Meet Michael & Carlos

We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael & Carlos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael & Carlos, what is the most important factor behind your success?
As Christian artists, the most important factor of our success is God. We wouldn’t be able to do anything we’ve done without him blessing our journey. Secondly, authenticity is very important to us. For a couple years, we were just trying to be the cool band on instagram, only posting about the best things that we had going on. But once we started truly being ourselves and not faking an image, people started connecting with us and our music even deeper, which helped grow our online audience. Our faith and authenticity go hand-in-hand. At the end of the day, we measure our success by asking ourselves this question: Was God glorified? And if we start focusing on other measurements of success and stop being our genuine selves, then the messages behind our music, content, and mission are all meaningless.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
We’re two brothers, Michael & Carlos, that make Christian music under the name “One Common”. To us, what sets us apart is our approach to our vocal arrangements. We’re not big on having a main melody with some some buried background parts. We like to describe our parts as “Melody and Counter-melody” vs. “Melody and Harmony” with Simon and Garfunkel being one of our inspirations for that (Although sometimes I like to hide behind his leads, Carlos always makes sure I get some main lines in our songs -Michael). We’re pretty proud of how self-contained we are. A lot of what we do, is done ourselves. Carlos does almost everything on the video/photo side, with Michael doing most of the music and production aspects. Our journey to where we are definitely hasn’t been easy and we’re still on the path to doing music full time while we work other jobs (Carlos is a Creative Director, and Michael is a Production Assistant at a studio here around Nashville). We’ve learned to adapt our strategies as we go. There are gonna be, and have been, plenty of challenges to face. We’ve found that the best way to overcome those challenges, is to face them head on continue chipping away at them, always trying to tackle said challenges in a new way. Especially in such a volatile industry. If we were to tell the world one thing about us, it’s that we’re just two brothers looking to connect with others in an authentic way, while glorifying God through those connections and the music we make.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Michael: As a huge baseball fan, I love going to Nashville Sounds games. The atmosphere is great, and it’s easy to enjoy with friends and family even if you’re not a sports person. As far as food goes, you can’t go wrong with the Assembly Food Hall. There’s something there for everyone, even the picky eaters.

Carlos: The Factory in Franklin is the place to be if you wanna meet some friends or grab some great food. My favorite place to eat is Mojo’s Tacos, hands down. Predators games are a must if hockey’s in season! I probably sound like I just moved to Nashville, as these are some of the pretty basic must-do’s. but what can I say? The basics are the basics for a reason, you can’t go wrong with them!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our parents deserve a lot of credit in us being where we are. They’ve always supported our dreams and helped out wherever they could (and continue to do so)! Our dad pastored a small church when we were growing up, and since there weren’t any other musicians in the congregation, us and our sisters became the church worship band. We were all young, and probably didn’t sound very good, but that helped foster our passion for creating Christian music and turning our hobby into a ministry. Although our sisters don’t sing/play with us anymore, they’re still a big part in what we do. Especially when we need some opinions our songs and social media!

Instagram: https://instagram.com/onecommonmusic

Facebook: https://facebook.com/onecommonmusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@onecommonmusic

Other: Spotify, apple music, and other links!

https://linktr.ee/onecommonmusic