For San Diego's Hector Aramburo, coincidence has been a defining characteristic of both his life and his music.

To begin with, his parents were on vacation in the United States when he was born. While they returned to their home in Mazatlan, Mexico, after his birth, the family moved to Carlsbad when he was 9. It is in Carlsbad where he and his older brother, Alonzo, were raised, graduating from Carlsbad High. (His parents have since returned to Mexico, while he and his brother still live on this side of the border.)

His passion for performing music was sparked by another coincidence, when a friend turned him on to Stevie Ray Vaughan, giving him a CD of Vaughan's "Texas Flood." And when a girlfriend broke his heart when he was 21, he found he had a talent for writing music.

Aramburo (who is performing with his brother Saturday at the Metaphor in Escondido, as part of the acoustic segment of the Mid-Summer Mix-Up show) said hearing Vaughan's Texas blues guitar at age 12 is what pulled him away from playing clarinet in the school band.

"I took about three years of private guitar lessons," he said earlier this week from his home in downtown San Diego. "I played a lot of blues back when I first started.

"Stevie Ray Vaughan was the first CD I ever had, and I really enjoyed his leads."

Alonzo was in a band in high school, and while Hector said his brother's musical taste didn't jibe with his own, the example of being in a band inspired him.

"He was into Spanish rock; it was more of the principle of the instruments being there that engaged me in being interested in playing," Aramburo said.

In high school, he joined a band of his own as rhythm guitarist, and played his first public shows -- although he said none of them paid.

Aramburo said it was only a few years ago, when he began playing his own songs out around town at area coffeehouses and other acoustic venues, that he finally was paid for playing.

"It was pretty much a fragment of what the cover was," he recalled of that first music-related payment. "It felt pretty nice the first time -- I remember thinking, 'I can be called a professional now.'"

Still, while Aramburo writes his own music and performs around town quite a bit during the summer, once school starts back up in the fall, his full-time vocation is as a student at the New School of Architecture.

"Music is pretty cool, but you have to make money sometime in life," he said.

The heartbreak mentioned above that led to his first effort at songwriting has resulted in about 20 some original songs added to his repertoire in the four years since that first one.

And don't get Aramburo going on all the other ones he's started and abandoned.

"We're talking a pretty good number," he said of his "lost" songs. "I usually work out a verse or two, and if it doesn't stick, it's gone."

By "stick," Aramburo means that he remembers the chord changes and lyrics, because he doesn't record his songs unless they pass the "stick" test.

"I never write them down; I figure if it sticks, then that's good.

"If I really like it, if it feels good, I'll record it -- but for the most part, I leave it in the air."

He'd like to record an album of his music, but said time and money are the constraints preventing that from happening right now. But that album seems likely to come about at some point: Aramburo said that even if music isn't destined to become his profession, it's something he'll always be involved with after the workday is over.

"I love music. I love sitting out in front of people and playing. I don't think I'll ever stop writing."

Hector & Alonzo Aramburo, with Rob Carona and Joseph Diaz

When: 4 p.m. June 20

Where: The Metaphor, 258 E. Second Ave., Escondido

Admission: $6

Info: 760-747-1882 or myspace.com/themetaphorcafe

Web: myspace.com/hectoronline