“An engaging performer and a surefire hit with audiences!”
Bio
They say the story is all in the eyes…
His Story
Many of Los Castro’s childhood memories involve music. Almost everyone in his mother's family sang. Growing up in a rural community in Central California also helped train his ear to be be highly adaptable.
Los literally stumbled onto the guitar in his grandmother's armoir. Because he didn't grow up rich, he was willing to learned anything from anyone willing to teach. Drums, bass. guitar, and voice. Among his many teachers were family members, a retired country pro, and even some of Southern California's finest studio musicians. He jokes that had he known who they were, he would have been too scared to play music with them. He now gratefully acknowledges those many informal teachers that nurtured his love for all GOOD music.
Los relocated to Portland, Oregon in September 2001 (everyone remembers that year) in order to seek a more creative outlet. There he co-founded Acoustic Anything with Bellow Bridge's Phil Hitt, then fronted the power trio Los & Found, and then teamed up with Singer-Songwriter Chris Casale in The Ready. He once wrote one letter a week for a year while he contemplated life. Those 52 letters became songs. They were good-bye letters to his children in case anything happened to him. They were notes on love, loyalty, family, and forgiveness. He took a close friend's advice to perform those songs as a type of therapy which, he did as a solo artist. He took vocal lessons during Covid-19, which led him to his current passion project. He feels at home as host of Lounge Of Sound on YouTube.
“Saying that Los plays music would be understating it. He feels the music. He becomes the music...”
Lounge Of Sound: The Story
Lounge Of Sound is actually a play off of Los Castro's former band name, “Los & Found” which Incidentally, was suggested by the ever entrepreneurial mind of drummer and then bandmate, D-Set.
You see, after Los & Found would finish their coffee-house gigs, the band's routine was to have dinner at a nearby restaurant and then go back to the coffee house for a pastry where the close friends would joke with the baristas and engage in such lively banter that a small crowd would form around lead guitarist Los Castro and lead singer Chris Casale. Topics would galvanize and polarize and yet somehow, always found a way of including rather than excluding passersby which led D-Set to remark “This is fantastic! You guys need your own podcast show!” Chris and Los laughed it off at first but, when the Covid-19 epidemic hit, the idea became more intriguing. Gigging opportunities were drying up as well as gatherings, and worse yet, Los' best friend and band mate had to relocate. Los was bored, and lonely. As one can imagine, days would seem longer for the self professed extrovert, but then…ZOOM happened.
Los needed help and a cause to draw him out of musical retirement which came when he and his dear friend Phil Dale were asked to contribute a children's song for their congregation. A Zoom gathering was arranged. Los was then contacted and coaxed out of retirement by the name behind KMR Place Live, Kevin Miles Ritter who told him “Los, man, the friends need to hear you play your guitar!” His friends all reassured him that when the time was right, he would have a platform to share his music. Zoom was going to be the new normal and a platform of choice for gatherings. During Covid, Youtube became all the rage, it was only logical that Los would see the potential, eapecially by using modern technology. Remember his drummer D-Set? Now a producer, he suggested that they team up to re-create Los' idea of an immersive virtual stage in which Los could lend his voice and “his girls” in ither words his guitars to his new friends around the world. In order to pursue Los' initial dream they would need a mission statement. Los' concept was “M.A.S.” a Mutual Admiration Society, in other words "more" in spanish because as Los likes to say, it is "More you, more me, and more WE"
Lounge Of Sound is somewhere that musicians Los respects and admires can chat, relax, and play music without the usual added pressure of being interviewed and can even offer a peek behind the scenes of the creative process. And rather than being exclusive to musicians it is more accessible, more inclusive, giving them a platform to show their gratitude to their non-musician "fans, friends, and fam" appreciation where you can catch his show every other friyay where a common greeting heard is…
Welcome to the Lounge Of Sound! Join Los Castro and his newfound friends - The Foundits - on a relaxing sonic safari of the heart, mind, and soul, in pursuit of music and community. Who are The Foundits? A small but growing, tight knit community of music aficionados. Grab a snack & your favorite beverage and then chat & watch or watch the chat. But, first, MUSIC!
"Beauty is in the ear of the behearer"
