ELSTEN
Gig Seeker Pro

ELSTEN

| INDIE

| INDIE
Band Alternative Singer/Songwriter

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Various Quotes"

“Evocative, heartfelt songs… that are emotional… well crafted and convincing… a soon to be undiscovered gem.”

Billboard Magazine


“A musical revolution has emerged from Miami with a powerfully fresh new sound, and in the center of this movement stands Elsten Torres”. Variety


“His songs have that beautiful rare quality of poetry & realism, that reflect the sentimentality of the common man’s conscientiousness while maintaining a fresh, musical vision”

The Miami Herald


“Elsten’s music carries a unique musical message that connects some how to both Latinos and to the rest of us”.
Miami New Times


- various publications


"Grammy Nominee- Elsten Torres"

- A spicy album filled with piquant songs that will get your blood pumping and your body moving in ways you never imagined, Fulano’s Individual has distinctive melodies ranging from hot-blooded romps to steaming sonatas of love. Although some of the songs are sung in Spanish, the flaming beat transcends the confines of language to detonate in listeners' ears.

“De Aqui a Mañana” has speedy drum play along with red hot percussion and guitar for a beat that builds up and will make you want to get up and dance. The vocalist’s timbre is like silk as it glides over your eardrums and, even if you don’t know what he is saying, the feeling in his voice communicates his point.

“Olvidaré” has acoustic guitar followed by violin for that larger than life orchestra touch. The vocalist’s timbre is deeper here, denoting a more somber message. The English translation of the title is "I will forget," and the somber tone of the vocalist describes his desire to dismiss the pain he is singing about.

“Dando Vueltas” has piano, percussion and drum work all wrapped into one sexy package. The beat builds up and, with the help of a synthesizer, will knock listeners off their feet with the intro’s power. One can envision doing the Lambada, better known as the Forbidden Dance, to this song as its rhythm promotes steamy interactions.

“Noche Entera” translates to "Entire Night," and the laid-back tone of this song leaves no doubt as to its message. The vocalist emotes each lyric with intent precision, making sure that whoever he is singing this song to completely understands his meaning. Even for those who don’t speak Spanish, the potency of his voice leaves nothing to the imagination.

“For Today” is one of the songs sung in English and it is just as effective as its Spanish equivalents. It has seething drum work and a more rock feel than the previous tracks. It speaks of a brawl of the heart with images of hurt and physical stress, with lines such as, “I see you’ve got the bruises and the cuts on your skin. And you feel so lost you don’t know where to begin, and you wonder just how long the beating will last. Someone should have taught you not to dwell in the past. This is all, this is all, this is all this is all for today.” Mind you, this song about friction is set to an upbeat melody which might detract from its sobering communication.

Fulano’s Individual has singular tracks and, even if you don’t articulate a lick of Spanish, those tracks have such power and intensity that their meaning can’t help but be comprehended. As for the English tracks, Fulano does a tremendous job of communicating their feelings and these tracks will make you blood boil just as hot as the Spanish tracks.

Reviewer: Sari N. Kent

new
Reviewer's Rating: 8.5
Reader's Rating: 10.00
Reader's Votes: 2
- Celebrity Review


"A pioneer gets his props"

Elsten "Fulano" Torres flashed an impetuous grin last month as he gazed at the crowd grooving to his galactic Latin pop at Little Havana's Kimbaracumbara nightclub. He and his band were delivering a funkified version of "Dando vueltas" ("Going in Circles"), with Torres supplying the playful refrain: "I may be going in circles, but I know where I'm going." The song, which describes an artist's decision to choose creative fulfillment over job security, seemed to capture the spirit of his own suddenly triumphant music career.

The Miami-based singer-songwriter has come a long way in the past decade. Many in the audience, in fact, were fans of Torres from his previous band, Fulano de Tal, which helped pioneer Miami's rock en español movement, along with popular outfits such as La Secta AllStar, Volumen Cero, and the recently retired Bacilos.

On this February evening, though, his supporters had gathered to offer Torres a rousing sendoff. He was on his way to the Grammys, in the hopes his self-released bilingual album, Individual, would nab the award for best Latin pop album.

As it turned out, Torres lost to a couple of big names, Guatemala's Ricardo Arjona and Mexico's Julieta Venegas, who shared the award. But that didn't stop him from maintaining a buoyant attitude afterward. "Getting this far and seeing my name and my album up there was a great feeling and an honor," Torres says, adding, "the fact that my indie album was recognized among all these artists who were signed to major labels was an accomplishment of its own."

After years of bum record deals and band breakups, Torres has learned to celebrate whatever good fortune comes his way. He moved to Miami from New York in 1994 and formed a band called Fulano de Tal with a group of recent college grads. Fulano wrote songs with Spanish lyrics, but the band's sound was an amalgam of British alternative rock, New Wave, and Caribbean rhythms.

The band's hit single, "Revolution," recorded on the now-defunct indie label Radio Vox, led to a deal with BMG. In 1997, they released the LP Normal. Rock en español was hugely popular in places like Argentina and Mexico. But it was virtually unheard of in the United States. Fulano de Tal was, in fact, the first U.S.-based rock en español band to be signed to a major label.

"We were working an indie type of product with a major label, and we realized we had to do a lot of our own footwork," Torres explains. BMG, for instance, paid for Fulano de Tal to tour the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. But the label served mainly as a distributor, failing to promote the band in the cities where it played.

Before long, Fulano de Tal had inked a separate deal to write a jingle for Pepsi's Generation Next campaign, and decided to return to Radio Vox, figuring it would have more creative freedom. The band's sophomore effort, Etc.(1999), did receive some airplay on Spanish-language radio in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, but that wasn't enough to keep the band together when bigger stars came calling. In 2000, guitarist Adam Zimmon and percussionist Brendan Buckley were recruited to play backup for the pop star Shakira.

"Obviously I was disappointed, but I understood their position," Torres says. "We had a great sound and great chemistry as a band. Who knows what would have happened if we would have stayed together?"

What is known is that Fulano de Tal opened doors for its peers to be taken seriously by major labels. Bacilos, for example, signed with Warner Music Latina in 2000 and went on to win a Grammy for best Latin pop album, while La Secta AllStar won the backing of Universal Latino, and scored a major hit with its 2005 album Consejo.

Torres didn't spend too long dwelling on what might have been, though. Instead he took a fruitful detour into songwriting for other artists on the Warner/Chappell Music label. Obie Bermudez's recording of Torres's song "Todo el año" ("All Year") received a Latin Grammy nomination for best song of the year, and had a five-week run as the number one song on the Latin Billboard charts. Torres was also the composer behind such hits as "Caramelo" (Alejandra Guzman), "Tanto" and "Tatuaje" (J.D. Natasha), and "Por una mujer" (Luis Fonsi). To top it all off, Julio Iglesias, Jr.'s 2004 recording of Torres's song "Los demás" ("The Others") reached the Latin Billboard's top 10 and was honored by BMI as "one of the 50 most performed songs on Spanish radio."

Composing paid Torres's bills and gained him some notoriety. It also helped him experiment with his own sound, which he describes as "an eclectic mix of a Cuban kid growing up in New York listening to The Beatles but hearing Beny Moré in the background."

By 2005, Torres had a catalogue of 50 new songs and was itching to get back in front of the mike himself, so he pieced together an informal band and started performing monthly at Little Havana's Hoy Como Ayer nightclub to test out his tunes. Buckley, on break from his duties with Shakira that summer, liked what he heard, so he jumped into the studio to help Torres co-produce a solo album. The pair chose a dozen compositions for what would become the multifaceted Individual, with Zimmon and Buckley returning to perform on the recordings.

The album is a mix of old Fulano de Tal-style rock and the lighter pop Torres came to appreciate while writing for mainstream Latin artists. "It still has a bit of edginess, but it's more about getting a songwriter message across," Torres explains. "I used to be very cautious about being too poppy or too commercial. I'm definitely less snobby than I used to be because there's good music in any genre."

*
Fulano doesn't seem to mind the gap
Fulano doesn't seem to mind the gap

Details:
Fulano performs at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, March 2, at Kimbaracumbara, 1644 SW 8th St, Miami. Call 305-642-8822 for more information.
Subject(s):
Elsten "Fulano" Torres

That said, Torres says Latin commercial radio could stand to be "shaken up a bit," and he thinks independent artists are the ones who should do it, precisely because no one's telling them what to do.

On Individual, he has figured out how to rock the airwaves without throwing commercial wisdom overboard. The upbeat rock number "When Summer Comes" runs in the vein of alternative pop artist Michael Penn: not too hard, but not too sappy. "La noche entera" ("All Night Long") mines the softer side of Latin pop, with Maria "Solar" Martinez's back-up vocals seconding Torres as he bemoans the inevitable monotony of coupledom. Torres uses whimsical ragtime blues to express a romance that withstands those dry periods on "I Will Always Have This Love." That one is appropriately dedicated to his wife Beatriz "Bozenka" Arencibia, the 2000 Miss America of Belly Dance. Her choreography rounded out the visuals on Torres's "Dando vueltas" video, which is due for release later this month. (The video playfully portrays Torres as a mariachi player one moment, and a white-tuxedoed prom king the next, as Bozenka and a troupe of about 30 belly dancers gyrate around him.)

Individual is clearly Torres's brainchild, but he often sounds more comfortable lavishing praise on his collaborators than touting his own efforts. He credits Zimmon — and his stint as a guitarist for the Spam All-Stars — with funking up his sound. Keyboardist Peter Wallace, he says, offers a melodic versatility that spans influences from Chopin to Ray Charles. Bass player Ricardo Martinez contributes a solid knowledge of pop rock. And so on. "I try not to overstep their creative process because ultimately (their contributions) make for a better song," Torres says.

His bandmates echo the praise. "He's always written these really unique pop songs and he's never been able to compromise, even when he was writing for other people, so for a long time his struggle was for being himself," Zimmon says. "It's great to see people recognize him for being a great songwriter, 'cause I always knew it."

Torres says he's open to signing a deal with another major label, but only one that offers a clear vision for his career. Mostly he's hopeful that his own success as an independent artist will inspire others to find mainstream commercial success without feeling pressured to sell out their own voices.

Torres's Grammy nomination is "a representation of all that is independent," says Sacha Nairobi, an independent Venezuelan singer-songwriter and colleague of Torres. "It means that we're all going to get there; we're all going to win — all of us who are unknown, all of us who are working hard, all of us who aren't yet selling." - Miami New Times


Discography

Albums:
"If You Say So"
Individual
ETC.
Normal
Revolucion

singles:
Mercy
For Today
When Summer Comes
I Will Always Have This Love
Todo El A�o
Tatuaje
Tanto
Los Demas
Caramelo
Selfish

Photos

Bio

Two-time Grammy Nominated ELSTEN TORRES has been a bilingual pop-rock frontman while writing smash hits on the Latin pop and tropical charts for other artists.
Born in Havana, Cuba and raised in New York City, the quintessential singer-songwriter who�s proud of his roots (despite the fact that his father was a political prisoner in Cuba) and is influenced by artists from Beny Mor� to Elvis Costello to the Beatles, ELSTEN is admired by his peers for his rock-solid commitment to artistry.
In 1997, ELSTEN�s band Fulano de Tal (which means �John Doe� in Spanish) debuted with the album Normal. Shortening its name to Fulano in 2000, the band returned with Etc. This album contained the song �Caramelo,� which was subsequently covered by Mexico�s No. 1 rock star and diva, Alejandra Guzm�n.
Word of ELSTEN�s vivid, organic songwriting gifts spread quickly, and during the 2000s he wrote hits for such artists as Obie Bermudez (the Grammy-nominated �Todo el A�o� that was #1 on the Billboard Charts for 5 consecutive weeks), Julio Iglesias (the Billboard �Top 10� and BMI awarded �Los Dem�s�), Luis Fonsi and Michael Stuart.
In 2006, he released Individual under the Fulano moniker. But as the title suggests, it�s a solo album. Featuring the wistful, tropical-folk ballad �Olvidar� and the sardonic, Elvis Costello-meets-Rob Thomas rocker �Mercy,� Individual wasn�t easy to categorize but delighted audiences ready for something unpredictable and heartfelt.
ELSTEN�s peers in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave Individual their ultimate blessing, nominating it for a Best Latin Pop Album Grammy in 2007; it was the only indie-distributed release among the category�s five nominees.
Representing a new generation of bilingual singer/songwriters, in early 2008, he embarks on a new phase of his career, signing a management deal with UNO MUSIC and becoming a full-fledged solo artist, performing and recording as ELSTEN TORRES for the first time.