Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Elena.
Hi Alex, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
I always liked to look at my life as a book that would keep me reading without ever getting bored of it. And so, I started writing…
Born and raised in Rome, Italy, I “escaped” at age seventeen looking for something.
Music was always my passion, and beating the drums was gift I cherished since I was 4 years old…
London, then New York, New Orleans, Havana, Cuba, and now I have a foot in Los Angeles and one in Rome.
I like to move from one place to another because it forces you to start from zero.
It helps re-inventing yourself and keeps you learning and away from stagnation.
I started in London (before I could even speak English) playing drums for Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and travelled the world a few times with him. I was young and eager to learn and experience everything that came my way. I was a sponge soaking everything in. Sounds, smells, colors…
I moved to NYC at age 22, where I kept playing drums and doing studio work with artists raging from Avril Lavigne to Adam Holzman (Miles Davis). I was intrigued by music production, and that curiosity led me to a Grammy Nomination for the song Dream performed by Alice Smith’s I produced just following my instinct knowing very little about the technicalities of what I was doing. I decided that was going to be my new path, and set up a studio in NYC that travels with me everywhere I go and allows me to make records. I worked with Lily Allen, Evan Dando, and currently, Citizen Cope, which turned out to be an incredible artistic collaboration that keeps going and going.
In Los Angeles, I set up a production company with the legendary Steve Baughman named TWO BEARDS PRODUCTION. We make all sorts of crazy music!!!
The time I spent in New Orleans made me understand the music language of the South…
Havana re-awakened my love for music, the arts, and the simplicity of life. There I met my wife, and we have been together ever since.
I have a foot in Los Angeles because my support system is there and one in Rome because with my wife being Cuban is the only place that would allow us to be together until she gets her green card and we can both be in LA permanently…
My work evolved to include photography in 2009 when a sudden decision to create a portrait of the Darien Strip took me to the jungles in Panama. My father was my first creative mentor in music, but regarding photography, I am completely self-taught. I like to document…and once again, my curiosity led me to photograph a range of subjects spanning the globe: from the slums of Kenya, everyday life in The Gambia, the vanishing Indigenous Tribes in Central America, to the aftermath of the war in the former Yugoslavia to mention a few.
Life is good…
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing is ever smooth. Life without any challenges is not worth living. Through the challenge, you will find a way to discover yourself, grow and learn.
Nothing is ever a problem but just another river that needs to be crossed.
I like to cross rivers…and so should you…
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I do music production and photography full-time. Music gives you a chance to reflect on the situation around you and transform it into sounds that can move people from all over the world.
The universal language that never fails.
Photography is the instant gratification that will freeze a moment for posterity.
A moment in time that captures the essence of that specific frame of the life we are living.
What sets me apart from others is the ability to follow my own instinct without following the mass. I always look at things from a different angle mixing all of the things I have seen and felt throughout my life into a magic blender.
I am very proud of my current collaboration with Clarence Greenwood (Citizen Cope).
His words can move a mountain, and he is not even aware of it. That’s the beauty of it. He, like me, is constantly searching for that spark that will keep moving you forward and ahead of the game.
We spent 3 months leaving, breathing, and making music together. If we weren’t making music, we would take photos or edit videos for the promotion of his forthcoming album titled “Victory March,” which is due next year.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I am constantly reading about current events and history. History dictates the condition in which we are now…
Generally, anything that sparkles my curiosity, I will read about!!!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alexelenatv.com www.alexelenaphotography.com
- Instagram: @alexelena007
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexelena007/
- Other: https://www.twobeardsproductions.com/
