[HA for DROKU] Alfa Makes Music

DROKU: At what age did you start singing and writing music?
ALFA G: 13.  But I started music at 5.

DROKU: How did you start as an artist?
ALFA: I just stumbled into it.  I wanted to learn songs by my favorite artists and bands, and then realized I couldn’t sound like them. So I decided to try writing my own songs and to just sound like myself.

DROKU: Who encouraged you to start singing and who has been your biggest inspiration as a singer, songwriter?
ALFA: I don’t know if anyone necessarily encouraged me to start singing. I was always more of an instrumentalist as a child.  It just came to me, and my family members were my first supporters.

DROKU: How would you describe your music to your listeners?
ALFA: A friend of mine once coined the term “hydraulics for the heart” to describe my music. That’s fairly accurate. Another is “floetry” – a term I used a long time ago. I think it’s kind of cheesy now, but it comes from me writing songs based [on] the poetry I’d write.

DROKU: Who do you wish to collaborate in the future?
ALFA: Melissa Polinar – who’s become a good friend in the last year – and I have talked about doing a collab, but we’ve never been able to be in the same place long enough.

DROKU: You participated in Kollaboration Acoustic 3. What was it like performing on the same stage as AJ Rafael, Megan Lee, Mike Isberto, Gabe Bondoc and others?
ALFA: At the time, it was such a new experience for me. I hadn’t been out to L.A. too many times yet, and it was the first time meeting people like AJ, Mike, Gerald [Ko], Jinah and Megan (I think I met Gabe back in MN in 2008), so it was just fun to hang out with cool, talented new friends.

DROKU: At Kollaboration Acoustic 3, you won the grand prize with Mike Isberto. How did it feel?
ALFA: Very awesome.

DROKU: You and Mike Isberto entered Kollaboration 10 as a duo – how did you decide to enter together?
ALFA: I think they had told us we either had to compete for the spot or go in together. We thought going in together would be a fun challenge. Plus we wouldn’t have to fight over who got to go.

DROKU: What was some difficulty you faced while practicing with Mike and also how did it feel performing with somebody else instead of a solo?
ALFA: The distance was the biggest challenge; Skype and iChat both have delays on their signal. But luckily, I was in LA doing another show just two weeks before Kollab 10, so we spent hours working on our original song.

DROKU: Have you participated in any major auditions?
ALFA: Yes. American Idol and The Voice.

DROKU: Are you working on anything at the moment?
ALFA: Yes, I’m writing right now.

DROKU: What is your favorite song you have ever written?
ALFA: I can’t even choose! I think of them all as my children who I love equally.

DROKU: What has been your favorite performance and why?
ALFA: I’ve had a lot of really fun performances – it’s hard to pick.  I guess since we’ve been mentioning Kollab, I will say that KNY 2010 was a lot of fun. I played at the Highline Ballroom and it was just me and my bassist on his upright bass. We played “Isabelle,” which is a French-English song. And everything just vibed great with the audience (and we won 2nd).

DROKU: Do you do music full time?
ALFA: Right now it’s full time. I had been working as a journalist for about three years in NJ, and I just moved to LA a few weeks ago.

DROKU: What do you want to accomplish in your music career?
ALFA: I want it to become a sustainable career.   I’m fairly realistic; I know not everyone can become a big “star,” but I think the fulfillment doesn’t lie in trying to be the next Lady Gaga. It’s in molding a career that can last and lets you stay true to yourself. I think that goes for any career. Not just music. And of course, I’m a Libra, so I’m all about balance, balance, balance!