Alex LaRosa: High School Musician
- Nov 11, 2014
- 6 min read
By: Omar Ateyah,
Staff Writer
I have reviewed Alex LaRosa’s epic song “Concept” for you right here. Take a look!
Review: Alex LaRosa is a high school musician with great ability and outstanding potential. His song "Concept" is the perfect potion of theme and rock and roll. Not only is he a catalyst for future and budding musicians, he is also an inspiration with his messages. He is a master on the guitar and his voice is hippy with a touch of awesome grunge.
FInd the song below:
I also got the chance to interview Alex! Here are the questions that I sent him and his answers to them.
What was your inspiration for this song?
Some of my song ideas can be somewhat strange, but this was a simple idea. The inspiration behind “Concept” was that I was essentially writing a song about writing songs. My chorus talks about the fleeting nature of songwriting ideas, and how I need to write down my ideas quickly or else I’ll forget them and be disappointed. So it’s a very simple idea here; just writing about how challenging it can be to convert a good idea into a finished song.
How long have you been a part of the music industry and what made you interested?
I had been writing songs since I was about 14 or 15, but I really began to take songwriting and music seriously when I started taking guitar lessons at 17. From there, I worked with my teacher on music theory and songwriting, and now I am hoping to go into this field professionally. I’ve been featured on a few recordings by local artists and with luck that will continue. As they say, if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life, and with music, it’s never tedious, never a bore, and always exciting for me, whether I’m playing a simple pop song in a studio or learning a technical metal solo.
Why do you believe this song is appropriate for young people?
Well, this goes back to my answer in question 1. A lot of my genre of music can be inappropriate for younger audiences, but as an artist, I try to keep my songs clean. Nobody ever said “I wish that artist swore more,” but sometimes people are turned off by the prevalence of profanity and ugly themes. Therefore, as a business decision, if nothing else, I keep my songs clean lyrically and more or less clean theme-wise. Of course, that’s not to say I just ignore real life. In fact, I’d say that metal and alternative music focuses the most of real people’s issues, more so than any other genre of music. But I have refined my craft to the point where I don’t need to use certain words or terms to express my message, and therefore, pretty much all of my album on YouTube is safe for young ones. Perhaps they’ll be disturbed by the musical parts, as I use a lot of dark modes and some angry vocals in my songs, but generally, what I say is perfectly fine for younger fellows.
How do you believe this song will affect people?
This isn’t necessarily the most life-changing song I’ve written, but every time I play it, I get good reactions. When I played this song live at the Berklee College of Music this past summer, two different people described the song as “gnarly.” I’m not 100% sure what exactly that means, but they both liked it… So apparently this song is gnarly! It’s a hard-rocking song with words that one can sing in public without getting nasty looks from passers-by, so I would say that the biggest effect it might have is just to give a listener something good to rock out to.
What kind of support have you received from your friends and family?
Without friends and family, it would be much harder to do what I do. For my album on YouTube, I did pretty much everything myself. The one exception there is that I co-arranged the song with a friend from Berklee, but other than that, it was really a one-man effort. That being said, playing shows and working with my musician friends would be hard without the support I get for my musical ambitions.
How does being in an online school expand your opportunities as an artist?
I would say that it works both ways. Going to an online school means that I get to keep expanding my knowledge, which leads to all sorts of fancy words and concepts (no pun intended) in my songs. I mean, who else would write a song about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, as I have, besides an iCademy student? But at the same time, not going to a brick-and-mortar school means I don’t have a ready-made circle of friends to jam with and get feedback from.
Who are some of your inspirations?
My inspirations as a songwriter and musician have evolved over the years, but generally, I can list a few bands and artists as my main sources of inspiration. Lately, I have become attracted to long instrumental sections, attached to lyrics that describe universal truths and how people as a group have so much more to do… For those who know the band, I think many would be reminded of Avenged Sevenfold in those songs. Other times, I like to play with difficult musical ideas such as harmonizing, where two guitars play two different notes and it makes a chord. That’s an idea I got from studying the songs of Bullet for My Valentine. Lyrically, I love the “it’ll be okay” brand of metal that the band Crossfade perfected in their self-titled release. I also love the catchy hooks of Three Days Grace, and I often write songs that mimic that catchiness and memorable lines.
Generally, as a side note, I think that rock and roll as it used to be is more or less dead. There are some bands out there—I won’t name names—that pose as rock but are really a rock band with pop lyrics and very bad vocals. So another one of my big aspirations is to “bring back rock and roll”… Essentially, let’s go back to where one could turn on rock radio and hear Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, the Doors, Tool, Breaking Benjamin, and all sorts of other bands that have been replaced by whiny singers and their decent backing bands.
If you could pass on only one message through your music, what would it be and why?
Now here’s a tough question. I try to communicate a lot of things through my songs, but if one were to listen all the way through my YouTube album “More Than a Half-Truth,” I think the overall impression would be that life is tough, but within that, there is beauty and possibility. In one of the songs, I say “I’ve been to hell and back.” The important part is not having been to hell, but that one can end the phrase with “and back.” In another song, I’m essentially giving praise to guitar-playing, and in a small Alice in Chains reference, I say “you open my eyes and sew them shut”. That’s an interesting line and could be taken many ways, but what I mean is that music can open my eyes to the good in life and shut my eyes from the bad. So if I had to communicate one single message, I think it would be summed up by one more song: “You will learn to pick yourself up / even when the sky is grey and the tide is rough… It gets better from here.”
How do you hope music will affect your career in the future?
In an ideal world, I would become a professional musician. So therefore, I hope that music will be all around me in my future. Even if I cannot do it for a living, I want to keep music in my life, and while I may not be able to play as much as I’d want, I will still keep that hobby forever.
Finally, what's next for you?
Another good question here. I have a few plans for the future, but for now, things are a little unclear. I’ve been putting together a band with another guitarist and a drummer; so now, in the immediate future, I suppose I’ll be looking around for a bassist. Also, I’ve been writing a lot of new songs, some of which I might record and put on my YouTube page. Whatever the future brings, I’m confident that this will not be the last you hear of me!
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