Growing up during his teenage years, Miguel Perez, or as he’s known by his stage name Miles Angel, always strived for something greater, trying to rise higher to some sort of fandom.

He was simply trying to get rich and famous through his vocal talents.

Now, taking a different approach to his talent, the last thing on the 20-year-old aspiring R&B artist’s mind is stardom.

He wants to create vision and voice through his work.

“I always low key, knew I could sing, but I really went at it when I graduated,” he said. “I used to make music to turn up and to feel myself, but now it’s about perfecting my work and growing as an artist.”

From humble beginnings, Angel dabbled in other extracurricular activities such as football at Del Valle High School prior to pursuing singing. Once he graduated, he decided to forgo an education to focus on fashioning his music.

“I respect education so much, so if I did it half-assed, I’m not doing anyone a favor,” he said. “It’s not like I’m sitting around doing nothing all day. I’m working all the time.”

Angel grew up listening to artists such as Chris Brown, Trey Songz and Drake for inspiration and insight toward the art. Coming up with his stage name was well thought out despite being fairly new to the artistry.

“I’m Mexican and Venezuelan. My pops passed away when I was a lot younger. When I started to do the music stuff, I decided to go with his name to honor him. Angel is my middle name too. It just made sense,” he said.

Angel said he ventures into different genres to stimulate new ideas.

“Besides R&B, what I study, like Bryson Tiller, PARTYNEXTDOOR, I listen to a lot of the Beatles,” he said. “I’m a huge Beatles fan. I take the harmonies from them. That’s what no one can do like them.”

He believes it is the diversity of his influences that has propelled his creativity.

“I think that’s what makes music different,” he said. “People add the different stuff they grow up to. For me, there was a lot of hip-hop and the blues. The other day I was listening to “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Etta James—that’s a classic. I recently added her cadences on one of my songs.”

While he uses beats he favors, his songwriting process is one he is continuously trying to perfect.

“I first start with the hook, the catchy part, on a song, and then I build around that,” he said. “I used to write about how I was feeling—that makes a great songwriter. If you can put yourself in a specific situation and write that and pull it off, then you’re a great songwriter.”

When he’s sent these different beats by producers, he makes sure to be entirely selective and precise with the ones he decides to use for a song. It has to truly catch his attention.

“For me, I like simple stuff,” he said. “I have to fall in love with the beat. Maybe it’s just the snare hit the right way, but I have to love the beat. Give me something that speaks to me.”

Starting his SoundCloud account last year, Angel has developed quite the fan base for his talents. His most popular song on SoundCloud, “Panties Drop,” has over 35,000 listens, while most of his other tracks range from 15,000-27,000 listens.

However, the success didn’t come overnight.

“It takes a while for your stuff to grow,” he said. “I found that after you perform, your stuff gets a lot more listens. You’ll find a lot of great songs also, but not a lot of performers. I’m trying to improve in both areas.”

He experienced his initial ascent to success when he wrote his song “Thank You,” which was about his mom. It was a song that he didn’t expect to get as big as it got.

“Thank you” was a song about my mom—a time when my mom and pops got divorced. I wrote that song for her,” he said. “That was a really pivotal point in my journey because I got to change the style of what I was doing. After that, everything on my SoundCloud started getting a lot of listens.”

Even though he is reaching impressive numbers on SoundCloud, he doesn’t base the success of a song off the number of streams.

“If it ages well, I think that’s what I’m most proud of,” he said. “You grow up with your music. If you can look at your work at the end of the day and say, ‘I fuck with that,’ then you know you accomplished something.”

On the contrary, there are some songs that he’s released that have not taken off or been given the critical reception he feels was deserved.

“There was a song I was doing and I thought, ‘wow God, you got me!’” he said. “I felt like I killed it and I was about to blow up. But you’re your biggest competitor. If you can go home every day and say you were proud of what you do, that’s what matters.”

It was a busy summer for the local crooner. On June 17, he released a collection of tracks he had been releasing on SoundCloud together on his debut album, “No Apologies.”

“It felt like a year ago since I released that,” he said. “Just go listen to it. Listen to any track on it. Listen what I have to say. The singles leading up were only a look to get you to buy the whole book.”

The 10-track album was released on Spotify, Apple Music and other major streaming sites. He said that the reception has been pretty strong.

“It wasn’t like anything I’ve received before,” he said. “I never received exposure like that. It really got me. That’s what got me really poppin’ in El Paso.”

Other summer ventures included touring outside of El Paso to cities like Los Angeles and even opening up for Kyle when he came to Tricky Falls. At the Kyle show, Angel reflected onstage how he wasn’t able to get a show at the Lowbrow Palace in 2016, but now he’s opening for an act like Kyle.

“I literally walked inside of Lowbrow and asked to play a show with my then manager and I couldn’t get one,” he said. “Lowbrow is an accolade for me. That was a dream for me. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.”

In fact, he will be headlining a show, which might be his last of 2017, at the Lowbrow Palace on Sept. 21. Admission will be free for attendees 21 and over.

“I’ve been preparing for this. I will leave you awed,” he said. “Pull up—I challenge you. If you don’t give me the credit as an artist, let me be your favorite singer. Let me show you why I got it.”

He also has new material in store for his fans.

“It’s been a month of work and I have a full album ready to put out,” he said. “I just need to record it. I could record it all in one day. I just want to be in the right mental state.”