We recently connected with Alfonso Chávez “alf” and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Alfonso, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
I think music or any other arts do not necessarily require the same work ethic you would use at a more traditional job since it is a very personal experience, but if you’re working for someone, you do have to keep a certain level of decency (learning the material, being aware of deadlines and try not to be a burden to your boss and collaborators). When it comes to how I work, you know what they say “you are what you eat”. I think the best way to keep your creativity flowing is by always feeding your mind things that you are not necessarily familiar with. In my case as a musician, I try to listen to all sorts of things in a wide variety of styles from all around the world, and I do not limit myself to my medium because I think there’s some great stuff you can learn from other mediums that will help you, but I think the most important thing is to live; just go out there and do stuff, there’s so many things out there, and there’s at least one waiting for you. But it is very important to not keep things in the world of imagination because it ain’t real until you have it in tangible from.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m Alf and I like to make stuff.
I was born in Mexico City and ever since I was a kid I’ve enjoyed making stuff, from crafting things at home or school with whatever I had, to drawing and making comics with my original characters, and later in life, I discovered music which has since then become my life passion and the reason why I moved to LA.
When people ask me what I do, I always have a hard time explaining it, since I don’t really understand the nature of it myself. It just kinda happens; I just go around doing stuff and sometimes see things that catch my eye, or hear someone say something cool, or read about something interesting and I either see colors or hear music, then I get to work, and end up with a demo, which depending on the style that I ended up with will end up with my band Dead at the Bar or as something else, if that’s the case I will pick some of my friends based on their taste and skills (with my long time collaborator Sebastian Gerges, usually being on the list) and make it happen. I think the most exciting part about my work is that I get to explore a lot of things in the search for the right sound, and that I get to meet some very interesting people, something that I also enjoy is the fact that with the way music works I also get to explore my interest in painting and crafting things when it comes to designing how my projects are going to look. I don’t really like to limit it only to my own work, I love to use my skills to help others too, wether it is as a co writer, producer guitar player or just make a cool flyer for a band show, I just enjoy doing this and hope one day this is big enough to pay the bills.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the most impactful quality not only in my career journey, but my whole life has been curiosity, which is why I get excited about learning new things and why I always like to explore new possibilities, everything that has been impactful in my journey is for the most part empirical knowledge that I’ve gotten from messing up along with some of the things taught to me in school or college.
If I had to give some advice to anyone starting their journey, it would be to not be scared of failure. I think growing up there’s many factors that make us scared of failure, and I think school plays a big part of it, if your grades are not good, you’re gonna get grounded, made fun of and if you do not get better you will start hearing teachers say you will be a failure in life. Giving failure that negative connotation and using it during the most important formative moments in life, only manages to inspire fear in the students other than helping them see failure as a chance for improvement. So don’t be scared of failure, learn from your mistakes, and overall don’t expect different results unless you change your process.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am currently trying to get as many things as I can done which is why for the last couple months I have just been looking for collaborators. I am open to anything from people looking for someone to write music with, a guitar player, or people who just want some cool art for the band. The only things I ask is for you to either bring me a cool project/idea or to pay me for my work. I think many people don’t really appreciate the work an artist puts into creating, especially in today’s world where everything is just a click away and they try to take advantage of you and either pay you very little if they even pay you, or promise you money and then disappear or use the excuse that you are just starting and they’re giving you “experience” or “exposure”, but I think being an artist has as much merit as any other honest way of making a living, and thus you deserve to be paid properly for your work.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Vitor Siqueira
Alf
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
