LA-based producer Alan Vega talks chaos, cumbia & creation

ALAN VEGA IS A PRODUCER, MIXER, AND MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST BASED IN LOS ANGELES, WHOSE WORK STRETCHES FROM HEAVY METAL BEGINNINGS TO CUMBIA EXPERIMENTS, SPANISH MUSIC SCENES, AND COLLABORATIONS WITH DAMON ALBARN’S AFRICA EXPRESS. IN THIS INTERVIEW FOR ANOMIE, WE TALK GROWING UP WITH MUSIC AT THE KITCHEN TABLE, CHASING SOUNDS THAT FEEL ALIVE, AND WHAT IT MEANS WHEN PASSION AND WORK BLUR INTO ONE.

Vega in the studio

Anomie: Do you remember a moment, maybe early on, when you realized music was the path you wanted to follow?

Alan: I do. When I was around 15 or 16, a lot of us started forming bands and trying to get friends together to jam. The first band I started only played Metallica covers. That's all we did. After a while, I was like guys, should we try to write a song? That was probably the first time where I got the idea to write something original. I don't think we did. We probably tried and weren't very good at it, but that was the first time where I was like okay, this is possible. We did Metallica and then I went into a sort of hardcore emo phase.

Anomie: Did you have the whole fringe thing going on?

Alan: I did. Yeah, I straightened my hair and everything

Anomie: Love that, builds character. You’ve worked quite heavily in the Spanish music scene and put out some bangers with Mexican artist Estevie. Tell us about that.

Alan: So that happened way later. My parents are both from Mexico City, so I kinda grew up with Cumbia music specifically my whole life. I started listening and analyzing it and being very inspired by it around five years ago, and finally my dad was like, okay you're ready to learn more about it. He showed me a bunch of the classics and all that. With Estevie, I think we were trying to do something that was modern because we had been searching for that type of music and couldn't find it. So we just saw this open space for it. We were like, okay let's try and do it our way and just take inspiration from the bits and pieces that we were really into. That's how that came together. There are so many styles of Cumbia, but specifically, the one that I'm drawn more towards is Cumbia Sonidera (a subgenre of Cumbia that developed in Mexico City in the 1960s–70s, mostly in working- class barrios). So it's more Mexico City. It's a little more electronic, slower, super bassy. Sometimes they use really weird samples and wonky sounds, you know. That's the Cumbia that I'm a little more drawn to, for sure.

Anomie: We have to ask about Africa Express. It's a very sort of unique project I’ve been following How did you first get involved with them?

Alan: Last year, we did the camp in Mexico at Bahidorá festival. We all met there, did the album there, and then named the album after the festival. It's really inspiring, especially because all the musicians are just so, so good at what they do. It was fun and really felt like there was no ego. It was just very inspiring to be surrounded by everybody and kind of learn their influences and their instruments. We have so many African instruments that I had never heard of before. Just kinda learning, you know, that there's more than just, like, a guitar. The show is super bizarre in the best way. It was actually kinda crazy how it happened because I had this meeting with my team who asked “If you could work with anybody, who would you work with?” And I was like, well, I grew up listening to Gorillaz and I think if Damon (Albarn) heard some of my work, especially the Cumbia shit, I feel like he would be interested because the Gorillaz sound is so...everything, you know? My manager had a connection to Damon's manager from a long time ago, and reposted me playing a Cumbia riff. Damon’s manager replied and was like, yo, this would be perfect for this thing that we're doing in Mexico. That's kinda how it happened. I had this Zoom call with Damon, the following week, just talking to him like how we’re talking now, and he was like we're doing this thing in Mexico with Africa Express and we wanna incorporate a lot of the Mexican sounds into the album. Then we just went to Mexico for a week, we all wrote the album, and then it came out. It was such a crazy experience. While we were in it, the whole time, I was just like, what's happening? It was so intense.

Anomie: Sounds like you manifested that.

Alan: No. For real, it still trips me out.

Anomie: You mentioned Damon Albarn as an inspiration- him and his work in Blur have been really central to my relationship with music. What was it like working with someone who’s involved in so many different projects, has so much going on, and clearly has such strong musical instincts? How did you find that experience?

Alan: Before I even met him and did any sessions with him... I mean, we all kinda have this, like, what's it gonna be like? I'm gonna be so nervous. Once you're in the room with him, as you mentioned... it’s just taste and having good instinct. That's really all it is. He's very confident. You can tell he just loves this and the creation of things and still has that spark for creating something for the first time. We did a session in LA last year in April, the first time that we did a one on one. And again, it was just super easy. We were in the studio with a bunch of instruments set up, and we were just jamming. He would just go over to the keyboard and play a bunch of things. I was capturing everything on my end. We just put this whole thing together. I think it's just about being excited about music, and it was kind of easier than I thought. The flow was easy and fun, there's no pressure, no rules. Just: is this cool? I think he just makes everybody feel very comfortable and he's very good at making you feel like you're in the right place... we're just gonna make music, and it's really not that deep.

Anomie: Amazing. We think it's also quite inspirational for someone who's been in the industry for over thirty years, with so many diverse projects, to still have that spark for creation. Speaking of keeping that spark, how much of your work do you feel is instinct versus technical precision?

Alan: One of the main things that I do is try to listen to music in general. My music taste is really all over the place. It's kinda crazy. I go from listening to deep Cumbia cuts to metal and hardcore. In between all that, I still really like pop and I like to study what's out in the mainstream, as well as what's happening underground. So I'm always listening to music. And I think when it comes to me and creating music, it always depends on what I'm listening to at the time. It influences a lot of my decision-making. On the technical side, I try not to focus too much on following the rules, right? There are certain people that I feel a lot of inspiration from when it comes to mixing and producing, and whenever I read any write-ups on them, I think they all say the same thing. It's just trust your instinct and kinda just do whatever sounds good to you, versus following, like, a handbook where this frequency needs to be dipped here or whatever.

Anomie: Yeah, it can lose its magic that way.

Alan: Yeah, it's not fun. Mixing that Africa Express album was so fun because I was there during the whole process. We were recording outside and we had for the most part, pretty basic microphones. It wasn't flashy, you know? And when it came to mixing that, it was trying to remember that... thing of whatever we captured... trying to keep that magic. I just wanted to make things loud enough for people to hear it, not to reshape anything because everything was so in the moment. I didn't wanna lose that magic by overproducing something.

Anomie: Lastly, three words that describe your relationship with music at the moment. Really putting you on the spot here.

Alan: Yeah. Shit. I mean, I think to be super real, I’m always really excited. Every time I sit down and start working on something, I always have that inspiration. I think we all have this too, but, like, that insecurity of, is this good? Is this shit? Or, like, what's happening?

Anomie: Real.

Alan: And then... I think it's a little cheesy, but, passion, you know? I don't think I can do anything else, it’s just what I'm doing forever. I mean, there's ups and downs, 100%. Sometimes just reflecting, like now while talking to you about the tour, I’m like: okay, we’re doing something right. Definitely.

@ALANMAKESPOP

SEPTEMBER 2025