Latest Release
“True To Our Love” by Alek Vila
Release Date: December 21, 2023
“The song is about finding courage during difficult moments in relationships.”
— Alek Vila
For downloadable audio files, please send an email request from your media domain.
Artist Bio
Alek Vila’s life adventures include Hollywood filmmaking, musical studies abroad, and various relocations along the US West Coast. He is a passionate singer, multi-instrumentalist, and composer influenced by several generations of music and genres including classical, jazz, folk, and modern pop.
His musical journey began in the early 1980s with recording mix tapes from songs played on Phoenix radio. Early favorites were Blondie, the Talking Heads, and Tears for Fears. The 1986 Howard Jones hit “No One Is To Blame” inspired Alek to take up the piano. He soon bought his first synthesizer, a Casio, and formed high school collaborations ranging from musical comedy songs to dance bands. It wasn’t long before he was writing songs.
Alek’s formative influences included Depeche Mode, INXS, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, and The Cure. He was profoundly hooked on expressions of emotion and longing, which the ’80s and ’90s offered in abundance. He later absorbed the influence of rock and reggae shared by college friends and on the radio, and with a focus on motion picture production Alek began to collect and study orchestral film scores as well. Alek encountered the recordings of Harry Connick Jr. and in old jazz standards found another foundry of music expressing deep longing.
Working in the motion picture industry in the mid-to-late ’90s, Alek stretched his musical chops as he composed and orchestrated symphonic music and recorded and mixed post-production sound for several independent film shorts and features. He ventured to Los Angeles where set dressing and graphic design took priority until he didn't have the time or energy left in the day to work on his music. He was a graphic designer on The X-Files when he decided to quit the movie business and pivot the focus to music.
In 1999, Alek recorded his first album, Love in Color, in the bedroom of his Los Angeles apartment. It was entirely self-produced and self-marketed thereafter. He performed songs in the local area both solo and with a band. He created a music playlist on mp3.com consisting of artists that he selected plus one of his own tracks, and the playlist held the #1 position for several months. His track “Belief” was selected by Pat DiNizio (The Smithereens) to be included on the launch playlist broadcasted on XM Satellite Radio's new Unsigned Artists channel. Henceforth, the album drifted back into relative obscurity.
Alek moved to Melbourne, Australia in 2003 and enrolled in a jazz piano improvisation program at the Victorian College of the Arts. After six months he returned to the US inspired and laden with credit card debt. He migrated north, landing in Seattle, and began developing songs for his next album. A song circle became the test stage for his works in progress.
The album, Gratitude World, was three years in the making. It was recorded in Seattle at Elliot Bay Recording Company, and mixed in Portland in Alek’s home studio. It was released in November of 2012 and marketed to college radio for several months. Although it received spins on dozens of stations, there was no press coverage, and the album remained off the radar of the music industry.
After the second album, Alek switched to releasing songs as digital singles. He continues to record in his home studio, now in Bellingham, WA, and is currently working through a backlog of unrecorded material as well as writing new songs.
Discography
Visit the album cover archive.