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Meet Alberto Menezes

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Alberto Menezes.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Alberto. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Most inspiring stories start with someone who really knew what they wanted from the very beginning. Mine is definitely not like that, and I hope it inspires people out there who, like me, aren’t always sure about what they want. I grew up in Brazil and I’ve always loved music.

I heard of a music college in the US that was really good, Berklee College of Music, and I auditioned without any real expectations. I had already enrolled in two other colleges in Brazil (one for Electrical Engineering, and the other for Composition – I was planning on taking both courses at the same time).

Then I got the news that I was approved with a scholarship into Berklee. So, at age 18 I came to the US (Boston, MA) to study Guitar. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be here, I really missed my home, my family, my friends, and everything that I had left in Brazil.

So every Winter/Spring Semester at Berklee, I took a vacation semester and went back home to study Composition in a college back there. And I did so for a few years, going back and forth between the US and Brazil until I finished my course here (and dropped my course there). So even the way I got to the US was marked by indecisiveness.

At Berklee, I majored in Music Production & Engineering, a field of study that I discovered after I got there. After graduating, I decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue better career opportunities, and when I got here, I was sure that I was only going to pursue audio engineering opportunities since that was what I studied.

But of course, life had other plans for me, and I was surprised with the opportunity to join as a member of a band that was a HUGE influence on my musicality during my teen years: “An Endless Sporadic.” It was a dream come true to me, and I saw myself getting back to performing music and just dreaming about being on stage.

In the meantime, I started adventuring myself into different areas of music and audio, such as a composition for films, video making, post-production, and dubbing, mixing for films, etc. With my video making, I won Rob Scallon’s international YouTube contest with Yousician called “Take My Guitar,” against hundreds of other videos from all over the world (for this contest, I made a video of myself playing 17 different instruments – including some things that actually are not quite instruments).

With my first film composition, I was awarded “Best Original Score” for the 48 Hour Film Project short film festival. I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with a lot of people that are major influences for me, and that is renowned in different fields within the entertainment industry. With everything that I have done, it is pretty obvious that I didn’t have one clear path that I’ve always known I wanted to follow.

I always wonder how differently things could have been if I had made a clear choice of one specific thing to do from way earlier in the game. But as I look to myself now, I can’t feel anything but gratefulness for being able to do what I do. I have developed the ability to be versatile and to adapt well to different circumstances under pressure.

And now that I have finally decided on what I want to pursue fully – which is being a performing artist, writing my own music and performing it in multiple instruments with a loop station -, I realize that the skills that arose from my indecisiveness are actually what make me unique and they are essential for my career. There’s always strength to be found in our weaknesses.

Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. The major struggle from my indecisiveness was not feeling like I was truly advancing in any of the many things that I was trying to juggle. Often I would feel like I could never be the best mixer if I wanted to play the guitar, or that I would never be the best guitarist if I wanted to play drums and keyboards, and so on and so forth.

Also, that means it’s harder to get bigger gigs, because from not focusing it’s harder to grow and get more opportunities in one specific area. After all, to get the bigger gigs, you need to focus and allocate time to the area in which you want to perform at better gigs. And that takes time away from the other things that you try to do.

Also, being an immigrant definitely has its tolls. Being away from family, having to deal with visa issues, having to constantly think about proving my worth in order to be able to stay in the US, etc are not always fun. A lot of time and energy have to be allocated just to figure out how to be able to stay in the place of opportunity.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
After the previously said ventures through different fields related to music and audio, I have finally decided to focus on live performance as a solo artist. My goal with my music is to create an atmosphere during performances where people can relate to simple silly things that everyone deals with in their day-to-day lives.

I want people to laugh and to enjoy different types of music, also to appreciate music in different forms – presented through unexpected means. All of that looks like a stage with a bunch of instruments, some things that are not instruments but that will be used to make music, a computer that loops it all, and some silly comedic lyrics.

My first solo performance is actually about to happen on February 24th, at The Fox And Hounds in Studio City. I am very excited for the days to come and I hope my live performances have the same positive outcome as the rest of my ventures have had so far!

Other than that, I still have been keeping my YouTube channel active with videos that have the same vibe as the live performances.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles definitely has so many opportunities for musicians and artists. It’s so easy to connect with people who can help you improve here. At the same time, there is a lot of competition and it’s tricky to stand out among so many awesome talents.

Also, it’s a very expensive city to live in, which makes it trickier for the development phase. I wouldn’t recommend Los Angeles for just anyone. There are people who are more prone to adapting to the LA rhythm, but there are people that I’m sure would not get used to it, of course. So it’s really a case to case scenario.

Then again, maybe I wouldn’t have thought of myself as someone who would have been able to adapt to this city, and still, I have accomplished goals, and I have been growing a lot here, both personally and in my career.

To sum it up, I wouldn’t just recommend it blindly, but LA has the potential to surprise anyone and you never know until you get here.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Rob Scallon, Maurice Nunes, Nathan Lau Photography

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