Watch the beautiful, dark, twisted fantasy of Abstrakto's 'Marcando Paso (remix)' music video

Here Uforia Music we're proud to present the music video premiere for Abstrakto's 'Marcando Paso (remix)', directed by KCRW's Anthony Valadez, who also remixed the original song. The video stars Valadez's brother, tatto artist Joey Arellano, making his acting debut.

Abstrakto is the brainchild of Balthazar Getty and Asdru Sierra. Balthazar is an actor, director and music producer. You might have seen him in movies such as Lord of the Flies, Lost Highway o Natural Born Killers and TV shows like Alias, and soon, the new Twin Peaks! And yes he's part of the Getty family, of the Getty Museum and Getty Images fame. Oh, and he's also friends with David Lynch. Yup, he's almost Superman.

Asdru Sierra is also a superhuman. He's the singer and trumpet player of the iconic, Grammy-winning quintissential L.A. band Ozomatli. Besides being on the road with Ozo (and preparing a new album produced by Sly & Robbie), Asdru was part of the Latino tribute of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Quiero Creedence, along with Juan Gabriel, appeared on the epic version of ‘Guadalajara Guadalajara’ with the likes of La Revolución de Emiliano Zapata, La Cuca, Panteón Rococó and Caifanes and will be part of the Chico Ché tribute. Told you he was a superman!

So, this talented pair has been friends for years and have ired each other's work. When Asdru showed Balt some of the songs he had written, Balt loved them and they decided to record together and release a musical project on Getty's indie label, PurpleHaus Music. The result is this dark beauty that sounds like a postmodern Chicano Los Angeles, just like the one they inhabit. They named the project Abstrakto.

Abstrakto's self-titled debut album came out in September of last year and could very well be part of the soundtrack of a Robert Rodriguez film (in fact, one of Abstrakto's songs was used in Rodriguez's TV show Matador). The track for this music video is part of Abstrakto's Remex album (remixes of their originals), which is only available on vynil but will be released digitally by December or January next year.

We interviewed Asdru and Balt about their music, the 'Marcando Paso' remix video and Asdru gave us a musical lesson that involves Miles Davis, Carlos Santana and Spaghetti Westerns. Read on!

Uforia Music: Why did you choose Abstrakto? Why with a 'k'?

Asdru: The "K" gave it a different twist on what the music sounded like.

Balthazar: The very nature of our sound is “abstract,” so we wanted to an “abstract” approach in our name by taking the word in another direction. It was a visual thing, It just felt right to add the “k” and it made sense. We put it up on the chalk board, we saw it and that was it.

Asdru: Did any of the original demos you showed Balt make it in the record?

Asdru: Out of 25 songs I wrote, 11 made it. Yay!

Balt: What was it that you liked about those songs?

Balthazar: They had such heart and an original sound and feeling that I knew immediately this was something I could bring a lot to and something I could be proud of. The first single we released, the original version of “Marcando Paso” was the first to grab my attention. It is such a powerful song that we decided to do a remix with Anthony Valadez from KCRW, who also directed the video we are premiering now. We felt it needed its own video as Valadez took it in another direction.

The album sounds a lot like Los Angeles, Mexican-American culture. Did you think about that when you were working on it?

Asdru: The overall approach was to make cinematic, moving, meaningful music. I'm Mexican-American, so yes. It's very attached to both. Having Balt in the mix as a great film actor and director really helped produce this amazing piece of music. We wanted to basically make music for a film that hasn't been made yet.

Balthazar: I’ve been acting and directing since I was a kid. I grew up looking at things in a cinematic way. It’s a part of me. Yeah, we wanted to give the listener a visual in their head to accompany what they were listening to.

Would you say that this album is a description of the city of Los Angeles from a Mexican-American perspective?

Asdru: Some of the lyrics represent my own interpretation of Shakespeare stories made for the neighborhood I grew up in L.A. Just picture Hamlet or Romeo and Julieta based in Glassell Park, CA. The area is very Mexican and Mexican American. Some of these songs are just based on overall inspiration.

Balthazar: L.A. is so close to the border of Mexico. You cannot be in L.A. without being influenced by Mexican and Mexican-American culture. You can feel it in the city from music being played in someone’s backyard to murals in the street, Mexican culture is everywhere in LA. It gives it essence. We wanted to show this in a cinematic way to give people listening a true taste of our city.

Would you say it is a dark album?

Asdru: Sometimes in darkness, it shows the light the best. It's definitely moody, but that is the point. I've made very happy records for most of my career with Ozomatli. It was a great freedom to just express some art for a change. At least a good attempt to! I Balt always stopping whatever strand of music I would come up with that sounded the least bit "happy" or "trendy" or "hit-sounding." There's a lot of material that was put away that sounded the least bit like that!! It was actually fun to make a record that was a venture towards honesty. Almost like sonically showing music being as true as the cruelty of life itself. But it's not about life being "cruel." It's just life on life's .

Balthazar: I don’t want to pigeonhole us into being “dark.” It definitely has dark moments. There are plenty of songs on there that get you out of your seat and dance and then some that have a lot of feeling behind them. I really don’t see things as light or dark, per se.

How did you come up with the idea for the ‘Marcando Paso' Remix video?

Asdru: We were in the mode of rejecting any traditional, fancy, dancy, video with pitbulls and ladies in bikinis.

We always wanted to make sure the videos matched the artistry of the music. But that's mostly Balt's department. He's the guy that really made it happen. It was inspiring watching him work. THIS is what I was looking forward to with the completion of this process. He's so bad ass when it comes to that world. I don't think he realizes it.

Balthazar: I’ve directed the two last videos for the project. This time I wanted to try something new, so we reached out to our good friend Anthony Valadez from KCRW, who had remixed the original track and had great concept for a video. It was shot in the streets of Venice, CA and features Valadez’s real brother as the main character who artistically shows us we all carry our own struggles, yet we have angels protecting us as we make our way through life. I think Valadez did a killer job using a real person’s struggle as the center of the video. It shows us we are all the same as we literally march through the tough times that come our way.

Are those real steps in the beginning of the song?

Asdru: Yes, I got these biker boots and different shoes I used to create and later tracks of that and looped it along with the horns, Rhodes, and moog bass. I originally showed a demo of this track to Balt that sparked the partnership that had me trying it at my house, but it sounded better at his studio!!! Like I said before, the sound I was able to get in that room was priceless. Very inspiring month, December 2013 was...

Balthazar: The sound of the boots got me immediately in the demo. I felt we really wanted to capture that sound. As Asdru said, the boots sounded even better in the studio.

12. Asdru, you've said that when you think of a trumpet you think of Miles Davis. When Mexicans think of a trumpet they think of Mexico. The way you use the trumpet in this song sounds more Mexican to me than spaghetti-Western-ish. What you think?

Asdru: Well, I am Mexican-American, but honestly, this wasn't the only song on the record. There were many other approaches on the record other than that one particular style I was going for a couple songs. The Spaghetti Western movies were based partly on Mexican characters and Mexican settings, if you . Some of these movies were originally inspired by Japanese films. The reason they were called "Spaghetti Westerns" was because there were Italian composers and directors filming it. Artistically I took that vision, and made it mine when it comes to trumpet and everything else I do. Through most of my career, I've always struggled with putting labels on music like this. It's a mix of things. There's also a lot of cumbia, reggae, Son Montuno, in this music which isn't originally from "Mexico." "Trumpet" did not exist in traditional mariachi music until a Hollywood movie director felt they needed to add it to a scene in a film, then everyone started getting hip to that. Most "Banda" music you hear is attributed to the Jewish-German and Polish musicians people fleeing Europe during WW1 and WW2 that moved to Mexico and opened schools. They taught everyone "polka" music. Then it was added. You will find that most of our music's roots are birthed from fusing different cultures.

There's also some tuvan-throat singing, bossa nova-ish guitar lines, Spanish style/canto jondo, and other things that I've learned in my travels and in music schools that I put on this record. That's a few different countries there.

I'd like to think that, as a Mexican American/Latino, I like to listen to music more than just "regional" to my roots. And hence, I like to use what I've learned.

Miles Davis was always known to be innovative as a band leader, artist and musician. His musical styles spanned many genres, ages, artistic movements. He experimented with all sorts of instruments and approaches to them. Why I mention Miles is because he didn't really care what people thought about what music he played. He did it. He believed in it. It is what it is. You like or you don't.

I learned a lot about Miles Davis from my conversations with Carlos Santana (another Mexican-American musician), who really speaks highly of him. He owns one of Miles' trumpets. So, yes and no, and yes and no. Music is a universal key to many cultures and people, tying us to many fusions of both.