Recording Connection graduate Angelina Alvarado: A Recording Studio for her Tribe

Recording Connection grad Angelina Alvarado (Valley Center, CA) is a someone who’s trying to make the world a better place through music: “I live on a reservation. I’m from San Pasqual Indian reservation, and I think it will be a good opportunity, you know, to give back to the community….Once we get the studio going one of my goals is to have people in the community and especially the younger generation, if they want to sing, you know, or if they have ideas, to come [into the studio] and we can try and put things together.”

Younger people would have a safe place to come and get their thoughts and feelings out in a healthy, productive manner. Alluding to her own slightly checkered youth, Angelina says, “It can be hard, you know, as a teenager, especially up here. Everything’s so easy to get a hold on, you know, like you can get caught up in like alcohol and drugs and stuff…The youth, you know, sometimes, they just need someone to talk to but they don’t know how to express themselves. So maybe, you know, they sing or, you know, rap or something, and that’s how they express themselves. Maybe I can help them with that. Sometimes you just need someone to talk to and be there and just encourage them, so hopefully coming from being there, you know, I can kind of relate to them and help them.”

Angelina’s vision for a community recording studio came into focus during her externship with Josquin des Pres at Track Star Studios (Jack Johnson, Tech 9, Dr. Dre) in San Diego. A drummer whose interest in recording was piqued by watching the crew setup at Reggae shows, Angelina soon discovered she loved the hands-on nature of the work and the craft involed in getting a good recording.

Interfacing with Josquin and other working engineers demystified many of the processes involved and enabled Angelina to get a real world view of what a recording studio is and how it funtions. She even recorded, edited, and mixed her husband’s music while at Track Star Studios as part of her final assignment.

Now, the female drummer has big plans for herself and her tribe. Part community center, part community recording studio, the facility she would function as a place to create new music of any genre, to record poetry as well as the traditional tribal songs handed down from the past.