22 MAY 11-17, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | FOR MORE INFO & TICKETS MERCURYCAFE.COM TUE 5/9 BEGINNER LINDY HOP CLASS 6PM-7PM INTERMEDIATE LINDY HOP 7PM-8PM LINDY HOP SOCIAL DANCE 8PM-11PM WED 5/10 WEST COAST SWING 7PM - 11PM OPEN MIC MUSICIANS 9PM-12AM NEO-NIGHT 7PM-9PM MON 5/8 ZOUK DANCE (DANCEHALL) 7PM-11:30PM THU 5/11 DAVID BRUSSELS 5PM-7PM MELISSA IVEY | BIPOC OPEN MIC 7PM-9PM FAXIOM & GUPI & WHOTF 8PM-11PM FRI 5/12 GABE JAZZ TRIO 6PM-9PM POETRY OPEN MIC 10:30PM-1AM GREEN MOUNTAIN AREA, A NIGHT OF JAZZ! 6:30-10PM SAT 5/13 HART GUITAR STUDENT SHOWCASE 12PM-4PM WORLD MUSIC NIGHT 7PM-9PM SUN 5/14 GRISHA NISEVICH 10AM-1PM ASTROLOGY MEETUP 2-4PM JAM B4 THE SLAM 6-8PM OPEN MIC (POETRY) 8PM-12AM SWING DANCE/SHIMI 5:30PM - 8PM JOE GREEN & FRIENDS 8-10PM Time Capsule BY JULIANNA O’CL AIR For Anthony Morales, the beauty of music is its ability to capture a memory. The photo- graphic power of a song often transports Morales back to spaces and moments long lost to the fl ow of time, and he hopes that the music he creates as Old Soul Era can do this for others. In a decade defi ned by technology, he just wants his listeners “to feel human.” Morales was born into a family of ma- riachi and norteño Mexican musicians. A young Morales tagged along to many per- formances, and watching his family jam on stage inadvertently fanned his spark of musi- cal creativity. He picked up the saxophone before discovering his true love, the guitar. His guitar skills are self-taught, achieved by watching YouTube tutorials and playing by ear, mimicking fun musical licks. Now he writes and produces music as Old Soul Era. As the name implies, Morales’s music has old-school inspirations; the classic hip-hop style is sprinkled with samples from soul records and Chicano jazz infl uences. And his lyrics add more nostalgic antiquity, drawing from the journey of his ancestors. “I like to refl ect a lot on how humanity used to be and how our ancestors used to roam the land, and metaphorically describe it in my lyrics,” Morales says. “Old Soul Era, it’s speak- ing about things we used to be and things we should implement now from our past.” He remembers hearing Chicano jazz as a child, but he didn’t notice its infl uence on his musical taste until years later. “That’s why I was so into The Jungle Book,” he explains. “The cartoon one is just so full of jazz, you know? King Louie’s song on that — he’s just going away at the horn.” He embeds ideas from Chicano culture in his music, sampling jazz and then “putting some Chicano vibes to it.” Morales also mixes Spanish into his rhymes, paying homage to his fi rst language. He wants to create a project entirely in Spanish, but he doesn’t want to force it — the music has to come to him naturally. “Some of my songs that I perform in Spanish always get the best reac- tion from the crowd, whenever I’m going at it in English and then boom — trip ’em up and translate it into Spanish, or vice versa,” he says. His music also acts as a pushback against the corporate, capitalist system, he says, adding that while he is “addicted” to performing and loves creating music, it’s not just about his personal enjoyment. His catchy, nostalgic beats carry a meaningful message, and he uses inspiration from the powerful ancient civilizations of the Aztecs, Olmecs and Mayans to “rediscover who we were as humans versus these programmed robots that we all might become on accident because we have to play in the system.” Morales does more than perform and create music: He also teaches beat-making and hip-hop dance at the Lakewood Cul- tural Center, running classes for both youth and adults. He loves introducing students to something they have not tried before, and says it is as addictive as it is rewarding. “There have been situa- tions where people — kids or adults — come after class and tell me what a big im- pact it is for them to express themselves through music,” he refl ects. “Language is so dead to me, which is ironic that I’m a writer, but words only mean so much. So when I see that person feeling what I feel about music, I mean, it’s everything to me.” His classes attract all kinds of people. “Shout out to Linda,” he chuckles as he de- scribes a beat-making student whose story stuck with him. Linda, a 68-year-old white woman, didn’t let the fact that she was outside of hip-hop’s “typical” demographic deter her. She came to the class with determined enthusiasm: “I want to learn how to make bangers,” she told him. “She shows up in a sideways hat, a big old Space Jam T-shirt, playing the part, and then just bangs out some beats,” Morales recalls. “And she kills it, and then proceeds to tell me that the reason she did it is because her son was in college in California learning music production. So she wanted to surprise him when he got back from school, like, ‘Hey, look what I can make.’” One of the core lessons Morales teaches his students is how to sample. While some musicians see sampling as stealing work, he emphasizes that using the same sound and changing it to fi t a different vision is anything but. “[Artists] borrow everything,” he says. “Every real artist will tell you that they drew inspiration from a different artist.” And he uses samples in his work all the time. “Even if it’s a bird chirping,” he says, “I can take that and just throw it in the sampler and add a bunch of effects.” By the time he’s done manipulating the original sound, a bird tweeting can end up sounding like a piano roll. “I think that creativity is something that you tap into — so when it’s there, it’s up to you to take it.” Morales is currently making headway on several new projects. An album scheduled to drop on May 29 will include different artists he’s met at Mutiny Information Cafe, where he and other local musicians host a monthly open-mic cypher event. The monthly show is a freestyle session: Morales loops and chops music live, using turntables and even grabbing a mic to throw some runs into the mix. The open mic has led to a lot of late-night production sessions. “Every time I leave, it’s like one in the morning and I’m like, ‘I should probably go to bed,’” Morales says. “But everybody who I just watched just inspires me with their fi re, and I go straight to making music.” He’s also working on a project with Denver musician Burroughs. “We already have one song out together that we released as a single, called ‘Rizzoto,’” he says. “People vibe to it. It’s a fun one. It kind of bounces a lot more than my stuff does.” He’s keeping a third project on the down-low; all he’ll say is that it’s a collabora- tion with local musician Rozzay, or “Mr. Don’t Play,” as Morales calls him. Morales believes that his years of hard work, all while staying true to himself and his music, have led him to where he is today. “You are so devoted to your craft and put- ting in the time and work, the cool shows are going to come,” he says. “I’ve gotten to perform with my favorite artist, and he came to spend the night at my house. Growing up, never would I have thought of that. Ever. This guy I grew up worshiping and idolizing, next thing you know, me and Spawn from Atmosphere are making music together. That never would have happened if I wasn’t true to myself.” Follow @oldsoulera to stay up to date on Morales’s new releases. MUSIC Anthony Morales, aka Old Soul Era. CARLY SELL ARO
