By: Shelby Lum
Alejandro Rose-Garcia aka Shakey Graves may not be a formally trained musician, but he has taken all of his influences from Texas to California and weaved them into his music.
“It’s given me an odd eclecticism ,” Rose-Garcia said. “I’ve always had this bizarre blend of hippie and cowboy influences working at the same time.”
“I feel like my viewpoint of the world is more rustic based,” he said.
Originally from Austin, Texas the singer-songwriter has taken his roots and pushed it into his music. Texas is a part of him and the way he writes his music. “I’m very drawn to sitting out in the dark near a fire, and the kind of romantic aspects of Texas have kind of won me over and permeated my being,” he said.
Since his beginning, Rose-Garcia has felt comfortable on the stage. He was raised by people who saw the stage and theatre as a second home, and now he feels just as at ease there as anywhere else.
“I did a bunch of theatre, and was raised by a lot of theatrical people, so I have spent a lot of time on stages throughout my life,” he said. “There is a lot of crowd reading I do.”
Growing up, he only had a few guitar lessons as a kid, but never studied formally, and his beginnings as a song writer actually started from a middle school heartbreak. At just 13-years-old, Rose-Garcia had his heart set on becoming the best guitar player within a summer just to show a girl how much better he was, and for her to see her mistake.
His plan may not have turned out as he had hoped, but it began his love for guitar playing.
“It was kind of an accidental saving grace,” he said of the heartbreak.
“I kind of found solace in playing guitar. My brian kind of went on autopilot,” Rose-Garcia said.
Since the beginning the musician has found different influences and fused them into his own music.
“My influences range form people like Bill Monroe and old blues bands to the Wu Tang Clan and radio Top 40 music,” he said. In the end though, what is created is all his own.
“It’s kind of my attempt at country music,” he said.
Shakey Graves, Rose-Garcia’s stage name, is scheduled to play with He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister Thursday, March 7th at The EARL.
