We recently connected with Josh (Josue) Alvarez and have shared our conversation below.
Josh (Josue), we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I was always into music, but I never thought it would be something I would be passionate about it. Now in my age, I love what I do and I’m in a season to use music as a tool for others to find their own purpose.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Hi BoldJourney! I am excited to share a little bit about myself. I hope that my story can motivate others to pursue their dreams and goals. My name is Josue Daniel Alvarez (also known as Josh Alvarez) I was born and raised in Long Island, NY. My parents are from El Salvador and Guatemala I am the 2nd out of 3 children.
At a very young age, I’ve always loved music and I was always curious about how people create content that will attract others. My parents are not musicians, but they enjoyed listening and singing along to some tunes they would play on the radio at home. I already knew from there it wasn’t their passion or something they wanted to pursue as a career. It was more seen as a hobby. My parents couldn’t afford video games. So, most of the time, my siblings and I would just play in our backyard. Until my grandmother bought a Casio piano for my older brother. She wanted my brother to try out a new hobby. But my brother only wanted to play drums. The piano was collecting dust so one day I decided to clean the piano and started to learn basic chords. I wasn’t sure if the piano was the main instrument I wanted to master on.
By the age of 10, I mentioned to my parents, “I want to be an Electric Guitar Player,” my father was about to launch a church. The Music Director at that time heard I wanted to be a Guitar Player and he said “No… we need a drummer.” So, I learned drums, but then the bass player from the church had to move to Pennsylvania. So, my father said to me, “I will take you to a friend’s house to show you how to play bass guitar.” I told my dad I wanted to be a guitar player lol…. nope that still didn’t happen. I took 2 lessons from my dad’s friend, but then he had to move to Miami, FL. Although I only took 2 lessons, he gave me VHS video and music books to learn on my own. We didn’t have YouTube 25 years ago. It was either you went to your local music store and bought books, or you had a private instructor.
From all the material that my instructor gave me, I started to read the back of the books and VHS videos of the names of these bass players: Marcus Miller, Abraham Laboriel, Victor Wooten, Stanley Clarke, James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius, Emmanuel Espinosa (RoJO), Nathan East, and many more. Eventually, I was able to save up money to purchase more VHS/Books. I would get excited after school to just watch videos and learn how to play bass. From that moment, I knew Bass Guitar was the instrument I wanted to pursue. I was grateful that I learned some piano chords because that helped me to understand how to read music sheets.
One of my early breakthroughs came while I was a member of a local band named A.M.O. My 1st concert was on April 29 in a local venue in Brentwood, NY. At that event, A.M.O was going to open for Lakewood Church Spanish Worship Leader and Latin Grammy Nominee Coalo Zamorano. Since that day, I set it to be my anniversary. So, every year on April 29, I celebrate another year of being a musician. A.M.O recorded an album called “Un Latir.” and we began to tour all over the East Coast of the United States, Central & South America as well as The Caribbean. The album was recorded to economically support the Cross-Transcultural Mission. While A.M.O was on tour, the band also helped promote and perform with some Latin Grammy Award-winning Artists from CanZion Group, Vastago Production, Vida Music, and Integrity Music Latin.
In 2006, I became the Music Director for the Ex-Menudo singer Ralphy Rodriguez from Puerto Rico. Ralphy has been a huge teacher and support in my career as a musician. I am very grateful for the mentorship and coaching that he has given to me. 5 years later band separated, and I continued as an independent bass player traveling and touring with many other artists such as:
Alejandra Alberti, Danilo Montero, Samuel Hernandez, Ralphy Rodriguez, Milton Valle, Micheal Rodriguez, Vicente Montaño, Alan Villatoro, Ericson Alexander Molano, Bani Muñoz, Marco Barrientos, Marcos Brunet, Miel San Marcos, Christine D’Clario, Roger Hudson (Background vocalist of Yuri, Alejandra Guzman, Christian Castro, David Bisbal, and Emmanuel), Alex Campos, Daniel Calveti, Coro Tabernaculo Cristiano From Santa Ana California and New York, Juan Carlos Alvarado, Nyack Graduate School Choir, Hector (El Father) Delgado Ramon and many more both Secular and CCM.
I’ve participated in 2 Live recording DVDs and a few local albums:
2010 Journey to Experience with CT Records Journey To Experience took place at the Theater at Madison Square Garden and in Roseland Ballroom in New York City on May 29, 2010. with over 10,000 attending that evening. I recorded Acoustic Guitar for Tabernaculo Cristiano Choir in Santa Ana California.
2011 Journey to Experience with CT Records Journey To Experience took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California on August 13, 2011. Over 12,000 attendees were at the event. I participated in Bass Guitar for Vee Reyes and Acoustic Guitar for Coro Tabernaculo Cristiano Santa Ana California.
In 2011, I was asked by Jason Abel Aguilar, who has written and produced over 10 albums under his independent record label (CT Records Base in Santa Ana, California). to become Music Director at CTNY in Wantagh, NY. From there I started my recording studio JA Studios and started networking with many musicians from different parts of the USA and Latin America.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
As I look back, learning computers, softwares, being versatile in music are great skills but nobody ever teaches us to these other 3 skills:
-Being patients,
-Avoid being prideful
-Have the heart to pour out to others
From my experience, it has not been a smooth road; I would say any musician would tell you that it isn’t easy. There are many struggles you can face, including depression, loneliness, sacrifice in a relationships, and money. But with hard work and dedication, you will get there.
I have struggled not having a teacher to show me how to play my instrument correctly in my first 5 years of playing bass. By the time I got to Middle School/High School, I finally took music theory classes and I started to practice the simple chords I used to play on the Casio piano my grandmother brought. Which I am very grateful for because it helped me so much. I would also say trying to get connected to people in the music industry was very tough.
Most musicians start out as being “The Roadie” who picked up cables, mics, stands, and amps, I hated it, but I knew that I had to experience this to get somewhere. I remember one of my 1st few roadie trips. I told the touring manager, “My band can perform with the Artist with live music!” We did not ask for money or anything; it was just our opportunity to branch out as musicians. The coordinator said, “OK, you have 2 weeks to learn 15 songs.” The night of the event, we were prepared to play with the artist. As the band started to walk up to the stage with the main act. The coordinator for the night said, “You guys will not perform with the artist.” My band was heartbroken; we’ve worked hard to rehearse 15-30 songs. That is something that I will never forget. There are other struggles that are worse than that event. But these things happen, and they are events that made me stronger. At times felt like just giving up, but I didn’t stop dreaming.
This is where the 3 skills I mention come in:
-Being patients: Practice makes perfect and you will see people will notice your craft and you will be called
-Avoid being prideful: Although I was turned down for some major events, because of my humbleness another opportunity was available and it open up more doors to travel across across USA and Central America.
-Have the heart to pour out to others: My Band was turned down to many events, but we decided to give Master Classes to children and Adults to get better on there instruments.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
I believe that the biggest growth area I have had in the past 12 months has been to remain being humble to everyone. As well as being willing to always motivate people to dream big. It doesn’t have to be just in music, it can be anything.
I remember in the beginning stage of learning about the music career this was something I’ve always wanted. Someone who can believe in me and pour out their time into me.
Most musicians want exposure and a spotlight, some of them want to be on a platform to get noticed. That is great but many times when we get so caught up focusing on ourselves we forget to give back to the community. I will speak for myself I love role models who are humble and can inspire me to achieve more challenges that I face in my craft regardless of their age.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://about.me/josuealvarez
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/josue.alvarez
- Twitter: https://x.com/i/flow/login?redirect_after_login=%2Fjoshuadalvarez1
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/josuedanielalvarez
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/joshuadalvarez1
Image Credits
Photos Taken by Josh Alvarez
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
