As Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” played softly through the speakers inside Los Medanos College’s recording studio, Christian Escobar flipped through a worn CD binder sitting beside the control board. Between stories about guitar riffs and recording sessions, Escobar recalled driving across Seattle searching thrift stores and secondhand shops for specific records to add to his collection. The hunt for music, he explained, was never really just about the music itself. It was about curiosity, discovery and the willingness to chase something meaningful wherever it might lead.
That same mindset has shaped nearly every part of Escobar’s life and career. Before becoming an adjunct instructor in LMC’s Recording Arts Department this spring, Escobar spent years moving across the country pursuing opportunities in music production, live sound and recording studios. Last summer, he returned to LMC to finally complete the Recording Arts associate degree he first started more than a decade ago.
Escobar, who was born in Redwood City and raised in Antioch, first became interested in music while growing up moving from place to place. He said spending time alone pushed him toward instruments at a young age, beginning with violin in elementary school before eventually picking up guitar at 15 years old.
“I just had a lot of time to play guitar,” Escobar said. “It’s something I could do on my own but still feel connected to.”
Music eventually became more than a hobby. After briefly attending a private college, Escobar transferred to LMC around 2011 after discovering its Recording Arts program. He quickly immersed himself in the department, working closely with former department chair Frank Doherty and instructor Rick Shiner while spending extra hours helping other students during lab sessions.
Although he wanted to teach someday, Escobar instead jumped directly into professional work after leaving LMC. In 2014, he spontaneously moved to Seattle with little more than a few hundred dollars and the belief that he could figure things out along the way.
“I can just go up to Seattle, put all my stuff in my car and try and make it work,” Escobar said. “Worst case, it doesn’t work, and then I just drive back down to Antioch.”
The move turned into years of experience working live sound at major Seattle venues and recording at studios including Electrokitty Studios. He later moved to Nashville for another chapter in the industry, continuing to chase opportunities while learning lessons about fear, risk and personal growth.
Now back at LMC teaching Recording Arts 20, Escobar sees many of his students in the same position he once occupied: young creatives trying to figure out how to move forward without letting fear stop them first.
“I want to help them know that no one is going to do anything for them,” Escobar said. “Everything in their life is in their own hands, and they have to take that and run.”
Much of Escobar’s philosophy comes from his belief in young people as cultural “taste makers.” He repeatedly emphasized how youth perspectives shape trends in music, fashion and media long before older generations fully recognize them.
That perspective also connects back to one of the teachers who impacted him most growing up: his ninth grade English teacher, Ms. Schmidt. Escobar remembered her not because of lectures or assignments, but because she genuinely cared about what students thought and who they were becoming.
“She was always interested in what we were about and what the youth was about,” Escobar said. “She just kind of tried to figure out how to make us interested.”
Escobar now hopes to bring that same energy into his own classroom by pushing students beyond self doubt and encouraging them to pursue difficult goals.
Outside of teaching, Escobar still spends much of his free time around music, whether playing guitar, revisiting anime soundtracks from his childhood or listening to classic albums like “What’s Going On.” He also remains deeply reflective about the way music culture has changed in the social media era.
“The art should be about how it makes you feel and how you resonate with it,” Escobar said. “There’s songs where the lyrics mean one thing, but how I resonate with it is completely different.”
Surrounded by cables and records collected from years of searching through thrift stores and cities far from home, Escobar reflected on the path that eventually brought him back to LMC. Now teaching in the same department that helped launch his career, he hopes his students leave with more than technical skills. He hopes they leave believing they are capable of taking risks, trusting their perspective and creating something meaningful of their own.
