We recently connected with Los Alva and have shared our conversation below.

Los, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’d like to think that nearly all of my musical endeavors are meaningful to me as I draw heavily from my personal experience. My newest project was inspired by the difficulties that I have been dealing with the this year which stem from a variety of places in my life such as relationships, friendships, family, and mental health.

The album is titled “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Heartbreak” which was inspired by the movie “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. I was watching that movie and could heavily relate to the main character’s struggle to find peace, deal with his love for another person who doesn’t see them the way he wishes they would, and how the challenges that come with him losing his home. I could relate to how he rolled with the punches because in reality that’s all we could do.
The album consist of 9 songs that touch on different aspects of my life for example Track 1 “Luvly” I spoke about the loss of a relationship and how I would have to restart, learning to love myself again.
Track 9 “Waterfront” speaks on the loss of friendships and difficulties connecting with others throughout life.
Track 8 “Nobody” speaks on finding solidarity and love within myself which proves I do not need to depend on anyone else for love.

This project was made over the course of a few months and features some production from my boy XACK “Flux” and “Real”. It was entirely recording in my apartment living room and engineered by me just like the last record.

I’d say this is my most meaningful project as each song stemmed from the emotional ups and downs of my everyday life. I hope that when others hear it they can relate and gain a sense of comfort knowing that we all go through this moments of pain in our lives. If anything, we can relate on living a human experience.

Los, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I had never really been exposed to making music in the early parts of my childhood. I got introduced to writing poetry and raps when I was young but I never learned how to play an instrument. I would just keep writing verses over instrumentals but soon after I realized nobody wanted to listen to a 3 minute songs of straight bars with no hook. That’s when I started to focus on learning how to write catchy hooks, writing songs with themes and learning what it took to make what I believed to be a “Good song”.

While at San Francisco State I taught myself how to make beats, which had been the biggest roadblock for me as I hated having to spend time on YouTube looking for beats that I could use. I had no experience with playing piano or any instrument but through trial and error I eventually started making basic melodies and chord progressions. Sampling had always been a strong suit of mine, that aftermath of growing up listening to artists like Pharrell, Blu & Exile, Kanye, and the many artists that Dr. Dre produced for.

The next challenge after making my own beats was teaching myself to record and mix my own songs. As a college kid working as a car detailer, I barely made enough money to pay my bills so spending money on going to a studio to record my music wasn’t much of an option for me. This lead me to start watching tutorials on YouTube on how to mix vocals and beats and the tracking process. I would also soak up game from anyone who was willing to share it with me. Shoutout to Rossy, he was a big factor in learning how to use particular plugins and helped me develop a great understanding on how mixing/mastering worked overall. These days I feel really confident in my ability to mix, produce and write music. I look forward to working with artists either as a producer, engineer, or song writer.

I’d love to say I’m most proud of my ability to attempt different genres and provide my audience with a large range of choices when it comes to musical styles, one day I might give you bars over a boom bap beat and the next day I might give you some soulful R&B. If there’s anything I’d want fans to know is that I’m always looking to gain inspiration from other forms of music and I’m always excited to meet people especially after shows. I have found that being able to connect with you guys and learn more about you is a very big reward to me as an artist. I’m very thankful for every fan that I get and I’m always looking forward to sharing more releases with you guys and the world.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’d say something I had to unlearn was the belief that you have to try to make a “Hit song”. I spent a very long time attempting to make music in the style of what was popular in hopes that I could land a radio placement and “blow up” overnight. That is a very exhausting mindset to have because I felt like I was constantly trying to make music for everyone else not making music that I felt like making. I’ve realized that what I consider a “hit” is a lot different than what the average person or a record label would consider a hit song. Now I just focus on making the music that comes directly from my own creative expression and I feel like I have been able to provide the world with more honest and music with more quality content.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission that drives my creative journey is definitely becoming the artist that inspires others. Growing up, the artist that I listened to provided me with a sense of connection, wisdom, and perspective that I had not been able to find on my own. Now as an artist, I intend on showing my listeners who I am as an individual and share my experiences in hopes that I can be that artist for someone. I have never been the type of artist that needs love or attention from the world but I do enjoy spreading love to the world around me. If I can make someone’s day better by providing some good music, that’s all I could ever ask for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/LosAlva
• Instagram: Los_Alva
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@OfficialLosAlva?si=sXVROFVcjZ0y0QRp

Image Credits
Milaad Seresht