Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar filling in for Alison Stewart. Let's wrap up today's show with a listening party.

[MUSIC - The Altons: Tangled Up in You]

I can't seem to shake you, baby

I can't seem to shake you, baby

All I do is dream about you, baby.

Kousha Navidar: That's Tangled Up in You from the southeast Los Angeles band The Altons off their latest album Heartache in Room 14. Since forming in the summer of 2015, the group has become recognized for their rich, soulful sound while also incorporating Latin-inspired rhythms. Their new duet album, produced by Daptone Records co-founder Bosco Mann, is inspired by the Motown and Stax era. It features 10 tracks about longing and the loss of love that feel undeniably vintage.

A review from FLOOD Magazine states the lush organ chords used in many of these songs by their hometown invoke a feeling of nostalgia and longing that feels uniquely Southern Californian. Heartache in Room 14 is out now and available to stream wherever you listen to your music. We're lucky to be here today right across the table by lead singer Adriana Flores and guitarist and singer Bryan Ponce. They're going to be here to talk us through the listening party ahead of their concert tonight at Racket NYC in Chelsea on West 16th Street. Adriana, Bryan, welcome to All Of It.

Adriana Flores: Thank you for having us.

Bryan Ponce: Thank you for having us.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely. Adriana, let's start with you. What is fascinating to you about the concept of Heartache?

Adriana Flores: We started writing this album and it took us about three years and we were working out the lyrics and working out the songs and love is something that kept coming up, especially in soul music. It's one of the subjects that keeps coming up and that people resonate with because we've all felt it. You can't have love without heartache. They go hand in hand. As we were writing the album and writing the songs, that's something that kept coming up. I really wanted to point out that they go hand in hand. Using Heartache instead of Love in the title made more sense to me.

Kousha Navidar: What came up first in the discussions? Was it love or was it heartache?

Adriana Flores: It was love but also loss. They go together. I'm blanking. I'm sorry.

Bryan Ponce: I think it was just a theme that we kept writing in our songs. It became apparent when we brought them to Gabe where it was like" Oh, you guys are writing a bunch of love songs." It was just a thing where we would bring each other's ideas. Everything we were writing about was about things that were happening in our lives and everything. Like she mentioned, it just wasn't love like in a relationship, but just the heartache that goes on with all the experiences we were going through.

Kousha Navidar: Love and loss, like you said. Universal- Bryan, what are some stories or sentiments that you feel people will find relatable while listening to songs on the album?

Bryan Ponce: I think definitely, for me, it's like the familial love that we write about, especially on Where Did She Go or Del Cielo Te Cuido where it's love that you have for a parent or for a child or for anybody that you're related to and just the longing for them.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to a song from The Altons' Heartache in Room 14. This is the first track on the album, and it's titled Waiting, which is a very relatable emotion, I feel. Maybe I'm revealing too much about my history.

Bryan Ponce: We go straight to the point.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, straight to the point.

[laughter]

Kousha Navidar: Adriana, tell us why you decided to open the album with this song.

Adriana Flores: Waiting, we felt like it made sense for us, especially because we had been waiting so long for the album to come out and for it to come to fruition. We took a long time with the sequencing with the other members, Caitlin and Chris, and it made sense to start it with that one. It felt like a good opener.

Bryan Ponce: We definitely put it to the test, and we all voted on which one we liked to start first and everybody chose that one.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, it rose to the top.

Bryan Ponce: Yes, it rose to the top.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to it. Here is Waiting.

[MUSIC - The Altons: Waiting]

The way you wear your hair

Honey, in your stare

For me

Pay no mind to what those

Other men say

You were played a fool

When they looked your way.

Oh, I'll be waiting

(Waiting)

Won't stop

Waiting for you

You got me running

Running

Kousha Navidar: I love the layering of the vocals on there. It's so lovely. That was Waiting. It's from the new album from The Altons' Heartache in Room 14. Bryan, this song features vocals from the two of you. What's unique about Adriana's vocalist?

Bryan Ponce: Her voice. I think the most unique thing is her voice and just the way she sings and the way she sounds. I think we share that commonality where we have very distinct voices. It's been great singing along with her.

Kousha Navidar: Distinct, I think, is a wonderful word and yet complementary, too, I would say. Adriana, for you, tell me about that complimentary element of it. What do you think it is about your voices that complement each other?

Adriana Flores: I'm not sure, but it's this feeling we get when we started singing along together more and when we decided that it was going to be more of a duet album and us harmonizing all the way through. It's like something where we felt it. We were just like, "Oh, there's a thing here." When we started writing songs that were going to be more duets, and that started when we started writing the first song you played, which was Tangled Up in You, we figured out that it was just a thing. It made sense. We both felt it. Gabe Roth was in the room with us, too, and he's like, "That's it."

Kousha Navidar: What was that moment? What was that like?

Adriana Flores: It just feels like electric. I don't know how to explain it. The feeling where you're a singer and you get to sing with someone else and it just meshes is really beautiful.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, absolutely. It's like a switch flips, right?

Adriana Flores: Like a switch, exactly.

Kousha Navidar: Bryan, what was that moment like for you?

Bryan Ponce: It was exciting, especially getting the nod from Gabe Roth, too. When we're in the room recording it and he's like, "Yes, this is the sound." He was really pushing. He's like, "Let's try to make a duet album. Let's try to make a whole album where you guys are singing together." We went straight for it and started writing like that, which was new for us because we've always written just individually. Working on songs where we have to sing together was a challenge, but it was a cool learning process.

Kousha Navidar: This is for either of you. Was there something that you learned through that process that you're going to carry through?

Adriana Flores: It's like learning how to do-- Just writing melodies that would complement both of our voices was a big challenge, but I feel like that's something that we learned to do. It's like a new muscle. We're working it out and making it stronger. I feel like that's something that I learned through the process for sure.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely. The Altons originally started as a three-piece band, is that right?

Bryan Ponce: Yes.

Kousha Navidar: Can you tell us, Bryan, a little bit about the backstory of the band? Where did you meet?

Bryan Ponce: Yes. The two previous members that were in the band, we all grew up in Southeast LA. We came from other bands before and we formed The Altons just to keep playing because our other band had disbanded already. We started playing around town with all the local promoters that we knew.

Then, one day, we had a show with a band at the time that was called JQ& The Revue with Joey Quinones, that's the singer of Thee Sinseers. We met up with Adriana and Joe that day. We played the same show. We were looking for a singer and another guitar player and they just so happened to play that day. We've been playing with them ever since.

Kousha Navidar: Wonderful. Today, the band consists of you and some other folks as well. Can you walk us through what the band looks like today?

Bryan Ponce: Yes. Today, it's myself, Adriana. Joey is still playing with us and then the addition of Caitlin Moss on drums and Christopher Manjarrez on bass.

Kousha Navidar: You all come from different musical backgrounds, it sounds like. How did you-- Adriana, I'd like to put this to you. How did you forward begin to define what The Altons would sound like together?

Adriana Flores: That's been an interesting process just because we definitely all come from different musical backgrounds, but we landed on-- Something that we all agreed on was that we really liked soul music and the sounds of the past like Motown and Stax and all those things. That was a common ground that we all shared. Even if you listen to the older music, you catch glimpses of those inspirations. I don't know. That's somewhere where we landed that we all agreed. It was easier to write for that type of genre. Does that make sense?

Kousha Navidar: Yes. Do you feel like the song from the album Del Cielo Te Cuido is an example of that?

Adriana Flores: That one is particularly special because that's one of the first Spanish songs released on Daptone, especially it's a bolero, but with influences of soul music as well.

Kousha Navidar: Can you tell us a little bit about bolero music?

Adriana Flores: Yes. Do you want to take that?

Kousha Navidar: Yes, Bryan, please.

Bryan Ponce: Oh, yes. I like that you brought that song up because I feel like that one's the outlier in the album just because it crosses that boundary of soul because it's an oldies, what they consider it because that's oldies for our parents. That's music that our parents grew up listening to. Bolero was traditionally just three guys singing in harmony and they were playing these songs about love.

That's music that you would grow up listening to in your house. Especially growing up in LA, it's like Sundays, your mom would be cleaning, she'd have the music on and there was always boleros playing. There's other music called Románticas too where we got inspiration from bands like Los Angeles Negros or Los Freddy's. That music was always in the house. That song particularly, we wanted to also add in some flavor of our parents' oldies.

Adriana Flores: Something they could turn on and listen to.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, yes. What's the song about? I want to play a little bit of it. To set us up, can you tell us what it's about?

Bryan Ponce: It's a tragic song actually. It's about a guy that's-- He's longing for the person that he loves and he's feeling-- It's heartache, essentially. He's feeling heartache and he's trying to cope with the loss of somebody.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to a little bit of it. This is a song from The Altons' Heartache in Room 14. The song is titled Del Cielo de Cuido. Here it is.

[MUSIC - The Altons: Del Cielo de Cuido]

Kousha Navidar: That is Del Cielo de Cuido. It is from The Altons' new album Heartache in Room 14. We're having a listening party with Adriana Flores and Bryan Ponce from the Los Angeles-based band the Altons for their latest album Heartache in Room 14 before taking the stage at Racket NYC in Chelsea at 7 PM. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll listen to some more and talk a little bit more about what it means to write collaboratively versus alone. Stay with us.

[MUSIC - Luscious Jackson: Citysong]

Kousha Navidar: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Kousha Navidar in for Alison Stewart. We're having a listening party with Adriana Flores and Bryan Ponce from the Los Angeles-based band The Altons for their latest album Heartache in Room 14. They're also going to take the stage at Racket NYC in Chelsea at 7 PM tonight. It's been wonderful listening to all of these songs. Before the break, we talked about working collaboratively in a band and how it's different than working alone.

I'm wondering for both of you, what have those differences been like? Bryan, let's start with you. What's different about working collaboratively?

Bryan Ponce: For me, personally, I've always isolated myself and written stuff out before I present it to somebody. I like to have it completed before I present it to the group. You feel a little more vulnerable because we're sitting there and we're working through ideas and it might not be the best thing yet. It's getting over that fear of doing something or writing something that's not good enough yet, but to be able to be vulnerable enough to share that with somebody and then give each other feedback on that.

Kousha Navidar: Yes, letting them come into the kitchen.

Bryan Ponce: Yes, exactly.

Kousha Navidar: Adriana, how about you?

Adriana Flores: That-

Kousha Navidar: That? Enough said.

[laughter]

Adriana Flores: [crosstalk] You have to be open to critiques and changes on the fly. That's always been a challenging thing for me because especially as artists, we're sensitive and we're showing [inaudible 00:15:55]. It's learning that and being vulnerable with your writing partner is a thing for me, for sure.

Kousha Navidar: I don't want this to maybe touch a nerve, and it probably won't, but, as artists, I'm wondering, how do you settle disputes among the group when creative differences arise?

Adriana Flores: Fist fights.

Bryan Ponce: We call it bodies but no faces.

Adriana Flores: No faces. This is a money maker.

Bryan Ponce: We need faces to act. Many layers of clothing.

Kousha Navidar: Okay, great. Enough said.

Bryan Ponce: It's a real-- We do it as a group.

Adriana Flores: It's learning how to fix the conflicts and talk it out because it's like what's best for the song. We have to think that's the end goal. We all have the same end goal. We just talk about it and we figure out what is best for it. If that's something we have to put down or not do, it's what we have to do for the song.

Bryan Ponce: Putting the band at the center can be so hard. The level of humility, the level of, I guess, meritocracy in some senses, or just awareness of being beyond yourself. The irony-- There's no irony. It's a coincidence. You're really in a relationship. It is heartache.

Adriana Flores: Yes, totally. It's a lot of personalities. It's a lot of people that work differently. Everything is at the forefront and how you deal with issues. It's definitely a relationship.

Bryan Ponce: I think we're fortunate enough to have a group of musicians that are really willing to put ego aside and do what's best for the music and for the song. When we all decide, "This is the best thing for this song and this sounds great," we have a unanimous decision over it.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen to another song here. Here's a song from The Altons' Heartache in Room 14. This song is titled Over and Over. Bryan, can you tell us about the inspiration for this record since it begins with your vocals?

Bryan Ponce: Yes. For this one, I was listening to just a lot of Smokey and a lot of Brent Wood. It's actually the first time-- I wanted to explore falsetto and singing in that sense. This is one of the first songs where it's like, "Hey, let me dive into that and really figure out how to use my voice in that manner." That was the inspiration for it.

Kousha Navidar: Oh, cool. A new register for your voice, quite literally.

Bryan Ponce: Yes.

Kousha Navidar: Let's listen. Here's Over and Over.

[MUSIC - The Altons: Over and Over]

I know that I do wrong

It shows in your eyes

This heart's been trying to hold on

Let the moment pass me by.

Oh, I've been trying (I've been trying, girl)

Oh, I've been trying over and over for you

Let's start over

Now let's talk it over

Kousha Navidar: That was Over and Over from The Altons' new album Heartache in Room 14. Bryan, for this album, you worked with Daptone Records co-founder, which you both mentioned, Bosco Mann, producer. What was the helpful suggestion he made that elevated the sound of the album?

Bryan Ponce: Oh. I think he's made definitely a lot of suggestions. I think, for us, it was like being in a masterclass with somebody that's been doing it for a long time. Just sitting there and watching how he works and how he dissects a song and just the effort it takes to make a good record, it's something we learned. Definitely, the assembly and disassembly of a song when we go into the recording studio is one thing that really stuck with me when we were working with him, is we present a song bare-bones, a couple chords, lyrics, and a vocal melody.

Then, we go into the studio and then we work out the instrumentation and what it's going to be. Then, sometimes, we can record something and it's not the right fit, so we go back and we switch it up. Maybe take out a part here, take out a part there, different instrumentation. We really work at producing the best record we can. I think that's one thing that stuck with me.

Kousha Navidar: Let's go out on a song that I really enjoyed from the album. It's I'D MISS THE BIRDS. Before we throw to it, I'd love to just set this up a little bit. Bryan, can you tell us how does this song capture a particular experience associated with loving and being with someone?

Bryan Ponce: I'm sorry, what song was it?

Kousha Navidar: I'D MISS THE BIRDS. Oh, sorry. Is this not the right one there? Oh, I think it's Float, actually.

Adriana Flores: Yes. There we go.

Bryan Ponce: Oh, yes. I'm curious to see what I'D MISS THE BIRDS is.

Adriana Flores: Yes, I got to hear it.

[laughter]

Kousha Navidar: I think this was just a typo in the script there. Sorry. My apologies.

Bryan Ponce: No. It's okay.

Kousha Navidar: We're talking about Float.

Bryan Ponce: Yes.

Kousha Navidar: Tell us a little bit about that.

Bryan Ponce: Float is one of those songs that I think for us was really cool because we got to push the experience of just walk that line of what is soul music and psychedelic. We really got to try to push the boundaries as much as we could.

Adriana Flores: Getting Gabe to stretch too, because that's definitely not his bag, as he would say, but then he liked it so much that we were like, "Oh, let's add a little bit more reverb here. Let's make it weirder." He's like, "Okay."

Bryan Ponce: It also helped that we caught him at a time where his kids were really into The Beatles.

Adriana Flores: Yes, that helped.

Bryan Ponce: He was ready to experiment a little-

Adriana Flores: Get a little weird. [laughs]

Bryan Ponce: Yes, get a little weird, for sure.

Kousha Navidar: It's wonderful that we get to go out on it. The Altons' new album Heartache in Room 14 is out now and available to stream wherever you listen to music. I've been speaking with Lead Singer Adriana Flores and Guitarist and Singer Bryan Ponce ahead of their concert tonight at Racket NYC in Chelsea on West 16th Street. Adriana, Bryan, thank you so much for hanging out with us.

Adriana Flores: Thank you for having us.

Bryan Ponce: Oh, thank you for having us. This is fun.

Kousha Navidar: Absolutely. Here it is, Float.

[MUSIC - The Altons: Float]

This love ain't ordinary

That still makes it work

Love you so much, honey

Sometimes it hurts

And we'll float together, baby

Feels like an omen.