How Cisco got here

It started with a beat machine. Cisco and his friend John formed Ebb Flow Entertainment, making beats on a Maschine Studio and writing songs with friends who wanted to become recording artists. Getting those songs recorded properly meant building a real studio, so the two of them built H-Town Studios: do-it-yourself, fresh and new.

Next came City Promotions, booking live music at Darwin's Pub, Warehouse Live, Texas Tea Tavern, Taps on Washington and other rooms around Houston. Cisco ran sound and designed most of the flyers, especially early on. The mission was to end pay-to-play. They worked out deals with the bars so the bands got paid, paying out roughly $30,000 in band fees in their second year while paying themselves next to nothing. After about two and a half years Cisco sold his share, and John kept City Promotions going for about four years in all.

Cisco rebuilt H-Town Studios with Eyad Achraf, better known as Yaddy, and this time it was fully equipped: recording artists and multitracking full bands. Around the same time he played drums for Marley Moon and recorded her EP Do you feel free?, six tracks made with Steve Christensen and CJ Burton and released in 2021. Her 2026 single Eyeball is worth a listen. From about 2020 to 2023 he worked steadily as a sound engineer with Wonky Power, running sound at Axelrad, Wonky Power and a festival stage outside Toyota Center, and freelanced on the side, designing and building no-code websites in Webflow.

The design work that started with City Promotions flyers and grew through those freelance Webflow builds became Essential Downtime in 2023. Cisco founded it and leads it as director: a studio for Webflow design and development, and since 2026 for full stack web apps and the infrastructure behind them too.

Today he plays as Cisco the Chris, often back to back with Willy Nilly, with sets that run from downtempo and organic house to Latin, deep tech and open format. One vibe a night, read from the room.

He is one of the founders and directors of Hijinx Collective, the crew behind Hijinx Presents parties and trips. It started in 2024 and is building out quickly.