It was back in 2008, during the ‘wild, wild west’ phase of online music sharing (with torrents and .rar files making it easier for independent projects to distribute themselves), that we first became familiarized with the sweet voice of Alex Ferreira.
A single from Ferreira’s EP, Serenata de Plastico, had ended up in our music library from some obscure source online; and while it was incredibly pop leaning, it was enough for us to take note of this new talent. Two years later, Alex would be featured on the 10th volume of a compilation put out by the music blog Clubfonograma, entitled Fonogramaticos.
Alex submitted to the blog’s open call for covers and ended up with two featured. One was a collaboration with Venezuelan musician Ulises Hadjis of Carla Morrison’s “Como Es”, and the other was of El Guincho’s classic, “Bombay”. Both stood out as great interpretations, but what really caught our ear was his ability to build on the subtle pop structures already contained in both songs and convert them into pop songs entirely.
He’s since released 4 studio albums all with his unique sincerity and rawness. His 2015 release Cinema Tropical got a bit electronic, with upbeat synths, and his latest album Canapé (2017) took more of a singer/songwriter approach and brought back acoustic guitars to produce a sound that could be classified as modern Trova.
And, if for some reason this isn’t your cup of tea, he’s got a side project that focuses on his love of Caribbean and tropical music that is a bit more traditional. It’s called Alex Ferreira y el Frente Caribe and it has tracks that border on bachata and soca.
We feature him today on Pan Caliente, as we look forward to seeing him perform in Mexico City in 2 weeks at a small and intimate showcase.
(header photo c/o artist, carousel photo c/o Marigen Moreno)