Come bask in THE SOFT GLOW of ELECTRIC SEX!
This is the World Premiere of us sharing the record LIVE with you.
So excited to explore and get down with you!
8/2/12 9:30pm at The Virgil 4519 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles.
Performing with Andre de Santanna, Leo Costa, Bryan Velasco, Alberto Lopez, Matthew Haze, DJ BNS, and special guests!
http://www.facebook.com/events/466542366707359/
Photo by Piper Ferguson. Album art by Andre de Santanna.
For the album release show, I’m featuring each band member during this upcoming show week! It has been so much fun interviewing the M.U.S.I.C. makers and getting deep into their musical heads and hearts! They are all ridiculously talented, intelligent, true artists and I’m honored to make M.U.S.I.C. with them!
Today’s feature: Alberto Lopez- percussion
Alberto has studied at the world famous Juilliard School of Music and has played with some of the greatest Latin artists in the world! He is also founder and owner of Belu Music. He co-wrote “Abuela,” played on “Overflow,” “Te Necesito,” “Abuela,” and “Dance with Me,” and co-engineered on M.U.S.I.C. I’m so grateful for his brilliance on the album!
-what’s your 1st musical memory?
People in my family singing. Probably hearing my dad singing in the shower.
-what’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened while you are on stage?
One time I was doing a show in Long Beach, maybe 4 years ago, and a woman just ran up on stage pulled her shirt over my head and just held me in place (with her breasts) and shook me… another show- this one isn’t weird but cool … at Napa Valley at an out door festival… the band was playing a song for a Hindu wind Goddess and during the climax of the song a huge gust of wind came and blew the top of the stage off!
-what’s your ultimate dream in music?
I’m already living my dream. I just want to continue living and traveling through music.
-if you weren’t doing music what would you be doing?
I’d either be a carpenter or some kind of linguist or I’d dedicate my life to martial arts (wing chun).
-what are some songs that changed your life?
This is not a song but Mozart’s Requiem struck a chord with me… and another musical moment that made me say ‘wowzer’ that just flipped me upside down was when I saw Baaba Maal in central park, his voice transformed me…
-who are the most influential artists to you and why?
There’s too many. Just skimming over the top- Mozart (everything about him), Giovanni Hidalgo (greatest conga player ever), Ali Farka Toure (singer and guitarist) I love everything about his music. Dizzy Gillespie…
-what makes an amazing song?
One that will touch your soul and stimulate you in any way.
-what’s your theme song?
I just don’t know….
-do you have musical nickname?
A lot of my friends call me Beto but I don’t have a musical one…
-what song were you most likely conceived to?
My parents have such weird musical taste. I don’t know. Probably…. Opera, Cuban music, or a Carlos Gardel song….
-what is the first concert you ever went to?
The symphony orchestra in Medellin (Colombia).
-what is the first album u ever bought?
Probably some vallenato…. When we moved to US it was Staring at the sea by The Cure…
-how can we revolutionize music?
I don’t think we revolutionize music I think music revolutionizes us. Music is beyond us.
-indie or major (what’s the way to go?)
Whatever is truest to your vision… for me it’s indie.
-what inspires you musically?
Anything at a given point and time can spark inspiration I just have to be receptive. I just have to allow it to happen…
-what can an artist do (that you’re backing) to make your job easy and fun?
To be on point… for the artist to their job… the more the artist gives to the performance the band will follow. Lead and we will follow. Really going for it…
-what’s your favorite song from the album?
“Abuela” in my biased opinion because I helped write it- but I really like the whole album…
-advice for up and coming percussionists?
Practice a lot, and be cool… and when it comes to performing give whatever u have…
-what do you hope for the show?
I hope it is the first rumblings of a future cataclysmic event for the world to become aware of you music….
CHECK OUT M.U.S.I.C. myspace.com/andreebelle
http://www.myspace.com/belumusic or www.belumusic.net
our dreams often don’t unfold the way we planned… we can envision our dream becoming a reality, work towards our dream diligently, and trust that the universe (or God) will make everything align and still the dream doesn’t SEEM to come into fruition… but i believe we should dare to adjust our perception and think perhaps this is just a detour, a lesson to be learned before our dream comes true… and perhaps our dream might come true in an even grander way… there are INFINITE POSSIBILITES!!!!…
now that the album is in the completion phase, i can reflect and see the detours to my dreams and the lessons i’ve learned…. here’s the cliffs notes version on the reflection of how i’ve arrived to where i am today…..i grew up singing, knowing this is what i wanted to do… i loved growing up in North Carolina but was super focused on going to NYC after high school to pursue music. unfortunately, i was discouraged by many to go to a place so big where i would be swallowed up by heathens or something like that…so i ended up staying in NC and going to study opera for 2 years at UNCG… (detour: Greensboro, NC) (lesson learned: don’t let anyone tell you where/how you should live your life)… my music education was valuable and i made some great friendships yet i didn’t really get a sense of the music business in the small town of Greensboro… fortunately, my uncle mario heard me sing at my mom’s wedding and encouraged me to come to LA to sing and live with him there. so july 4, 2001, i left to drive across country to explore this other world (because it IS another world)… the first year here i sang back up gigs, made a pop demo (that was supposed to consist of music i wrote but ended up being butchered, over processed, and unauthentic) (lesson learned: make music that truly represents who you are and what you’re about)… also, my dad stopped talking to me i think (i’m still not sure) because he was upset that i was dropping out of school-though i never said i was dropping out it was more of a break really- after a year of adjustment to LA, i ended up going to USC’s School of Music and studying jazz (much more fitting for my love of freedom and improvisation in music)… unfortunately, because i had a jealous, insecure boyfriend i didn’t gig that much- he was very threatened by me collaborating with others (lesson learned: don’t let others hold you back from living your dream- it they’re trying to hold you back they don’t really know how to love you)… also, i was working in a burlesque / gentleman’s club to pay for the other half of my tuition that wasn’t covered with grants…(so many lessons learned there – see my blog on empowerment through our sexuality)… not a very healthy environment… after school i took yet another 2 year detour (i didn’t know how to really go for it… and i was scared)… (detour: The William Morris Agency). after learning a ridiculous amount about the music business (my boss was amazing enough to let me sit in on all the meetings with these music biz geniuses), i still found myself unhappy on the business side of things and not doing what i was meant to be doing- SINGING damn it! (lesson learned: sometimes we have to take detours to gain information that will later help us excel in our dreams!!!). so i did some spiritual work (i need many blogs to express the spiritual work i did and am still doing), i read countless books one called “feel the fear and do it anyway” (i know -bad title but good book for me at the time), i reread “the alchemist” (the book that made me believe in signs and influenced my big move to LA in the first place), also took in “the power of the subconscious mind” and absorbed many, many other books… i’m a queen of inspirational reads- i can send you a list just email me 
… things shifted. i transformed. (well i’m still transforming!) then i just went for it! i even reached out to musicians way beyond my echelon for advice, guidance, and connections. why not? what did i have to lose? (lesson learned: always aim to surround yourself with people that know more than you do in order to grow)… and from reaching out to Prince’s keyboard player, who didn’t have time to produce my record as he was on tour with Prince, i was connected with the super talented Andre De Sant’anna who produced and co-wrote M.U.S.I.C. with me (a dream come true), which has been the last 2 years of my life (along with way too much for this blog – that’s more bio material 40 years from now)… And out of our musical collaboration a deep love flourished… (lessons learned: our dreams sometimes are intertwined (a dream of love and music), sometimes they don’t come true in the way we expect them to, and sometimes they unfold grander than we imagined)…
now to dream a bigger dream
“moments” is a song from M.U.S.I.C. that grew from a poem i wrote awhile ago when my love and i were first starting our relationship… it came out so organically… and one night when dre was playing his upright bass, i started singing the poem…
—-
i lost myself inside your sex / subconscious desires that i suppressed / obsessed until i became possessed / thoughts in my head your soul undressed / in a craze for days / lost in this love maze / finally understood the deep purple haze / can’t count the ways your body gives me praise…
tonight i wanna get lost in u / find myself in the way u move / our love making will be your muse / i can feel your pain / and it’s the sweetest blues…
when the sun comes up / it’s my heart you’ve accrued, renewed, on it is your name tattooed/ they say with no attachment we can never lose / but it’s too late now / eternity together infused / with u there’s nothing i can’t say or do / in the world of life vs. death / it’s a life in love i choose…
tonight i wanna get lost in u / find myself in the way u move / our love making will be your muse / i can feel your pain / and it’s the sweetest blues…
—-
i love sharing lyrics- to me lyrics are just as important as the music in the creation of a song… and when we can take in the lyrics before hearing the music, it takes on new meaning when we eventually do hear the words combined with the melody, instrumentation, and arrangement… there’s also a little operatic part i sing in the background. Diana Booker lends her amazing vocals on the track for the bridge- she gives it some reggae flavor! the mixture of all of these elements makes “moments” very different, can’t wait for you to hear it!!!! it’s become one of my favorites on the album… “moments” of love are coming your way soooooooon (the mixing process has officially begun)!!!!!
