Last Friday (April 16th to be exact), Hopeless Romantic Jel released his CD, “Angel’s Touch” and celebrated with a CD release at The House Coffee Sanctuary. I was fortunate to be able to be part of the large crowd that had packed themselves into the very warm coffee shop for a night of local talent; all organized by Jel Gonzales. The night opened with performances by friends including Brandon Wight, Victoria Noelle and Francis Catolos with Travis Presbitero and even a mashup of childhood television theme songs by Andrew Lumapas (a mashup I soon won’t forget). HRJ opened his performance with a cover of Jay Sean’s radio hit Down ft. Lil Wayne. But before the stage beckoned him, I took HRJ outside for a breath of fresh air instead of the stuffy air in the coffee house and snuck in a few questions of course.
YAA: How did you record your cd?
HRJ: During open mic a lot of people were jamming and one of my friends came up to me and said hey I have a recording studio if you want to record with us and make a cd, give us a call. So I called him up and we recorded some songs and he helped me fix the volumes and stuff.
YAA: What do you mostly write your music about?
HRJ: Love obviously. Hence the name, Hopeless Romantic Jel; my friend called me that one day and I thought hey that works. Haha. Basically just teen crushes.
YAA: When did you first start playing music?
HRJ: When I moved to the US in 2005; I wrote my first song about a girl.
YAA: On a scale of one to ten how nervous are you?
HRJ: Is it possible to go to a 100? Or times that by ten? Haha. I don’t have butterflies in my stomach, they are more like cheetah’s running around like crazy.
YAA: Why did you decide to incorporate your friends tonight with the show?
HRJ: Cause they always want to perform at open mics and they never get the chance too. I thought hey I’ll give them a chance to perform with me, and it makes me more comfortable to have them performing because they are one of my main inspirations to keep going with music.
YAA: Have you played a lot of open mic nights at The House?
HRJ: I’ve played open mics for 4 years and now I’m one of the co-hosts during the Thursday night open mics.
YAA: What is your favourite type of cheese?
HRJ: All kinds. I once mixed them all together in a sandwich it was delicious. Best sandwich of my life. It was just cheese, a grilled cheese sandwich.
If you want to check out Hopeless Romantic Jel your best bet is to swing by The House, Thursday nights for Open Mic Night. And now you know everything about Hopeless Romantic Jel.
great post as usual!