A few weeks ago, I attended a concert presented by the East L.A. Art Walk where several musical acts were playing and one of those artists was Alé. Ale’s band had a tight sound, thoughtful and powerful lyrics and such a great stage presence that I thought to myself, “where has this guy been?”
As it turns out, Alé is a new project by Alé Gonzalez Gomez, a musician who has been in the music scene for many years. Alé grew up in Los Angeles playing in punk bands in East L.A. and for his current solo project he is digging into his musical upbringing and blending Latin music, electronica and Hip Hop and developing his own sound, a sound that is accompanied by deep, soulful and heartfelt lyrics.
With two recordings under his belt, his 2011 debut, an EP titled Acoustic Noise and a full length album titled Irregular Heartbeat, Alé Is quickly making a name for himself in the L.A. Latin alternative scene and with gigs at venues like The Mint, The Airliner and Los Globos, he is quickly earning new followers.
To find out more about his music and where he came from, I had the opportunity to chat with Alé and here’s a recap of our conversation:
Al Borde (AB): Seeing your perform at the East L.A. Art Walk, I saw and heard a band that was obviously well seasoned, a band that knew what it was doing on the stage; performance wise, and a very tight sound, but very few people knew about you, where have you been?
Alé: I had an English rock band for 12 years, it was called Drifted and we played hard rock with a little bit of punk in it. In those 12 years, I tried to reinvent the band 3 times. The first one was like the first chapter, then the 2nd one was not as good and then the third time, I really thought I had found the right version and we were going to reach some type of success, but right before we were getting ready to record our first full length album, which was going to be produced by the original drummer of The Offspring, but personal and creative differences arose within the band and the project came to an end. I could easily look at those 12 years as a waste of time and money or I could and choose to see it as a learning experience and knowing what not to do and at the same time gaining a lot of experience that is now paving the way for my current and future projects.
AB: How did you handle having to give up on something you worked on so long and so hard for?
Alé: There was a lot of heartache; this band was my life for 12 years and for about year after ending the band, I fell into a major depression, and I was basically bed ridden and miserable, and to top it off, at that time I was into my 2nd year my now 4 years of sobriety. For many years I was an agnostic, or was on the fence about whether I wanted to be a spiritual being or wondering if God really existed, but during this period I came to the realization and had a spiritual awakening that has led me to believe that God really does exists and I would not have picked myself up from my depression without the love and the power of God and now I truly believe that there is a higher power and I would like for people to believe on something bigger than themselves.
AB: How did this new solo project come about?
Alé: During my depression, I finally hit bottom and I felt that I had to do something about it and get out of my misery and I felt that if God had given me the gift of music, then I had to use it and I began to think about creating music again, but this time, I didn’t want to set any boundaries for myself and that is why I dug into my Latin roots and began to mix in all the influences that were around me and I had grown up with.
AB: Tell us about your musical influences:
Alé: I would have to say that aside from music, one of my main influences is my mother, because when I was a kid I would ride on the passenger side in her car and she would play all these “romanticas” and that was always in my subconscious mind ever since I was a kid. Also when I was a kid I would go down to Mexico and I would help an uncle who was building a house and he was always playing Spanish rock music like Soda Stereo, Maná and others and growing up here in Boyle Heights I was also influenced by electronic music and hip-hop and also I was really into Nirvana. I vividly remember watching the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I was actually asleep and I heard the opening chords and it woke me up and at the end of that video I stood up and I knew that I wanted to make music.
AB: Are you working on any new music at that moment?
Alé: I am working on a 7 song EP, 4 songs in Spanish and 3 in English and we are barely in the beginning stages and I am financing this project myself and as you know it is not easy being a musician and sometimes we have to take on other jobs in order to finance your projects. I am also working on a video for a song from my previous album, for a song called “El Presente”, which is a rock en español song with a cumbia vibe.
To find out more about Ale, you can visit his official website www.oodreamtime.com and you can also follow him on facebook and Youtube.
