Mersiv's First Headlining Show at Red Rocks Sells Out

Anderson Benoit Gallegos, the creator behind the Mersiv Sound Project, has been entrenched in music for most of his life, playing guitar and piano as a child while discovering an immense talent — and passion — for music production.

"I was in high school, and me and a bunch of friends would throw parties and have a bunch of local DJs and stuff in my hometown; I'm from Shreveport, Louisiana," he says. "For a long time, it was just for fun, but I was super obsessed with it, always deejaying or trying to make a beat, and I would neglect school for it a lot of the time."

During college, when Gallegos was trudging through a business management degree that failed to capture his imagination, he decided to dedicate his time and attention to his true passion: music. "I was like, 'I'm going to make [music] my number one goal, to make a career out of it,'" he says. "And if I can pay my rent, that's it. I fucking made it."

And Gallegos has made it, after the wildly successful creation of the Mersiv Sound Project in 2017. Through Mersiv — short for "immersive" — concerts, he helps his audience connect to the present, using his music as a conduit for mindfulness.

Gallegos recalls the inspiration for his radical sound project with ease: His ideas stemmed from the book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, by Eckhart Tolle. "It's all about being in the present moment, in the now, not worrying about the past or the future because you're not living in the current moment of time, what's real," he explains. "That book was the turning point for me [to decide] all right, the time is now. I just need to do it in this moment. And that's where the whole picture came about for music."

Gallegos's intentionality is clear in everything he does, and he carries his life motto with him in permanent ink. A small spiral tattoo on his wrist acts as a constant reminder to remain in the present moment, and was also the inspiration for Mersiv's logo.

Gallegos is always working to remain present by maintaining a soft, nonjudgemental awareness of his surroundings, letting things exist as they are. "For instance, there's this painting: Instead of looking at this painting and describing its colors, let it be and let it exist for what it is, not having a good or bad judgment toward it," he says.

He engages in this deliberate form of thinking while making music, a process he considers a form of meditation. "The way that a lot of my music comes about, it's a lot of trial and error, but most of it is from a current emotion that I'm feeling in the moment," he explains. "There's no thought. It's just existing and catching some sort of flow state, and then everything just unfolds and creates itself. ... I have to completely let go and create."

Gallegos is pumped for his first headliner performance at Red Rocks, a sold-out show he remembers manifesting when he first moved to Colorado. "I rode my bike up to Red Rocks on a fixie, so there was no gear-changing. I was walking most of it and then riding downhill when I could," he recalls. "I got to the top and I ate my food up there, and I was envisioning: 'I'm going to play here one day.'"

His set for Red Rocks is what he calls a "journey" show, which is an emotional flow of electronic subgenres and moods. "I normally like to open pretty heavy," Gallegos says. "After you're raging and dancing and having a good time for a good portion of the set, then I'll slow it down."

The whole concert is created live — visuals and lights included — so the journey Gallegos takes his audience on is not predetermined. "I'll just kind of go up and down with dubstep, bass music, all the sub-genres of electronic music," he says. "I like to explore just about everything I can in an hour, hour and a half, however long I have."

Although pre-mapping a show would be less stressful, Gallegos prefers the rush he gets while creating the experience live. And the pumping adrenaline helps him stay in the moment, relishing every second of his time on stage. "Even though it's stressful, it does make it more fun, because that will give me options," he says. recalling his creative flow from previous shows. "Sometimes I'll throw things out on the fly or add a little vocal, or add another backbeat to transition in between songs or something. It's a lot of fun."

Mersiv, 5 p.m. Thursday, April 6, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 West Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Openers include Daily Bread, Tripp St., Smoakland, SIPPY, Astrolizard and Honeycomb. Tickets are currently sold out.