Matias Ruiz: It's Who I Am

Chapter 3 - The Better Days

I had just finished middle school when things were getting low. Then I decided that if I was going to focus on music and songwriting I had to let the world hear it. I tried and getting my few friends to listen to me but it seemed they were always busy. I didn't have a clue what I could do. That's when out of nowhere it hit me. YouTube! I knew If I uploaded a video to YouTube anybody in the world could go watch it and leave feedback. I quickly without hesitating started up my very first YouTube channel. I started by posting a original song I wrote and sang called "Wishes." It had a pretty decent feedback. I could say about half of the viewers thought it was alright and the other half didn't hesitate to leave a hate comment. I then started to publish about every week or so and posted covers. I looked for some popular songs at the time and that's how I picked my covers. It was getting an average feedback from the viewers so I decided to take it a step further and bring in a collaboration cover or otherwise known as a duet. My very first duet was with a friend of mine in middle school. We decided to cover "Just Give Me A Reason" by Pink ft. Nate Ruess. It was beyond successful. That's when I started to incorporate more duets. Later I did my second duet with my cousin who was a big fan of Hollywood Undead. We covered "Coming Back Down." YouTube in that year of my life became a big lift for me. I got heard by many people. I slowly began to form a fan base that I eventually named #BeautifulNation. The time was set perfectly to do as much as possible to keep rising. I organized a Meet & Greet tour in about 6 different cities in Missouri with my own personal funds. I then visited the cities and met some fans and they brought some of their friends and that helped get my name around. The tour was held during the summer of 2013. I remember one of the cities I went to during the tour I showed up about 15 minutes late and to make things worst I had forgotten my guitar so I basically just talked to them the whole 2 hours. It was pretty weird if i'm honest. The word eventually got out and my name was slowly starting to get recognized not just in the United States but also worldwide. The fans that joined #BeautifulNation from outside the United States came from a public site that I joined called YouNow. An online website where you can go and record yourself live and other people can come view you and also interact with you by comments. I took that chance to sing to the viewers and get to know them. Things were going great for me. It seemed I was living a dream. Not the dream that I initially had to become a famous singer or songwriter but the dream I started out with as a child. I was making people smile and laugh. I was doing what I loved to do and also accomplishing day by day the very first life goal I had. The best news was yet to come. I had got heard by Mikey Miguel a radio station owner in the UK. TJS Radio 106.7 had heard my music and wanted to have an interview. The best part about this was that they were partnered with iHeart Radio and there station streamed on iHeart Radio. I had my first interview with TJS Radio 106.7 and also iHeart Radio. I fell in love with my life during these times. I was in Jr. High by this time and had the maturity to know right from wrong. I knew I had got everything by working hard for it.These were the better days!