Quirky, poetic, and a purveyor of catchy melodies, Alfa Garcia has been called "an artist who has a spectrum of colors in her palette, a songwriter with a knack for tickling a mainstream ear” by Music Connection. After getting her start as an NYU student playing New York’s downtown music scene, she took a job at a newspaper to pay for voice lessons with Don Lawrence (Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera) and to pay back her stepdad who funded her first full-length album, Second Skin, released in 2009.  Frustrated by the over-produced record, tired of slogging to faraway shows on weekends, and envying the successful musicians she interviewed during her day job, she quit in 2011, packing her life in her Nissan Sentra and heading West to Los Angeles.  

 

On the way, she met Marc Lacuesta in Nashville, who would produce her 2013 album World Go Blue, and collaborate on her country-pop duo The Idle Hours, which released an EP in 2014.  Multiple songs from World Go Blue and Second Skin went on to find placements on television, including E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians, HBO Canada’s You, Me, Her, and MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge.  Meanwhile, a song about her hometown that was co-written with Lacuesta, Bergenfield, NJ, was placed in trailers for the films Baby Steps (from the producer of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Old Fashioned - an audience favorite in the Christian film industry that has over 4 million YouTube views of the trailer alone. Alfa's song Blue, is also performed in the indie film Bennett's Song (2019), starring Tara Reid, Dennis Haskins, and Calhoun Koenig.

 

Alfa has performed throughout 26 states and her native Philippines, making radio and television appearances along the way [See list of Venues Played].  Some notable shows include supporting Shawn Mendes, Sam Smith, and Howie Day at the Valley View Casino Center’s VIP room in 2014, 2015, and 2016, headlining the NAMM Grand Plaza Stage with her band in 2016, a 2-night sold-out run opening for Us the Duo at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, opening for Marc Cohn at The Canyon in Santa Clarita in 2018, and supporting Philippine Star Magic artists (Sam Milby, KC Concepcion, Piolo Pascual) at a sold-out Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center) in NYC.  In November 2018, Alfa participated in Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson’s three-day performance exhibit, Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy at the historic Women’s Building in San Francisco.

 

Alfa’s third full-length album Spark & Fury released in 2017, and includes a re-issue of the ukulele tune Blue, now streamed over 235,000 times on Spotify.  Pete Kennedy (The Kennedys) writes of this album, “From the Motown-ish opening groove through a succession of perfectly produced gems, Alfa proves that pop music and smart, soulful lyrics are an unbeatable mix.” Her recent single releases have been digitally distributed by Warner Music Philippines via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and Deezer, and include the songs Fool’s Gold, and Bean Song (My Solace).

 

Over the years, Alfa has grown a repertoire of high-quality music videos to accompany her songs, and the 2019 single, Bean Song (My Solace) features a lyric video that is Alfa’s love letter to her adopted city, Los Angeles.  The song has 137,000 Spotify streams and counting in just four months.  Meanwhile, Blue’s dark comedy tale of first-dates-gone-bad has garnered 34,000 views on YouTube.  Other music videos feature pre-school students singing the poignant song Fool’s Gold, an upbeat run-around at Burbank’s IKEA - filmed entirely on a cell phone - for the song Bare Feet, and a gigantic costumed pillow fight for the song War! 

 

In 2020, Alfa appeared on four episodes of season 6 of the national public television program, "Songs at the Center," with award-winning songwriter and journalist Eric Gnezda, sharing her songs alongside Emily Earle and Mojoflo.  Airing now on local PBS stations nationwide.  Alfa also released her first Filipino-language single, Alindahaw with Warner Music Philippines in 2020, featuring a music video filmed in the Angeles National Forest.

 

Alfa is classically trained on violin and piano, having played with the Children’s Orchestra Society in Long Island, NY during her youth. Her first music teacher (and math tutor) was concert pianist Dr. Raul Sunico.  Alfa was raised on a hefty dose of classical music and Filipino folk songs from her early years on the island of Mindanao, but came to love pop when she discovered Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men in middle school in New Jersey.  Alfa taught herself guitar at the age of 13 and ukulele at the age of 22, and now enjoys teaching music to children in the L.A. area. She also directs the Sunset & Sounds live music program at Hotel Indigo in downtown L.A.