Story and Editorial Photos by
Elisha Nunez
Additional photography courtesy
Evan Romo / Emmeff Pearl
Evan Romo remembers his big idea for a class project. He introduced Emmeff Pearl to his entrepreneurial class at UTEP as a social media service where local businesses would hire him to promote their brands. After getting some work from local businesses, Romo thought his project was finished.
Little did he know, his college assignment would turn into a career.
“December 2018 comes around and I’m just like binge-watching [NPR] Tiny Desk concerts and all these other live performances on YouTube, and I wanted to make my own,” said Romo.
“It was the first chance I could work with a band. I had already been using cameras for all these other projects, graphic design, so I already kind of had an understanding of what I wanted to do like promoting it.”
That same month, Romo filmed the first episode for Emmeff Pearl Creative Studio, which celebrated its fifth official anniversary in April.
Following this rebrand, Romo has been using his business to hype up local artists and creatives alongside co-owner David Vasquez.
For the past five years, Emmeff Pearl has recorded dozens of videos showcasing the talent that El Paso has to offer from rappers to chefs.
“Emmeff Pearl is starting to evolve. And what started as a little social media thing [turned] into what I believe now is a platform that’s connecting the world to La Frontera,” said Romo.
The studio’s content not only consists of interviews with creatives in the city but also offers a special chance for viewers to see their performances.
These episodes on the studio’s channel are called Midnight Sessions, which are 20-30 minute videos of various artists having their performances in a genre-less setting.
Recently the sessions have been sponsored by creativeElPaso, a local film and creative commission that seeks to promote various creative industries in the city.
“Midnight [Sessions] is a private, intimate stage for musicians to visually extend their sound. It started with an episode and I guess the purpose still stays true,” said Romo.
Romo himself is no stranger to the music process. Taking the stage name Groovy Shmokes, Romo has put out some projects of his own and has more plans to release music in the future.
“As a musician, I just felt like there wasn’t really an opportunity for me to be filmed by anyone,” he shares. “Midnight Sessions is essentially a platform that allows the musicians, especially here in El Paso to forget about having to know all of the things that go into making a release, just for a moment, so they can go ahead and focus on the music for a bit.”
While he focuses on his ventures, Romo also hopes that other local artists like him can make a name for themselves in and beyond the city limits.
“As an artist, you have to go ahead and wear multiple hats a lot of the time. It’s not just musicians, it’s also painters, you have to like all of a sudden become an influencer, and learn how to create content for brands,” Romo says.
With the Midnight Sessions, he not only wants to show his community the talent that lives next door, but he too wants other places to know that El Paso can be taken seriously in the music scene.
To do so, Romo has been working with Star City Studio Productions, a recording studio on the West Side.
“We love to have him here and he does such a killer job. The work that he puts out makes us proud of El Paso and proud of the scene here,” said Eric Boseman, the producer and director of Star City Studio Productions.
“He’s also got a great eye and ear for talent. He’s always introducing us to some cool artists.”
In the months to come, Romo hopes to keep producing more seasons and episodes for Midnight Sessions and Emmeff Pearl’s podcast series.
To showcase local creatives to the global community, Romo also wishes to make Emmeff Pearl a business that can connect to other artists and people worldwide.
“I’m not scared to say ‘We’re not just an El Paso platform.’ We want to be a global platform that shines a light on all paths,” said Romo.
“We eventually want the audience to come in, come in from all cities, from all countries and all that. At the end of the day, we love that we can create something that our neighbors can already enjoy.”
Along with his hopes of expanding Emmeff Pearl to a global platform, there are also talks of giving the creative business a physical location.
Filming the podcasts at Emmeff HQ, Velasquez’s loft, and Star City both have their fair share of fine moments, but nothing beats a big space where artists and audiences can come to enjoy talented artists doing their thing.
“Just having a big warehouse would allow us to go ahead and create different stages, a place where there’s AC so crowds can come in and enjoy it,” said Romo.
“Having the warehouse is great, but also having a partnership with studios like Star City is great. I do also like the idea of having partnerships with businesses here and connecting and having a stronger force so that we reach the world.”
