Los Angeles, CA-based soul rockers The Altons vibrate on a whole other frequency. After years of cutting their teeth playing house shows and dive bars across their hometown, signing with Daptone Records, and landing a spot at this year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival alongside Thee Sinseers as one of the handful of Latine-led acts on the bill, the band is still pretty geeked out about being at the festival in any capacity. “I’m a seasoned festival goer,” says lead vocalist Adriana Flores. “I’ve gone to Coachella for 10 years straight, and going to Bonnaroo was always a goal of mine. I’ve always wanted to be there as an attendee, so the fact that this is our first time going and we get to play is just really cool.”
The Altons first came together in 2015 not long after singer and guitarist Bryan Ponce met Flores and Joseph Quiñones (frontman of Thee Sinseers and a frequent collaborator of The Altons) at downtown L.A. punk hotspot Five Star Bar. Drummer Caitlin Moss and bassist Chris Manjarrez came on board later after being in each other’s orbits in the local scene for years. “Growing up in Los Angeles, you hear a lot of different music everywhere. You can be out on the weekend hanging out in your neighborhood, and down the street, there’s a punk show or something in somebody’s backyard. And then a couple houses down, there’s somebody celebrating with their quinceañera and playing cumbia. Then you can go back home, and your parents are listening to Los Ángeles Azules. Being exposed to that from early on really contributed to what we’re doing now and how our sound is developed,” says Ponce.
Part of that process of further developing The Alton’s sound included circling back to the boleros and older romanticas from Ponce’s upbringing and using it as fuel for new music. Despite the title, their latest album Heartache in Room 14 maintains much of the enchantment of falling in love. The endless longing that cracks through on songs like “Waiting” and the old noir film style, life-or-death kind of passion behind “Float” isn’t enough to overshadow the tender romances in the gorgeous “Tangled Up in You” and “Show You Love.” There is no one mood, no one storyline. Instead, it paints a much bigger picture about how you haven’t really experienced love unless you’ve really experienced heartache; they go hand-in-hand.
Writing soul-baring love songs seems like an unanticipated move during these hard times, but we’ve seen this before. “Brown-eyed soul,” the R&B and soul music created by Mexican-American and Chicano artists throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, emerged in California and Texas during a crucial turning point in Mexican-American history, with R&B increasingly becoming associated with the Civil Rights movement. With a warm vintage sheen of Motown soul, the slow tempo of ‘70s R&B, and the emotional heft of traditional boleros, The Altons feel familiar, but they’re very much rooted in the present. The band has moved away from their punkier roots and the breezy surf rock auras that emanated on their debut EP and 2019’s In the Meantime. With Heartache in Room 14, they’ve taken inspiration from the classics: Fleetwood Mac, Smokey Robinson, Los Freddys, Buena Vista Social Club, and The Beatles.
It’s their way of tapping into nostalgia, similar to the way Bad Bunny does on “NUEVAYoL” off DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS by sampling the salsa classic “Un Verano en Nueva York” by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, which the band mentions during their call with Remezcla. We go back and forth about a recent TikTok trend where younger Benito fans play the track for a parent or grandparent who believes they’re listening to the original, and are immediately transported to their youth, just before the song kicks into high gear with a dose of dembow. “Seeing it dawn on them that the biggest artist in the world, on top of all the charts, is tipping his hat to what his parents were dancing and listening to at family parties… they’re like ‘Whoooooa,’ and get all stoked hearing this new version and hearing someone bring that back,” Flores shares.
With the nightmarish sociopolitical climate of the present, she adds, many of us are finding refuge in music and art that encompasses and leans into our shared identities. “When some of the horrors of history were going on in the past, people were still creating and still being artists. I think that’s what helped people through difficult moments. I feel like it’s happening now for us, with music and with artists. Artists never stop creating, even through major life and world events. You’re using the things around you to create because that’s all you can do, right? People need that. People need art more than ever,” Flores says.
“When some of the horrors of history were going on in the past, people were still creating and still being artists. I think that’s what helped people through difficult moments. I feel like it’s happening now for us.”
The Altons have kept busy since the release of their sophomore record back in February. Between making their debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and their summer festival appearances, the band has been trekking across the U.S. on a massive tour in support of Heartache in Room 14. During their call with Remezcla, the four-piece was en route to New York City after selling out Chicago’s Thalia Hall the night before, but The Altons are still pretty taken aback by the turnout from the last time they hit the road. They mention being welcomed with open arms in Portland and Oklahoma City, and vibing with fans across Europe, like at London’s Jazz Cafe where Ponce hopped offstage to join the audience for a beautiful rendition of “Over and Over.”
“Going to Europe and having people come out and sing along… It’s been exciting for me to see because it’s a type of music that resonates with other people, no matter what their cultural background is or their demographic,” says Ponce. On top of sold-out venues brimming with energized crowds, The Altons are seeing a wildly intergenerational mix of fans showing up to their performances, like teenagers who extend their invites to their parents or grandparents, adds Flores.
“It’s a whole full circle moment. [The older generation] gets to relive that nostalgia around what they heard when they were kids by coming to our shows, and then their kids are growing up with this kind of music as well,” Ponce notes.
