Alf Alpha

June 4, 2019
by

Every month we bring you #chellacast — A contemporary art+culture podcast.

Alf Alpha (aka Rafael Lopez) is a DJ, Music Producer and Artist based in Palm Desert, Ca.

“My first love. My first passion in life is definitely soccer. You carry some of those principles that you learn through playing soccer and it’s like, entrepreneur and Dj absolutely… I’ve been very thankful on the foundation that I had with sports because sports really did change my life in terms of autonomy, a lot of discipline.”

photo by Chris Miller

“I started getting into the idea of wanting to be a DJ in eighth grade, which was 98. 1998 was when I basically was like, I want to learn how to become a DJ. And, at that point I had the background of my parents’ music and this pop culture stuff. But I got introduced to hip hop at that time through MTV, honestly, through like MTV.

I like to skateboard too. That’s another one of my passions I would say. Skateboarding is very punk rock.

I asked my dad when I was in sixth grade, I want to get some drums. So in like 96′, my dad bought me a drum set and I was just self taught, I would just be in my garage, just like messing around.

And then something kind of clicked in my head where I was like, you know, being a drummer is not very much different from being a Dj because you’re always on, you have to stay on the beats. And so I was thinking, you know what? I’m going to learn how to Dj.”

photo by Adina Mills

“One of the things that inspire me is 99′ Coachella. I’ve been a freshman in high school, just got turntables and I go to Coachella and I see a bunch of DJs killing it. I see DJ on the highest level, you know? And that was the first Coachella ever 1999.
I’ve been to every single Coachella since the beginning of Coachella. I’ve never missed one day of Coachella in 20 years of Coachella.”

photo by Adina Mills

Coachella Magazine Talk Radio: Ep. Nº12
Host Treem Heff
Special guest Alf Alpha
Produced by Jorge Perezchica

This episode is sponsored by:
Palm Springs Grip & Lighting