We were lucky to catch up with Gustavo Angeles recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gustavo , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on, is the one I’m currently working on.
It’s an International collaboration with musicians from Cuba, Mexico, and the United States, thanks to the “Artists Back to work” program from the City of Phoenix Arts department.
Winning this grant has allowed me to travel to Havana, Cuba last month for ten days to produce and collaborate with a handful of incredible Cuban musicians, including our special guests artists, the legend of Cuban lute, Barbarito Torres from Buena Vista Social Club, emerging artist Yarima Blanco on Tres Cubano, and my son Roman Angeles on Lute on the upcoming single “Menéate pa acá”, co-written by Gustavo Angeles and producer/arranger/guest artist Joey Navarro, Recorded at the iconic Egrem studios in Havana, as well in Los Angeles, California and my home studio in Arizona.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Gustavo Ángeles is a passionate guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer.
He can combine a fusion of Latin Rock musical styles, including Flamenco, Blues, Afro-Cuban and Latin American influences in his music.
The ability to play different styles has given Gustavo the opportunity to travel the world in places like Cuba, Sweden, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico,Puerto Rico, all over the East and West coast of the United States, opening for acts like Maná, Juanes, Jorge Santana, Tito Puente Jr, Ozomatli, Los Lobos, and Arturo Sandoval, just to name a few.
In 2014, Gustavo’s music was licensed for two episodes of East Los High, a five-time Emmy-nominated Hulu original series.
With a 25 year career experience, His newest musical achievements are attending the 5.0 Vai Academy in New York, where he studied with the legendary guitar virtuosos Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Andy Timmons, he also had the opportunity to share the stage with Steve Vai, Andy Timmons and Larry Mitchell.
He studied and collaborated in the recording studio with the eminence of pre-Columbian instruments and artist, Xavier Quijas Axayotl (credits in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto), as an apprentice of the different ancient, Aztec / Meshica drums and sounds.
He participated in a guitar competition in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was chosen by the legendary Mexican Rockstars Maná as the winner and invited to perform a song with them in a packed stadium of 20,000 people at Talking Stick Arena, where he was awarded a Gibson guitar signed by the band itself.
In 2022, he was invited to participate in the prestigious “Mole de Mayo” festival in Chicago, representing Mexico among other artists from Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador and Spain.
A new collaboration came to fruition with Steve Vai’s backing band, Jeremy Colson (drums) and Philip Bynoe (bass) on his latest single “Eagle Warrior” (Guerrrero Aguila), where he fuses pre-Columbian sounds with Rock.
He was nominated, and awarded with ‘Nosotros Award” for best local Rock en Español Artist in September 2022 Following a live performance at the prestigious Orpheum Theater.
For this 2024, He’s the recipient of the Artist to Work Grant from the Phoenix Department of arts and Culture , for his commitment to continous artistic growth.
This grant fund will allow Ángeles to travel to Cuba, Mexico, and California to produce a body of original work, a music collaboration between musicians from United States, Cuba, and Mexico.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Sometimes getting fired is the best thing that can happen to you…
Got fired from my first professional band at 17, because I could only play Rock music. I didn’t know how to play other styles of music.
I remember I was so inexperienced; I had to learn 5 sets worth of music from Latin jazz, Brazilian bossa novas, to salsa, pop, rock, etc.
It proved to be too much for me, and after my first few professional gigs with the “New Show”, the band leader dropped me home one night and told me:
“You have a lot of talent, but you only know how to play rock music. We need someone that can play all styles, so I’m gonna let you go. Go back to study”
This broke my heart so much that I quietly wept in my bed that night… (remember, I was a kid, 😆 )
I wanted so badly to be a MUSICIAN, so for the next several weeks I put everything I had, locked myself in my room to learn their repertoire with the help of my brother Emi Angeles, even though I knew I wouldn’t probably play with them again.
After a month or so, they called me again. I was ready this time!
I lasted with them a year or two. I quit the band and went with another one, then moved to Cancun, therefore starting a career in music that has lasted now more than 30 years.
Getting fired was the best thing happened to me.
I also never fired someone that didn’t deserved it, not because of lack of talent, but because of inflated egos, poor work ethic, and disrespect.
At the end of the day YOU decide how you react, you either create value out of it, or get offended because you think you are the sh*t.
So much music to learn and create, so little time we get to live pursuing it.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
It’s rewarding for me as a musician just to be able to create a piece of music out of my mind, the process of writing the first verses of the song, the chord progressions, the message; how it starts all coming along in the preproduction stages. Double that reward when the recording sessions start; adding all the real instruments, the imprint and personality of other musicians and their talent adds to the finished product !
Contact Info:
- Website: https://gustavoangeles.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gangeles_music/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gustavo.angeles.12
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9IMSwBQP5KajGZtejKuhrA?view_as=subscriber
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2VXe6GSIsccGfZDXyTTFwx?si=7FNgkxC9SRC8AYKvkA-iKA
Image Credits
Harald Heinkum