Rising Stars: Meet Ingredient 10 of Long Beach, Ca

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ingredient 10.

Hi Ingredient 10, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
This band was started with the purpose of gathering band members eager to explore a vast musical spectrum and be willing to step outside of the box. This band creates original music, with fragments of early music from all over the world, but in a modern garage band setting; electric instruments and synthesizer. In the past years, we have had the joy of introducing audiences from all ages to music that they might have never heard. A lot of the ideas are a melting pot of several cultures, genres etc, and the other half is created by Jesus (singer/guitarist) recently, our drummer (Vanessa ) and guitarist / singer (Laura) have begun to write complete songs on their own. Everyone has put a piece of themselves into this band. Some through altering their parts, or writing their own alternate ideas or complete songs. We expect to evolve with every record we put out!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a fairly smooth road. Ingredient 10 as a band has always been a very welcoming and honest group of friends which makes working on a project like this easy to manage and enjoyable. Most of the struggles happen outside of the band. For instance, work life balance, surviving as musicians in this economic climate while also trying to be more involved in the community. We wish there was more time for all the projects we want to start. We’d love to support more DIY venues by playing more shows or showing up to events. Time is rare to come by when you also have a full time career or juggling multiple jobs just to stay afloat, which is something a lot of people- not just creatives- can relate to. It takes a lot of guts to go on tour and put your career on pause. You can risk your financial stability by prioritizing something other than the job that pays the bills and allows you to do the things you love to do. That being said, we don’t think we’d ever give up music entirely whether we had the means to or not. There is a lot of political tension right now and basic human rights are at risk every day. Sometimes music is all you’ve got to keep the community hopeful and understood and that’s something we all value.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
One answer that ties all of these questions together is the fact that we value having fun above everything else. We are a group of individuals with a lot of passion and natural sense of responsibility to mature as musicians and the way we encourage that is by not setting limits. For some bands this may not work and leads to one person carrying the band but luckily we have found individuals who truly want to be a part of something different and expansive. We choose to show up without pressure and whoever doesn’t is going to have a hard time keeping up. The way we work requires a lot of freedom and it shows when we play live or write material. Our performances are full of energy, spontaneity and somehow still very cohesive. Even when things are recorded and released, it doesn’t stop us from revisiting, rewriting or embellishing our music. Another notable aspect that sets us apart is the music gear we use. A lot of our sound is distinguishable because of the access we have to a plethora of vintage instruments provided by our main vocalist, Jesus Salas, who collects, rents and sells pieces of valuable music history. Now add that with our limitless passion and you get an audible infinite journey.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Most people are surprised to find out that everything else about us isn’t rehearsed besides the music. Our individual sense of style is authentic, our crowd work is improvised and we are all self taught musicians with different approaches to writing music. Also we all love cats!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ingredient_10
• Youtube: Ingredient 10
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6UvNPz1FQvOjW6sRzB82y9?si=CgpHiQq3Q8a7yCmkB-Ysnw

Image Credits
Richard A. Kroening
IG handle @rak_camera