It took singer/songwriter Justin Llamas more than four years to get the proper diagnosis for a disease that hampered his voice. A proven surgery was performed and he was ready to tackle his many endeavors with renewed vigor… until he discovered his was a rare case when the surgery did not work.

The surgery, called the LINX Reflux Management System, put a small band of magnetized beads at the base of the esophagus to keep it tight and keep the acid reflux down. The idea is the magnet expands as you eat and allows food to go down. “I felt OK for the first three days after surgery and then I started throwing up a lot and hiccupping non-stop,” he relayed. He had already set up a three-hour set for his band, Flying Kites, and he wasn’t going to let that opportunity go.

“I was trying to sing while hiccupping. It was so embarrassing and will definitely go down as one of my toughest shows,” Llamas laughed. “I was holding a plastic cup on stage and acted like I was drinking out of the cup. I was actually repeatedly throwing up in it.” He persevered through the show with some help from a singer friend. “I knew he would be at the show, so I called him a few hours before the show and told him to be ready to sing. After that, he ended up joining the band!”

He hoped the surgery was an end to a 4½ -year battle, but it wasn’t. “Right after the performance, my mom took me to the hospital and I stayed there for eight days, non-stop hiccupping and throwing up,” Llamas recalled. “Then they cut me back open, but the doctor said he couldn’t even put in another device and had to take the original one out. Now I am back to square one.”

HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE YEARS

Llamas’ first love was not singing, but animation. “I was always ‘The Comic Book Guy,’” he stated. “I even started a web comic and it got pretty popular. I think a lot of that was because I was so young when I did it and that interested people. My goal was to be a PIXAR storyboard artist.” He published two graphic novels at a young age and began a website for his web comic.

Admittedly “painfully shy” when it came to performing in high school, Llamas came late to music. “I didn’t know I even liked music until high school. I had one solo in a high school musical and one of my friends told me, ‘You are OK, you aren’t bad.’” Another friend suggested I look into acting and I let that get into my head.”

After graduating high school, Llamas headed to San Jose State University to major in animation. “I decided to reinvent myself and not be that shy person I was in high school,” he remarked. “I tried out for a musical and got a lead role. That planted a seed. I don’t do anything halfway.” At 19, he began working with renowned voice coach Nuhad Levasseur. “I have been with her for eight years and I learned correct technique. I am always studying to be competitive in any field I am involved in and think it is important to do things correctly and not harm yourself.”

At the same time, he never forgot his friend’s comment about looking into acting. “I took advantage of being in the Silicon Valley and started doing a lot of commercials,” he said. “I found someone who was acting and took her out to lunch. She told me how to sign up for casting networks and I have had a lot of work since.” Llamas still books most of his work himself to build relationships with studios in the area. “I started taking it more seriously in the past year and it became my main income. I was able to drop my hours as a bartender, getting a gig every other week or so. Acting is not my end goal, but 2018 was a very good year for me in the business.”

Llamas, who still draws and wants to return to comics, is appreciative of the opportunities he has been afforded. “I wasn’t born a good singer or actor, but I was born a good student and networker. I am passionate about learning,” he commented. “I like to express my art in music and acting. I love what I do.”

He also appreciates the diversity in his life and his community. His father was born in the Philippines and is half-Spanish, while his mother was born and raised in Louisiana. They met one another at San Jose State, where Llamas attended as well. “I am proud of my heritage and where I come from. I went to a very diverse school, and my cousins and friends are of multiple ethnicities,” he remarked.

HIS MUSIC

Llamas began posting songs on YouTube in 2010 and in 2016, released an EP (extended player) called “Gold.” He received numerous accolades for the work, including from SleepingBagStudios author Jer@SBS, who said, “Definitely think we’ve found a future superstar in soul/pop & R&B here. Justin Llamas not only has the perfect look for the gambit, but he’s also got the skills to back it all up.” (http://sleepingbagstudios.ca/justin-llamas-gold/). Rick Jamm of independent music magazine JamSphere called the EP an “elaborate web of elegantly balanced musical roots dripping in pop.” (http://jamsphere.com/reviews/justin-llamas-gold-elaborate-web-of-elegantly-balanced-musical-roots-dripping-in-pop)

“L.A. Reid and Babyface heard it and told me they thought my original song, ‘Figure Things Out’ could win a Grammy Award. I was blown away,” he remembered. “They were willing to fly me out to Los Angeles, but I was worried I wouldn’t be able to sing for them because of my voice.”

“Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis wanted to work with me personally, but they already had one-to-two years worth of projects,” Llamas said. “I was negotiating with SONY. I couldn’t do it at the time, but we kept in good standing and I hope to submit some new stuff to them in the next two or three months.”

He has nearly 20,000 followers on his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/logocomic) and his cover of Sia’s Chandelier has been viewed 868,000 times.

Llamas had resisted making an account on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/3WvwiUbbSqOdevJYRXi1IJ) because he was more familiar with iTunes, but signed up due to pressure from friends. “I finally started using the app and then three or four months later, my Spotify started acting crazy. It turned out I was being hacked.”

At first, the hacker was adding music in different languages. “I really liked the artists he was adding so it didn’t bother me. Then he started messing with my music, even as I was listening to it, and that was not cool.” Llamas contacted the hacker and they ended up having friendly conversations on WhatsApp and through Instagram.

Llamas had received numerous opportunities to sing on various talent shows and did perform on Sing Like a Star in his mother’s home state of Louisiana. He was in talks to be one of the first singers to appear on The Four: Battle for Stardom and auditioned for American Idol and The Voice. Yet his throat problems prevented him from being able to consistently sing. “I remember one of the auditions, I could barely get a word out,” said Llamas.

NAVIGATING THE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Since 2014, Llamas has struggled both with severe acid reflux that made his voice hoarse and convincing those in the health care system that there was something physically wrong with him.

“Even when I first started taking lessons, I was always hoarse when I would begin singing and it took me a long time to warm up,” he recalled. “I did have bad allergies growing up so for a while, I thought that may be the issue.”

That year, he was finishing up at San Jose State, where he had been singing the national anthem for their sporting events. “It usually went well, but I was having some bad days. Then the last semester, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was waking up in the middle of the night with throat pain.”

Visits to the doctor became frustrating. “They would send me to everyone they could before sending me to a specialist. Nobody believed me that there was something wrong with me,” he stated. “This is my voice, this is how I make money. A lot of singers have bad technique and that’s what the doctors were assuming about me, but I knew that was not the case. It was like they all knew what to say before I even got there. One doctor even referred me to a voice coach, the same voice coach I had been working with for eight years!”

Llamas would not relent though and finally convinced one doctor to run an esophageal pH test to measure the amount of acid that flows into the esophagus from the stomach during a 24-hour period. He was vindicated when the results, which were about three times the normal levels, showed what he had known along: he had a serious case of GERD, a gastroesophageal reflux disease that caused the lining of his esophagus to be irritated.

MOVING FORWARD

Even before the unsuccessful LINX surgery, Llamas refused to get depressed or stop working. He sang with five bands that weren’t his own, including a 1980s cover band and a R&B band before putting together his own band, the aforementioned Flying Kites. “I knew enough musicians to start a band and I was happy to do it,” he said. “Now we are in talks to be flown to Kansas to perform. You never know where opportunities will come from.”

He has also learned to use himself and his web presence as a business. “2018 was a big year for me as an actor and a singer. I was working full-time doing both,” Llamas said. “YouTube is how SONY found me and how television shows found me. I believe in creating your own luck by working on your talents and your craft so that when someone gives you a chance, you are ready.”

Things have improved slowly since the failed surgery. “I feel normal until I eat. I need to chew well and take my time. I became a vegetarian five months ago and that has helped a lot,” he remarked. “I should be singing at my full potential in a few weeks as I get back on my diets.”

Eventually an alternate surgery (called a Fundoplication Surgery) can be performed. It essentially wraps the stomach around the esophagus to stop the acid from backing up into the esophagus as easily as it currently does in Llamas’ body.

“There is a saying that it takes 10 years of hard work to become an overnight success, Llamas continued. “I am putting in that time. I am recording and writing for other people. I am always working on my craft.”

Llamas remains philosophical about his health issues. “It took me 4½ years to get to the point of the surgery, but it wasn’t for nothing. Maybe my story will help someone else,” he stated.