CURRENT MISSION

To build the financial platform needed to kickstart a career as a producer; to burn the music industry as we know it to the ground, etc.

ABOUT ME

I'm not great at writing about myself - it's taken me a really long time to muster up the courage to make an account on here. So, hi internet. My name is Ramona Xavier, I am 21 years old and I produce music as "Vektroid" among a number of other monikers. However, for the past couple of years, I have had to set that passion aside to focus on conventional work, and that's what has brought me here. Financially, I am close to being able to secure a room or an apartment, but I'm not quite there yet. I work part-time at Pioneer Place in downtown Portland, but the hours don't quite give me the ability to seek out a place of my own. Once I found out my second job - also at Pioneer Place - was ending after the holidays, I found myself getting so caught up with trying to find a new place to stay temporarily that I haven't had the time to secure another job to pay rent with yet. So I am seeking your help. I am in the market to snatch a second job or potentially a full-time one very soon, but I do not currently have a place to stay in the interim and now my choices are essentially to either migrate to a youth shelter temporarily or leave Portland to tour and stay with friends out of state until I can figure out something more permanent.

In the long term, I intend to start on my general education requirements this Fall then I'll eventually be making my way to LA to begin a BFA in Music Composition at CalArts, likely followed by an MFA as well, with the ultimate goal of building a freelance career in music both as a solo artist and record producer/producer for hire. I am mainly seeking ways to fill the time gap by working and hopefully accumulating some savings once my hours allow for it.

I am a rather quiet, civilized individual, an introvert by nature. Working retail has helped me find my voice, however, so I've been engaged rather thoroughly in teaching myself to become a better communicator and maintain better control of my nerves in unsettling situations such as this. Open minded, genderqueer. I do my best to keep myself and my quarters as clean and tidy as possible - something I think people around here occasionally find slightly off-putting :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

As a 21-year-old and a total newcomer to this scene, using a site of this nature (or even Craigslist, really) is an enormous leap of faith for me. At this stage in my life, I am still learning how to survive in the real world. So from this, ultimately, I seek to grow; to gain the wisdom I never had the chance to grasp back home; to seek out and channel a new sense of inspiration - motivation, clarity, empowerment - and project that same inspiration outward to somebody else who may need it just as much as I. I am the type of person who feels guilty for not cleaning up their mess; I seek to leave things exactly as they were found or better. Although I tangibly have little to offer at this point in my life, I hope one day I can return the favor to all the friends who have loaned me a couch or a closet to sleep in during my time here in Portland. I imagine this phase of my life will prove very difficult to lose perspective of...

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I am a first-timer to Couchsurfing.org but I'm excited to give it a shot. Hopefully I will have the means to settle down soon, but I am really grateful a service like this exists.

Interests

I am a music nut. As a digital producer, I mostly listen to electronic music, but from time to time you may hear me arbitrate pretty hard and start busting out some shoegaze/lo-fi jams as a chaser. :) I dabble in graphic design, definitely a major tech head but no programmer by any means. I DJ from time to time, and am in fact planning to tour soon, but by nature I'm not much of a performer. I play some piano but my instrumental ability is mainly just borrowed from my time spent composing; much of my musical skill really just boils down to a mouse, a computer screen and a MIDI sequencer.

Drug-free; not much of a pub crawler/bar type myself but I do enjoy a couple drinks on occasion!

• writing
• design
• graphic design
• education
• drinking
• pub crawls
• technology
• music
• electronic music
• piano
• teaching
• freelancing
• software