By: Fredwill Hernandez
A wave of excitement filled the air as many, myself included, arrived early and eagerly anticipated the start of the sixth HITMKR House, a collaborative effort between HITMKR, a direct-to-fan music distribution ecosystem, and Traklife Music, aimed at showcasing and providing emerging artists with a space to be seen and heard. This event took place on Saturday, June 14, at Grandmaster Records in Hollywood, California, where attendees were treated to electrifying performances by the likes of Alexa Ferr, D TRel, Ali Michae, Gzelle C, Alex O’aiza, and SEPH Tyrell.
Singer/songwriter Alexa Ferr, who was born in Toronto, Canada, but now calls Los Angeles, CA home, set things off by performing the singles “All Bets On Me” and “Hands Off.”
“Hands Off” is an unreleased single I wrote, produced, and also recorded since I’ve been honing my music engineering skills,” eloquently explained Ferr, who started singing at the young age of four years old. “Aside from singing, I also became a competitive dancer, allowing me to perform all over the place before finally making the leap to move to Los Angeles about seven years ago. Since then, I’ve been taking music more seriously, especially during the pandemic, where I now write and produce for others as well.”
During an intermission break between three of the six performances, it was the perfect opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate HITMKR’s Paul Montes and TrakLife Music’s Ervin Cordero, who both are celebrating a birthday this month. Attendees sang happy birthday as both toasted with a tequila shot and each blew out the candles on each one’s cake.
Out of the six artists that performed, three were chosen by the HITMKR direct-to-fan music distribution ecosystem, and three were also chosen by Traklife Music.
Among those eager to hit the stage was Alex Gomez known artistically as Alex O’iaza.
“I was born in Dallas, Texas. My family is from Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. I’m an indie Latin artist. I write in English and Spanish. I like retro inspired music from the 80s with some contemporary rock sounds. My parents grew up with Luis Miguel, MANA, Enanitos Verdes, so I use some of that with some 2000s Spanish pop and some modern stuff as well. That’s kind of what I’m dealing with in my music,” eloquently explained O’iaza who sang the singles “Alex O’aiza,” “Guayaba,” and “YNMA,” and was the only performer to sing all in Spanish. “I have been around music most of my life. It was never like a sure thing because my parents are immigrants. It wasn’t like a viable thing in our household. No one in my family is a musician, but I started messing around with it. I learned to play guitar, I did a little band in high school and I wasn’t sure what to do after high school, but my mom saw that I liked music. She was going to take me to my first concert ever to see a band I loved back then: the MAIN from Tempe, Arizona. She found out they were having an open casting for a show called La Banda, since we were going to Houston. The show was for Univision, Sony Music Latin, Ricky Martin was there. She signed me up behind my back, and she said since we’re already going to this show, why don’t you do this. I said no, I don’t want to do that, so she said if you don’t do La Banda we’re not going to Houston to see the MAIN. I did it, so I went from room to room to finally meeting the show producer. I was so scared. He told me to calm down, just show me who you are. So I did a song I wrote back then, it had no title. He loved it, he asked if that was my song. I said yes. I love it, record it, I think it’s a hit. They had this questionnaire, and asked what I wanted to do after high school, so I put journalist because I had no clue what I wanted to do. He said you want to be a journalist, I looked like an idiot, no that’s the backup plan. So he looks at me, looks at my dad, and said, with all due respect your son needs to focus on music and nothing else. So that’s kind of when the bulb hit, the first time someone in the industry told me I got something, so I just followed it ever since. That was like ten years ago. I didn’t make the show, I was really close, but I’m in the pilot of the show. I’m on a b-roll shot.”
These HITMKR House showcases are very important not only as an avenue to build community and to get the word out about the platforms, in this case also Traklife Music, but also for fulfilling a void of artist discovery through live performances while giving like-minded individuals a chance to network and make new contacts.
“I’m an entrepreneur with a tech background working as a software developer and designer for over 15 years. I decided to take my tech background and put it towards my passion for the music industry and independent music scene. I prompted to go all in because even though my expertise was in tech as a professional, my passion was in the creative arts and the music industry. Decided to go all in because I believe there’s a void I can help fill in serving the music community,” eloquently explained Ervin Cordero, who launched and heads Traklife Music, the music solutions company. “I believe we’re on the right track and mindset when fostering and serving our community. My team and I are very capable and just need to stay the course. We put ourselves in a flexible position to listen to our community and have the talent and flexibility to create what is needed to solve their problems, whether it be opportunities, connections, resources, education, etc.”
