blown away. And I’ve loved hip hop ever since.

You say that music is your life. What does your music reveal about you personally?

Significantly more than with other artists, I think. It’s always been like that. I started writing my first lyrics when I was ­thirteen because it was an outlet for me to process the things that were going on in my life. I’ve always been bad at talking about things like that with other people. But I found that I could do that with my music, that I was able to put my emotions into a package, deal with my feelings, communicate them to others.

(...)

→ Read the full interview in ramp #63 "Happy on the Road".

Michael Köckritz

Michael Köckritz

Editor in Chief
As a journalist, author, artist and media maker, Michael Köckritz succeeds time and again in creating both attention-grabbing and sustainably stimulating impulses in the context of contemporary and future topics as well as lifestyle and luxury worlds. As publisher and editor-in-chief, he has realised a whole series of book and lifestyle magazine formats that have regularly won numerous national and international awards over the years. The car culture magazine ramp, the men's lifestyle magazine rampstyle and the design magazine ramp.design are published internationally and are considered style-setting.
ramp #63 Happy on the Road
Work Hard. Play Hard. Drive Inspired.

ramp #63 Happy on the Road

Glücklich auf der Straße? Sowieso. Für ein anständiges Autokulturmagazin ist so ein glückliches Unterwegssein gewissermaßen nur eine bereits konzeptionell hinterlegte Pflichtveranstaltung. Nach und nach – und mit etwas Glück (was sich hier ja fein ins Thema fügt) – entwickeln sich diese Emotionen in der Summe dann vergnüglich zu einer Affektbasis, ...

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