A.CHAL (Alejandro Chal) has been shaping his sound for a little while now. Peruvian born, New York raised and now residing in LA, A.CHAL’s influences are wider than most. He quotes favorite musicians from Black Sabbath, to The Weeknd, to his ‘family’ A$AP Mob, as well as growing up with Latin music at home, the latter of which is undeniably present on his tracks. Like many newer artists, A.CHAL successfully straddles a few genres. R&B may be the umbrella, but you can hear indie rock, electronic and Latin sounds in so much of his music. ‘Woozy’ has been used previously to describe his sound, and honestly I don’t think there’s a better descriptor. Listening to A.CHAL is like being underwater, driving in an open-top car, and chilling outside on a summer’s evening, all at once. It’s that semi-conscious but emotionally-engaging vibe that any R&B-related music should have.

On the evening we caught up, A.CHAL had a show at Sony’s Lost In Music showcase, headlined by Khalid, and arguably one of the biggest line-ups of the week. The venue itself was a huge warehouse, decked out with green-lit ‘clouds’, which made for a dreamy atmosphere. Despite a slightly corporate crowd, A.CHAL put on an interactive show, performing his big tracks like Round Whippin’, Matrix, and Love N Hennessy, as well as getting the audience speaking Spanish for Cuánto (the video for which dropped yesterday). We caught up about his upcoming third album, the importance of his Peruvian roots, and staying balanced while growing.

UHH: You’ve brought out two albums so far, Welcome to GAZI and ON GAZ. Do you have a new project in the works?

A.CHAL:  The next one is such a progression, it's almost done. Huge progress, gigantic. I did like 100 songs, I had to pick like 15. So I picked good ones.

UHH: 15 is a good number. When do you think you're going to put it out?

A.CHAL: I don't know yet. I'm dropping some singles. Testing the waters.

UHH: I’m into R&B, hip hop, electronic music, and I wouldn’t want to pigeonhole your sound into any one of those. I like how you blend your Peruvian culture and Spanish language, into not just one song, but into loads of tracks. I think that's really special and unique.

A.CHAL: Thanks. I mean I have no option but to be that way.

UHH: Okay. Why’s that?

A.CHAL: Because it's just how I am as a person too. So if I wasn't like that, it would be fake. You know what I mean? [Pauses to show UHH tattoos of the Andes and Inca ruins]. I love my culture a lot.

UHH: What would you suggest if I had to get one Peruvian dish?

A.CHAL: Definitely ceviche. Lomo saltado, which is steak and potatoes. I'm going to say the regular things...and then chicha morada, which is a drink.

UHH: Nice, I’ll give them a go. Have you done any big shows in South America?

A.CHAL: I've never done a show in Latin America. I'm doing my first show on April 5th at the Festival Ceremonia. It's like hip hop, alternative music, indie, R&B. My vibe.

UHH: Amazing, that sounds really good. Do you have a lot of fans in South America? Or are they mainly in North America and Europe?

A.CHAL: I feel like it's 20 percent Latin America, 80 percent America right now. But it's good because I want to focus on the Latinos in America first, and then slowly progress out there.

UHH: That makes sense. I've been watching and reading some of your old interviews, because I try to avoid all the usual questions, and you repeating yourself.

A.CHAL: Right, definitely there's a lot of those.

UHH: It's very clear through your music as well, but you talk a lot about spirituality, positive energy, and love. I'm not an artist but I'm guessing it's quite hard to keep that kind of energy round you and within you in this world. How do you do that?

A.CHAL: Definitely. One way I do that is by keeping people that I've known way before any of this around me. They're always honest with me. They're not here to please me. They want the best for me as well. I think that's probably the most key thing. Then stay close to your family, that's key, and experience life. I feel like I've experienced a lot of things with different situations before all of this. So I kind of know myself, so me knowing myself is huge as well.

UHH:  I'm sure you can get told a lot of things about yourself, and you can say, "I don't think that's right."

A.CHAL: That's not me, yeah. I mean it takes longer but, it's better because you're more true to yourself. I could have been famous a long time ago if I had done things that weren't true to me. That might've made me become someone else, and I'm not that person. So, I'm proud of that. I think that's more important than anything else actually for me.

UHH: You just mentioned you made 100 tracks for this album. In terms of performing versus creating music, can you pick one you prefer, or are they too different?

A.CHAL: So different. I'll say I'm in a better mood when I perform. When I'm writing, I'm pretty emo. I'm right now transitioning from being emo to being bright, to performing, because I just finished writing.  It's different. I'm in my head a lot when I'm making my album. You may come across me and I may seem a little off, but when I'm on stage and I'm performing, it's good.

UHH: We saw you last year at the Pigeons & Planes No Ceilings show, and it was great. We’re obviously coming by to your show tonight, it’s an amazing line-up.

A.CHAL: Yeah it is. It's me, then Tinashe, then Khalid. It's pretty dope. I'm glad too, because I was doing a lot of rap shows before, and I don't feel like a rapper at all, so it's cool that it's getting to more R&B line-ups.

UHH: Maybe on the new album you do, but on previous albums you don't have many features on your tracks. Is that a conscious choice?

A.CHAL: I don't really need features, I feel like I'm pretty good. But if I have a friendship that happens to allow the opportunity to make an organic feature or something different, then I'll take it. I did more collaborations on this one, I did like two that might surprise people.

UHH: Do you write something and think, "I just want this person on it"? Or does it happen more naturally, like you meet them and think, "Maybe I'll write them into a track"?

A.CHAL: We just kind of meet and then we go in the studio, and then it happens.

UHH: In one of the interviews I watched you said that you and French Montana were introduced by Gizzle? We interviewed her last year at SXSW and she's so sweet.

A.CHAL: Oh yeah? Sick. She's amazing. I love Gizzle. Hell yeah, that's a good friend of mine. One of my first friends in LA.

UHH: How long have you been in LA, a while now?

A.CHAL: Like five years. That's a while.

UHH: Do you still feel like New York's your home?

A.CHAL: No. Well, I mean I do and I don't. I like LA a lot. It's more like South America too, so I feel at home.

UHH: You have a very distinctive style I feel…

A.CHAL: What do you think my style is?

UHH: That's a great question. You can tell that it's completely your style. Obviously no one's dressing you, no one's styling you. You're very comfortable in whatever you're wearing.

A.CHAL: I'm trying to figure out what I'm wearing tonight. I might just put a jacket over this, I'm not sure yet. I just bought some shoes that are crazy, for like $2000. They're the most expensive shoes I've bought.

UHH:  I mean you're in Texas so, I feel like you should wear boots.

A.CHAL: I should definitely wear boots. [He didn’t].

UHH: What’s your favorite outfit was right now, or item that you've been wearing?

A.CHAL: When I make a new album, everything in my life starts changing, including my style. So I'm slowly transitioning to a new vibe, because I feel like everybody's done the shit I've been doing now. Like printed shirts, Cortez, high sweatpants with the socks out. I can't do that again. So I’m slowly morphing. I've been really inspired by the jungle and the desert lately.

UHH: Are you spending time in either of those places?

A.CHAL: Yeah, I spent some time in the desert. I was in the Amazon two years ago, I still remember that. Nature inspires me a lot. Western shit, I want to be like a cowboy.

UHH: You should stay in Austin for a while. Live on a ranch.

A.CHAL: I want to have a ranch, that's my goal.

UHH: Do you ride?

A.CHAL: I've ridden before. I'm not good, but I've ridden. My grandfather has a ranch in Peru, I go there and visit him.

UHH: What is success for you right now? How would you define that for yourself?

A.CHAL: It's a good question. Success to me is one, staying true to you as much as possible. So what we said earlier, no matter how much money or how much your status and fame changes, staying true to who you are and not allowing people to change that. Of course, you can change for the better. You know, as we all should. If I could summarize it would be like my balance is my success. How much I can balance being me staying pure to me and also attaining new things that could easily change that, or sabotage that, you know what I mean? I pace lightly.

UHH: I do. Any other plans for SXSW in terms of catching other shows, or have you seen anything so far?

A.CHAL: Definitely trying to catch some indie bands out here. I'm a big fan of indie music. There's this band called La Luz, who are a girl group that make psychedelic rock out of Mexico, I want to catch them. I don't know if anyone from Burger Records is performing, but I'm a big fan of Burger Records.

Find A.CHAL here:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0pkwrPVI8UyXtPkavyJoZ4?si=nZEp_N2BTKuFoqdE1OSnGQ

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/achal

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlejandroChal

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.chal

VEVO: https://www.youtube.com/user/ACHALVEVO