Heartache may seem lonely, but for The Altons, it’s a communal experience where everyone has a shoulder to lean on.
The band’s second album, “Heartache in Room 14,” released via Daptone Records on Feb. 14, is based on the group’s collective emotional turbulence, according to vocalist and guitarist Bryan Ponce. “We went through a lot in our own personal lives throughout the couple years that we’ve been recording,” Ponce said in a Zoom interview with singer Adriana Flores and drummer Caitlin Moss.
“The album name is fitting because we put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it.”
The Southeast Los Angeles-based-“souldies” group consisting of Ponce, Flores, Moss and bassist Chris “Bolillo” Manjarrez will perform songs from the newly released album at The Belasco in Los Angeles on Friday, March 7 and Saturday, March 8.
“It’s usually an energetic crowd where you get all sorts of people who come out, and they’re all in different emotional states,” Flores said. “So it’ll be a good and charged emotional time.”
“Expect laughter, tears, heartbreak and a good time,” Ponce added.
The group’s sophomore 10-track album is a callback to R&B and soul of yore, featuring all the cornerstones of oldies, including ballads and duets that long for love or lament its end. “Heartache in Room 14” was created in collaboration with acclaimed Daptone Records producer Gabriel Roth, aka Bosco Mann, in room 14 of Riverside’s Penrose Records, which is also his label imprint.
“Getting to the point where we were able to work with Gabe, who touched a lot of what I listen to, and sitting there with him working out our songs is really cool,” Flores said. “It helped allow us to grow as artists.”
“This version of the group is a lot more mature musically and lyrically in the way we do our songwriting,” Ponce said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done so far with this record. It’s an evolution of sound.”
The Altons’ collaboration with Roth is on par with his mission to elevate up-and-coming soul groups. The “souldies” scene in Southern California is ripe with acts from Chicano Batman, Thee Sacred Souls, Quitapenas, Thee Sinseers, Los Yesterdays, Jason Joshua, Vicky Tafoya and the Big Beat and others. Many of them were influenced by Chicano oldies, a romantic subgenre of soul and R&B created by Mexican-American musicians, influenced by the Black pioneering artists of Motown.
“Souldies” is as much of a subgenre as it is a vibe. It is a renaissance of oldies music that evokes nostalgia for backyard barbeques on summer days and Sunday cruise nights in vintage cars with Art Laboe blaring from the speakers.
The music is a cultural byproduct crafted through the lens of Latino musicians born and raised in the diversity of Los Angeles. Those cultural elements, along with the parents and siblings passing down music tastes to Flores, Moss and Ponce, are a factor in The Altons’ inspiration.
“I have a lot of memories of being around Los Angeles and hearing all these kinds of different sounds,” Ponce said. “It’s an accumulation of all that we heard in our neighborhoods and it helped put that into this record.”
Much like Chicano oldies groups before them, The Altons incorporate their Latin American heritage with Spanish lyrics in “Heartache in Room 14.” The album includes two Spanish tracks: “Perdóname,” which translates to “Forgive Me,” and “Del Cielo te Cuido,” which means “I’ll take care of you from Heaven.”
“Being part of the Latino population and being exposed to all sorts of music in Southern California can’t be ignored here,” Flores said. “Our parents introduced us to a lot of different groups, bandas and boleros. I love all of that. Writing something that our parents can listen to and being able to be like, ‘Dad, check this out. It’s in Spanish,’ and him being stoked about it is pretty cool.”
The Altons said they feel a sense of camaraderie with the other acts in the “souldies” scene and see their role as a way for other soul fans to keep one foot in modernity while the other is on the roots of the trailblazers.
“I would like to believe that by them listening to us, they might find things that they can relate to, like the music we might be inspired by,” Flores said. “I’d love to believe they are led from our music page to look at other types of music, whether older or similar bands. If we’re the gateway for anybody, we did something right.”
Much like how the community has influenced culture and music, Moss said she thinks about how the drumming was developed and is built on the generations who have laid the foundation for the present.
“We’re learning from those that came before us and who learned from those that came before them in this sort of oral tradition of learning music,” Moss said. “It could be the same for any other instrument or vocals. I’m very appreciative of that when we’re putting that into our styles with a genre of music that we’re influenced by.”
The group has a deep love for Los Angeles, where the band’s early years were spent gigging at dive bars and wherever else would have them. During the peak of the Los Angeles wildfires that devastated the region, they dedicated their song “Your Light” in an Instagram post to the city.
“Music is so powerful, I can listen to an album and I’ll remember what hurdles it carried me through,” the post said. “My heart aches for my city right now and I hope our song can be of some solace to you in this tough time.”
When asked how the wildfires affected them, the band said they weren’t directly impacted, but like many Los Angeles residents, their hearts were heavy seeing their community in anguish. However, like the sentiment in their latest album’s song, “Your Light,” which calls for a guiding light in the darkness, they said watching the different communities respond was hopeful, no matter the heartache.
“It’s heartwarming that people can come together and help each other out. You see lines of people trying to volunteer, turning people away because they have too many people helping,” Flores said. “That’s a good problem to have. That was reassuring and made us realize we will be okay.”
The Altons
Where: The Belasco, 1050 S Hill St., Los Angeles.
When: 7 p.m. Friday, March 7.
Tickets: Tickets start at $115 at Livenation.com.
Also: 7 p.m. Saturday, March 8, at The Belasco, 1050 S Hill St., Los Angeles. Tickets start at $115 at Livenation.com.