“You don't need to be viral, you need to be lively.”
The decade of the two thousandths was passing: the toquins were from word to voice; cell phones had physical keyboards; People were buzzing on MSN, and to enjoy music, having a portable MP3 player was all that was needed. He streaming it did not dominate the market; the physical format seemed irreplaceable.
In those years, it was a challenge to spread independent music. “We made CDs, but our way to really go further was to have our stickers with our links of download for free so that it could reach more people,” he says. Alan Ittymusician, producer and sound artist at the head of Vincent Gaius: “It was a double-edged sword, because not so many CDs were consumed, because, well, you could download MP3s for free, and at the same time that worked in your favor, because well, it was your way of distributing.”
After taking a drink of water on the terrace of the Indie Rocks Forum!the musician continues: “It's not like there were platforms for streaming that could suggest the algorithm or make us sound in China, Argentina, Chile or the United States. It turns out that we didn't have a way to account for certain things either. There was still this kind of transition between the label, the streaming, iTunes and give away your song; between the fact that record labels no longer had money because there were not as many record sales, and traditional media were still, 50%, very important. That is, your true distribution was to be played on an alternative radio station. And if you wanted to grow, maybe you had to fit into a mold that would allow you to sound on a more commercial station, or opt for the alternative of saying: 'Well, I'm the weird video they show at two in the morning on MTV'…and, luckily, thank you, Canal Once, for distributing us.'
Vincent Gaius It is one of the most influential bands in rock today. This might sound somewhat cliché, but it is not. Actually, Vincent Gaius He played with sounds that, unintentionally, became the basis of what is done in Mexico today. And, at the time, it was an act of rebellion to be a rock band and, at the same time, experiment with instruments that seemed to be enemies of authentic rock.
“At that time we were a very geek and very understood by musicians. We were in a music scene where it was, very, very, a punk world, an indie rock world, right? Where combining synthesizers, MIDI and other things was not normal. Neither was having a computer with Ableton Live and sequences that you released. And we were doing it. It was that time when we said: 'Well, we are a rock band, but we are not fighting with synthesizers,' right?”
And it is that two-mile rock, which mixed toys, synthesizers and guitars, that is returning in 2025, after 13 years of absence: “It is a return very out of nowhere, because we believed that we were never going to return; that we ended up in a moment where we felt that we could no longer adapt to a mold to grow without ceasing to have our musical ideals at that time.” But, in retrospect, Vincent Gaius He still had a lot to give: “After a while you realize where everything came from, and, working in the music industry, you realize how valuable what you had was at that time.”
Although Vincent Gaius He stopped playing live after his performance at the Vive Latino Festival, Alan Itty He never left music and explored his role as a producer, being awarded three Latin Grammy for the album to the rootof Natalia Lafourcade. In addition, he has collaborated in the productions of musicians such as Hello Seahorse!, Austin TV, Mon Laferte, Jesse & Joy, Ximena Sariñana and many more: “It has been very valuable for me to be able to be involved in different worlds of music, right? That is, from an alternative pop, a pop mainstreamand then go to parking lots underground where there is hyperpop and other places or festivals like Hypnosisto see bands I didn't know, see new bands and then see how a whole new wave of bands is emerging.”
While Alan Itty speaks, the sounds of CDMX enter our conversation: Oaxacan tamales, old iron and garbage… When the sun begins to fall on the trees outside the terrace, Alan Itty reflect on the answer to the million-dollar question: “How do I make a living from music? How do I make a living from art in Mexico? Of course, you can make a living from music… I don't know if it's from your music. Music is a medium; that is, music is a value that is often not represented in a currency, neither virtual nor physical, but in an intangible. It is paid for with experiences, with trips, with gratification… but hey, today it is also paid with the digital social currency, which is the networks. So, if you, regardless of your world as a band or artist, you have an artistic project, the fact that your band serves as a transducer, a horn to reach more people, will help you with credibility, a better networkto connect with people you never thought you would, from very different places and circles. What is commercial, what is not? Well, I don't know, because in the end the mainstream and pop always come from alternative waves, but made for a large audience; “That always happens.”
Part of the magic of Vincent Gaius It is not only being considered, within the undera cult band, but, outside of those circles, their career is also recognized; for example, with the IMAS award in 2012 for Best Rock Album, for Wake up and win.
“Nowadays it is very important, and it is very cool, that you can be big in a niche. Yes we like, and we have always liked, to stay in our niche and be able to connect with many people, and universalize that: to be able to be a flag and represent, more than a genre, an attitude and a style of doing things, which is always what we had. It has everything of the Hardcore Punk: Do It Yourselfwhich is also Wake up and win. In other words, it is like an ideology of doing things beyond a genre.”
Vincent Gaius returns to the stage to face a new audience and a new circuit of emerging talents who champion the alternative rock movement in Mexico. Therefore, for Alan Ittythis is the second debut of Vincent Gaius: “Suddenly I see how difficult it is to be an artist today, but also how easy it is to be an artist today. It's like a double-edged sword, where costs have gone down, where distributing is easier and where you have real data on where you can go… So, I think it exists as an assessment and revaluation of the industry.”
And it is that he Vincent Gaius 2025 cannot be Vincent Gaius from ten years ago, because the world is no longer the same: “We are in the era where our universe is the smallest that exists, because, as it is suggested to you – and if you do not look further – the same thing is suggested to you from your own world. What you are doing becomes a closed thing, based on what certain algorithms think you will like in order to be able to sell you advertising and make you stuck there.”
In these moments of viral artists and follows, Alan Itty He emphasizes that it is not about becoming a viral musician, but rather a “living” musician, that is, that the music is passed from recommendation to recommendation and makes you feel something. “It's very crazy, because sometimes where I discover the most music is when I go to a friend's house, they give me their list of things and tell me: 'It can't be that this is the only way I'm getting out of the Matrix.'”
Finally, after downing a few more gulps of water, Alan Itty He says goodbye, remembering that mistakes are where we learn and what is valuable about experiences: “Clearly, there is a need to make room for a new sound, and the new sound is the old sound, because nowadays it is very easy to sound perfect, and the most difficult thing now is to sound imperfect, right? And it's very crazy, because before what you were as a band was, 'I want to record better to sound perfect', because it was the most difficult, the most expensive; you had to go to a professional studio. Now you don't have to go to a professional studio to sound perfect, because there are incredible tools with which you can sound perfect. But now, connecting to an amplifier, having a drummer, making a mistake, going to rehearsal, having a string break… that is the most difficult thing there is and it becomes the most valuable thing there is.
