Alex Etchart Talks La Linea 2025 Performance And More

London based multi-instrumentalist and LGBTQ+ rights activist Alex Etchart makes a welcome return to La Linea after a sold-out show in 2023 and will be presenting his new project. Connecting dual-heritage folk roots with prog-rock electronica, Queer Utópico is at SOAS on 30th April 2025. The artist spoke to us about the performance and more:

When did you begin performing/songwriting?

I used to poetically translate 60s South American folk songs in my teens, trying to get them to rhythm and rhyme in English. I spent my twenties composing musicals, writing with marginalised queer, trans, migrant, sex worker communities around lived experience. I am newly coming into a music career bringing my own name, songs and stories to the fore. It’s an exciting time when I’m brimming with so much to say I’m struggling to contain it within one genre or even one art form. I’ve enjoyed crafting my own unique sound with the amazing Vientos musicians by my side. I hope it sounds completely my own while still having universal riffs and textures everyone can connect and dance to.

What is your earliest musical memory?

I remember busting out high falsetto in the car to Imogen Heap, Jeff Buckley and Caetano Veloso.

Do you have any plans to record the show and/or release the project commercially?

I released my debut album on 21st March, called ‘Seeds are Sewing’, an acapella album of songs of joy and justice, my original compositions arranged for 9 singers and 3 guest choirs, including Uruguay’s first ever queer murga.

Do you use any particular instruments, microphones, musical equipment to help you get a particular sound/tone for live shows?

Yeah for my acoustic trio at La Linea I rely a lot on my trusty DPA mic to amplify my Burguet luthier classical guitar, as I don’t want to drill into it! I combine this with a KNA undersaddle pickup to balance the resonance and live, percussive feel. When touring with my band I prefer to focus on singing, synths and samplers so I can be less tied down, more diva. Guitar is my first love but it can sometimes feel like a shield between me and the audience.

What does Latin music and culture mean to you?

Latin music has always and will always be about a clash of cultures. Harmony and dissonance. Antithesis and synthesis. Invasion and recreation.

Which of your tracks hear you at your a) happiest, b) angriest and c) most reflective?

Devora which is not yet out, is inspired by Canción de las Simples Cosas, made famous by Mercedes Sosa which taps into a profound melancholy around being left by a lover leaving home, which I reframe as an analogy for breaks between continents and generations caused by dictatorship and exile. As the song developed the synths got grittier and the bass and strings followed into a moment of pure grunge in which the song decomposes and reforms into daybreak.

Afterlife is an upbeat festival track where we celebrate dancing ephemerally as life throws chaos your way, painting sunsets and cherishing the soil, the earth, so luscious and fragile.

The ballad Hunger is an aching quest to find self love which starts with tender self criticism and slowly waxes into a soulful call for universal self-acceptance and social celebration.

Tonada Menguante tries to bring all these sounds together

What two things do you hope to have achieved once you have left the stage?

To get folks singing and dancing along to uplifting bilingual refrains around queer love, diaspora memory, utopian visioning. To have transmitted something fresh and unexpected, yet rooted and earnest at the same time.

Do you have any favoured stage instruments, effects, pedals, microphones etc?

I’m particularly fond of my Korg Minilogue XD synth for a thick analogue sound. I also use an Ableton Push standalone for live sampling and multi-FX on instruments. An engineer recently told me my high tenor voice shines vest through the Neumann KMS105 mic.

Where is your hometown and could you please describe it in five words?

London – clash, empire, crossroads, salsa, iconic.

Montevideo – village, philosophical, wistful, multi-disciplinary, ageless.

How do you look after your voice?

Avoiding alcohol and loud parties before gigs. Asking my bandmates to run soundcheck. The coffee doesn’t help but is strictly necessary.

You are given the opportunity to write the score for a film adaptation of a novel that you enjoy. Which novel is it and why?

The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. A timeless classic never fully done justice on the big screen. Because coming up with something comic and otherworldly would be an exciting challenge that would require so many influences.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith because it captures intercultural, intergenerational London in a way that few pieces of art truly do.

I recently composed the music for a series of day of the dead celebrations with Itzatna Arts Latinx cultural hub in Birmingham it was really exciting musically illustrating alebrijes,

dreamscapes, monarch butterflies and the festival atmosphere with soundscapes for all ages.

Who are some of your musical influences? Do you have any recommendations?

My famous influences include Victor Jara, Caetano Veloso, Imogen Heap, Jeff Buckley, Anohni, Feist, Massive Attack, Miriam Makeba. Beyond the obvious, and highly recommended are Liniker, Onipa, Dom Kipper, SOPHIE, Juan Iñaki, Sam Lee, Perotá Chingó, Jesca Hoop, Camille, Richard Bona, Mesadorm, Ana Tijoux. My musical mentor is my dear friend the indomitable Noga Ritter.

What are your future plans for 2025?

I am releasing my a capella album of songs of joy and justice recorded with 60 singers. I’ve sold out my solo show on Latin American revolutionary hxstory

I’m taking my debut music video with Vientos into primary and secondary schools to open conversations around queer/trans hxstory across the ages as it’s based on an ancient Irish folk song which questions gender hundreds of years ago. The band is touring throughout May to 6 cities and I’m looking for a producer for my next album which combines British and Latinx folk with tropical rhythms, Andean harmonies, prog rock and glitchy electronica.

What makes Alex Etchart happy and what makes you unhappy?

When promoters, venues, musicians and fans align with good will to make a tour seamless. I don’t mind sleeping on sofas so long as locals know there’s a show on and bring good energy to the gig. I think I’m unhappy at the moment sensing people feel small and disempowered to stop big wars while the big cats make their hidden deals. We have to believe individual and collective action can change things, because hope is an essential ingredient of human survival.