I first became aware of Radio Elei through facebook postings and my initial reaction was that they were just another pop band with pretty girls singing.
But after watching their first video, “Luz En La Oscuridad”, I quickly changed my mind when I heard the hypnotic bass intro, then a catchy guitar riff that played over the bass drum, followed by a second guitar coming in with crashing chords and finally, powerful female voices that took the song to a whole new level. After experiencing this, I just knew I had to watch them live.
Radio Elei is an independent pop/rock band fronted by the beautiful sisters, Isabella and Natalia Espinoza, with Vicentico Ronquillo on guitars, Gabriel Lorenzo on drums, and David Delamora on bass.
Radio Elei has been getting a lot of attention lately as they recently played at the pre-concert festivities for Super Estrella’s La Tocada at the Gibson Amphitheater. Radio Elei was also featured on MundoFox and they also headlined the Conga Room for the release of their EP, “Radio Elei”.
On Thursday, August 22nd, at the Sunset House of Blues, I finally got the chance to see Radio Elei perform live and I wasn’t disappointed at all. In fact, I was very impressed by the band’s stage presence, and their live sound.
Radio Elei has a tight sound that could be considered pop rock, as it has certain pop hooks, but the sound of the band is based around heavy guitars chords, urgent bass lines and drum beats that give their music a hard rock energy that will have you playing air guitar and air drums as well as dancing.
After their performance, I spoke to the band and here’s a little taste of what we talked about:
Interview with Radio Elei
When I asked the band how the name came about, Natalia responded: “We wanted something unique, and we wanted to represent our city, L.A., but we spelled it in Spanish. We also wanted to capture our Latino influence, this way it could crossover to both English and Spanish speaking audiences.”
Different musical influences can be heard on Radio Elei’s music so I asked how they came up with the sound and their answer was: “The boys are usually the ones who put the “guts” into the music and we (the girls) come up with the lyrics, but we all participate in the song writing process. We also have different musical influences and taste in music, but we are able to bring in all those influences into the creative process.”
When I asked the girls who their singing influences were, without hesitation, Isabella responded, “’my sister, even if it sounds corny, but I just love her voice and the way she sings’. Natalia replied: ‘Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Joan Jett, Gwen Stefani and Hayley Williams, singer from Paramore.’”
The Radio Elei EP will be available for download any day now, but in the mean time, their music can be heard on soundcloud and you can watch Radio Elei perform live at the next Women That Rock concert on September 19, at the King King in Hollywood along with Wonderfox, Tainted Throne and Kanvaz.
Check out their video “Luz En La Oscuridad”
