I am Lueda.

Shortly after moving to Canada in 2001, I joined a music publication (now Chorus.fm) where I would later become Senior Editor.

There, I spent a decade working with an amazing staff and together, with the support of a dedicated online community, helped the publication and artists reach mainstream success.

It was a new experience for many of us, to talk about music and other common shared interests with people halfway across the world. And we couldn’t stop! Especially when we began to witness how it all affected artists and creative industries. Social media did not yet exist but our desire to connect and share art—beyond what our physical reality allowed—certainly did.

It was during this time, at the rise of the big blog wave, that I helped introduce and establish a novel idea: music streaming access to the public. What is now common practice—streaming music—was achieved through collaboration with artists and record labels who were willing to create a new paradigm together.

What a time to be alive.

Everyone was hungry to connect and create together. And so we did.

I founded Made of Chalk, a collective who focused on editorial content and creating high-definition concert videos at our Chalk TV studio and venues in Chicago. We brought together artists, labels, venues, productions and partnerships, garnering the attention of television networks and media outlets, including NBC, MTV, VICE, AV Club, Exclaim!, in a few short months.

There was no stopping the water of life flowing through every single one of us.

And this fire would pave the way for collaborations with other creatives on their own projects too, who understood and shared my vision about a more meaningful approach to production. I joined forces with my friend Ryan to develop the in-house PR firm Noisy Ghost for his label Graveface Records, and later, its success led to an invitation by my friends in NYC to establish the agency 24West (now acquired by NGAGENCY).

I loved brainstorming and co-creating with artists. Observing their growth expanded my understanding of the connection between creativity and consciousness, and how important the former is on the evolution of the latter. For both the artist and audience.

After a decade of discovering, developing and working with record labels, artists, festivals, brands and collectives, I started the creative agency Smoke & Mirrors Consulting, Inc with the help of my best friend.

Becoming a collaborator, producer and mentor has been a dream come true.

And the dream lives on today.