Alex Kilroy - The Romanian Guitarist Redefining Rock

Alex Kilroy The Romanian Guitarist Redefining Rock

 [The Trout]

On this episode of the Trout Show, I'm sitting down with a fantastic guitarist out of Romania. His name is Alex Kilroy. He's been turning heads across Europe and beyond.

From Brukera stages to international festivals, Alex blends bluesy rock riffs with Eastern European folk influences. In a way nobody else is doing. One of his tracks even features legendary country guitarist and vocalist Vince Gill.

His latest album just dropped and he's here to talk about his journey, his unique sound and what's it really like building a music career out of Romania. So get yourself an adult beverage, sit back and enjoy this episode with the Trout and Alex Kilroy. You're going to hear a lot from him.

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Let's find your rich. Your story is so interesting. So, you came to America and how did you get going?

I mean, obviously, when you're at Berklee, you can get to meet other people that are in the biz or other musicians. Did that help you along?

[Alex Kilroy]

Yes. So, that was my first contact with the United States. I had my teacher, Jeffrey Lockhart, who was a mentor for me at that time.

We're still friends and we communicate. So, he kind of showed me the ropes a little bit, explained to me what it means to be a musician in America. And I met other students that, you know, we exchanged ideas and they told me about their experiences playing in little bars and little clubs here and there.

So, that was my first contact. And then I went to see Tomo Fujita playing at a little blues club at a jam session. And it was my first jam session I've ever attended to in America.

It was incredible. I didn't get to play that night, but I met a lot of amazing musicians and I witnessed greatness. So, after Boston, I went to visit my friends in Philadelphia.

We have very good, they're Romanian, they're very good friends with my parents. They grew up together. They moved to America in the 90s.

So now they're established here. So they were, you know, they offered me a roof over my head, food and everything I needed, you know, until I, you know, see if America is what I really want to, where I want to be. I knew that it's where I want to be since I was a child, I was sold.

But you know, that was kind of the beginning. Now after I got accepted at Berklee and they gave me a scholarship, it was a half ride, I needed more money to actually go to attend because it was somewhere around sixty five thousand dollars. I wondered how much it was.

Yeah. Yeah. Around.

I understand that today is even more expensive. So my parents, you know, in Europe, college is not that expensive and they were not ready for such a big span. So I had to kind of figure it out myself.

Of course, they supported me very, very much. And I went to The Voice in Romania. So I'm back to Romania to get the funds for Berklee.

So I did The Voice in Romania and it was great. I was a finalist. I made it all the way through the final.

But I lost right in the final. And I'm not laughing at you.

[The Trout]

I know a lot of people that have gone to American Idol, I know people that have gone to America's Got Talent. And I'm sure it's a lot different where your country is, where you grew up, because it's not as huge a production.

[Alex Kilroy]

No, it's still a big production. But you're not competing against, I don't know, hundreds of thousands, millions, right? But still, it was a good experience.

And I made an impression on some Romanian artists and actors. So they put together a show, although I lost, they were like, OK, let's help Alex still make his American dream come true. They put together a show for me, they called it Paid Forward.

So we recorded a song and a music video that was blasted all over media at that time. And then we had a big four hour long concert with a lot of Romanian, like my coach from The Voice came and sang a song with me, actors. So it was it was a pretty cool, you know, a lot of a lot of Romanian stars showed up to support me, which was an amazing thing.

And I'm very grateful for that. Anyway, all the tickets, profits went to me and let's see if I can go to Berkeley. Unfortunately, the sum was not there yet.

But I talked with my teacher at Berkeley. I called him and I told him, look, I did this, this and that. But I still cannot attend because it's not enough funds.

So he just told me like, Alex, you want to play the blues, just go play the blues. I mean, like you don't really need to go to school for that. Just go out there and live your life and play in clubs and play for people.

Go and learn. Learn that way.

[The Trout]

That's what we call it, paying your dues.

[Alex Kilroy]

The ten thousand hours. Right. So I'm like, OK, I so what I did, I called Buddy Guys Legends.

I was like, well, I have a I have a U.S. visa. I can go there anytime I want. So let me let me do this.

So I called I was looking online for Buddy Guys Management and I found Mark Maddox, who's the talent buyer at Buddy Guys Legends. So I pick up the phone and I said, hey, I'm John Smith. I'm Alex Gilroy's manager.

I want to tell you about this kid, man. You're a smart man. I like you already.

You're a smart man. So because I'm like, how can I talk myself up? Right.

So I'm like, you got to watch these videos. He turned all the four chairs and the voice. It's it's it.

And he's coming on a tour in the United States. He really is. Believe me.

Anyway, I send him the EPK videos and this and that. And I'm like, yeah, let's wait. I waited one day, two days.

I'm like, he's probably never going to get to me. He did. And he said, how about August 18?

I'm like, is this for real? Yeah, August 18. Perfect.

He'll be there opening for Trombone Shorty. I think it was the name of the artist.

[The Trout]

Yeah.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yes. So I called my teacher at Berkeley and I said, look, I don't know anybody in the United States. I need a band real quick to put together for Buddy Guys.

And he gave me the phone numbers of amazing musicians in Chicago. So I got I booked a plane ticket and I was a couple of days, I mean, months later, I was in Chicago and we did the rehearsal. It was wonderful.

And we went and played Buddy Guys Legends. And it was an incredible experience. And that was my first legit concert show in the United States.

So that was not a bad place to start. I've seen some videos with Buddy Guys just not long ago and he's killing it. So the blues keeps you young.

[The Trout]

Well, and I figure it's one of these people he'll probably be on stage when it kills over, which is what he wants anyway. Yeah. So how long did it take you to get to the next because I'm the next level, in other words, you are here and then you're trying to play around, you're getting the feel of how it works in America, which is playing a lot about that.

Now, you came in before all the stuff that happens now, because now all the people with their labels all go to TikTok and they watch TikTok and they don't spend a lot of time going to bars. That's what they used.

[Alex Kilroy]

It's a lot about it's a lot about numbers nowadays. My start as a professional musician in America was soon after I got my what's called an O-1-B artist visa. So after I did the Chicago thing, I met a guy there and an incredible pianist.

And he told me, look, if you really want to be a professional musician in America and live in America, this is the right way to do it. So I got a lawyer and I put together like six hundred pages. That was the longest EPK for the government to be like, OK, this is who I am and this is what I do for real.

And and all the achievements and everything. So I was granted an O-1-B visa, which grants you three years to live in America. You get a social security number you can do, but you got to keep with what you said you're going to do.

Music, music. OK, perfect. So I went to Philadelphia again to our friends, family friends, and I started playing, you know, small bars around.

But I'm like, OK, and now I live in America. Like I have my guitars with me, my bag, my clothes. Now I got to make a living in some sort of way.

And I don't want to do other jobs. I want to be a professional musician. Philadelphia was not at that time, was not offering enough gigs to sustain yourself.

[The Trout]

So it's not known for a town like that.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah. So then everybody was telling me about Nashville. So I knew about Nashville growing up that it's a music city.

So it just I was in a bus station. I remember like it was yesterday. I was waiting for the bus to go at a jam session down downtown Philadelphia.

And I said, wait a second, I'm in America. I could grab a bus, a plane or whatever. I can make it in Nashville in a couple of hours.

Like, what am I doing? But that was it. I went and I bought a car.

It's that's a whole thing. I bought a little car with what money I had left. And and I and it just happened that I rear ended a lady and I told him my car.

And I thought that the dream is not going to happen. And then my friend again from Philadelphia said, look, I know you know how to play guitar, but now you have to learn how to fix your car. So we went to the junkyards, get all the parts and put my car back together.

I Frankenstein that car. Her name was Sally and she was ready to go anyway. So she took me to Nashville.

I went to Nashville and that's when I started my professional real professional career in the United States. I went to Broadway because that's where everybody said, look, they're playing on Broadway. This is where you can meet a lot of.

And I went and I it was shocking. So think about it. There are like 50 or maybe more bars now.

Every bar has three stages. They start playing at 10 in the morning and they play until three at night. Nonstop, every band plays for four hours with no breaks.

So that's that's a lot of work, but it was good talking about getting those 10,000 hours. It's an amazing place to like a music school, if you will. You're in front of a crowd every day and you learn how to talk to people.

You learn how to play. You learn how to have stamina playing. So so after three weeks of, you know, knocking, I was going on, I didn't know anybody going on Broadway and saying, hey, would you guys like I'd like to play with you?

It's like, well, the band is already made and it's nine o'clock. How about you come at one thirty right before the end? Because if you if you're not good, we don't want you to to, you know, throw off our show.

So but some people were nice to me and they got me on stage and I got I got a good response. So then phones started ringing. And before I knew it, I was doing a lot of Broadway.

Now, at this point, I was doing so much Broadway, so many gigs in a week that I started to be burned out, not writing any songs, not not practicing anymore. Right. So so after that, I started touring with a country, country duo, the Sisters, Presley and Taylor.

And I started touring with them as a guitar player during the pandemic. They had a whole band. They didn't have a bass player.

So and I was in Chicago visiting some friends and they called me and said, hey, would you want to get on a tour in the middle of a pandemic like to play this? What was a drive in theaters, gigs? Yeah.

But it's like we already we already have a guitar player. So would you play the bass? I'm like, sure.

What else am I going to do? You know. Yeah.

So I did that and they were wonderful. We had a great tour and very good people. And yeah, I came back and I started playing.

I put together my own band. And then after the pandemic, around 2023 was when we went to the International Blues Challenge for the first time. And where's that with the International Blues?

That was in Nashville.

[The Trout]

So the International Blues Challenge, OK.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah, it happens everywhere, like in every major city. And there's like around 10 to 18 bands that all compete to each other. One gets picked, goes to Memphis and represents.

So we did that twice. The first year we got disqualified for not being blues enough because I wrote some different songs. And but in the second year I wrote something more traditional.

And we got we got we won and we went to represent in Memphis. But in Memphis, again, we got disqualified for not being blues enough. So I'm like, I'm like, I guess I'm just going to make an album with this not blues enough sound.

[The Trout]

That's what you should have called the album, Not Blues Enough. That's not a bad name. Well, you know, it's funny because I have one of the young men that I've interviewed.

I know several people in Nashville. Some of them are in the country. I have a good friend of mine who plays at Jelly Rose, plays all the time.

Oh, nice. He's one of the only people that, well, let's take that back. There's two people I know that live around Nashville that are blues artists.

And there's only like one club in Nashville that's blues, because he told me. The bourbon street? Yeah, I don't know what it's called.

He said I said, in fact, he's 18. He just turned 18. He's getting ready to release his first album, his first EP.

And I started interviewing when he was like 15. So I said, but dude, you're in Nashville. You know, you know, this is country.

But the other one is young lady is 18 and she's a harp player and she's killer at 18.

[Alex Kilroy]

I might have met her. I think I think the IBCs. I don't remember exactly her name, but she's a harp player.

She's incredible. She was very young when I met her.

[The Trout]

So yeah, she's young.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah. Her name's Kiersey.

[The Trout]

Her name's Kiersey.

[Alex Kilroy]

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. We did meet. Yeah.

[The Trout]

And she is releasing her first stuff. I try to bring them back on. I've interviewed them both a couple of times.

But anyway, my point being is you're in Nashville. It's not Memphis. You're not playing in Kansas City.

You're not playing in Chicago. Chicago Blue, you know, you're playing in that area. But you figured out, though, and I think this is what's unique about you, though, Alex, is this and this is I talked a lot of independent artists.

If you're like everybody else, you're like everybody else, right? Yeah. And then you can just say, well, I play blues.

OK, great. I'll put you on with Big Mama Thornton, too, and everybody else. Can you come on at 3 a.m.? Is that a problem for you? You know, but when you when you recite that you need to do what you want to do, then you start developing your own fan base. And the one thing I you know, excuse me, the one thing I know. You can't break through.

Pardon me. You can't break through if you do what everybody else does because you're competing with everybody else. Yeah.

You know, and even though you can be a phenomenal player, but everybody goes, oh, he sounds like fill in the blank, you know.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah.

[The Trout]

Except his voice is different. But I think when you write the music that you write and it's whole different and so people come to you and they might go, well, a lot of people don't like the blues. You know, it's not their thing.

But blues people are very. They are into it. I mean, we love it.

It don't matter who's playing it. We're going to listen to it. A lot of people don't know.

A lot of people don't want to sit there and listen to two or three hours of blues music. So with you, you have figured out that, OK, I'm going to throw some stuff in there. I'm going to do my own thing.

And I like that. Not blues enough. That's my concert tour.

Not blues enough. But I think that's what you've got going on. So when did you start recording?

I mean, you probably went into the studio a while back and then never. Tell me about that.

[Alex Kilroy]

So, yeah, the way I decided when. So I met my fiance, Sofia, in in Nashville, and she's also a songwriter. And a singer.

And she's also a photographer. She took the photo that's on the cover of the album. And so she's a very creative person, but she comes from a different she comes from a different background of music, more like R&B and more pop and more, you know, so she has a different sensibility.

And like when our world combined and we started talking about music, she inspired me to like, what happens if you have a blues song, but you put a hook in it. So that's kind of like she opened my mind that way. So we moved to Orlando because we just figure out.

I'm like, well, we're going to be parents. So my parents are in Transylvania. It's far away to go.

Her parents are here in Florida. So I'm like, OK, let's move to to be with a family and see what happens. So I kind of left left Nashville, although everything was going great.

But I was I was also burned out. And I always looking for a way out. So at that point, I'm like, well, this is my chance to get out of here.

You know? Yeah. But I had I had I had nothing planned in Orlando.

But I'm like, I'll figure it out. So I got here and I started playing little gigs and seeing, you know, in the first week, the music scene didn't impress me because it was there was great musicians, but nobody was like, you know, they were just playing music to play music. Well, it's Orlando.

[The Trout]

It's a tourist spot.

[Alex Kilroy]

It's a tourist. It's a tourist spot. It's a little different than Nashville, where everybody was.

It's a different kind of fire. And I didn't feel that here at first. So then I walked into a jazz club that's called Jazz Tastings, a beautiful club.

And the musicians were just off the charts. I'm like, who are these people? Like, what's going on?

Very R&B gospel. And and I started playing with them. And it was a different flavor of music that I've never experienced.

So, I mean, I experienced it listening to it, but I've never played it. So there was a new and I started I got asked to play with them and we started playing and touring around Orlando. And that's kind of how I put my band together.

I met my bass player, Berlin, and then he asked me, he's like, hey, you want to you want to we need a guitar player in church. And I always want to play guitar in an African-American church because the spirit is so powerful there. And I suppose and it's so everything is related in my.

That's how I feel. Blues gospel. It's all music when it's like the soul is just we're all one.

So I went and I started playing and it was incredible. So we we created this band. So back to how I wrote the songs.

I realize now that I'm out of Nashville, I said I need to put an album out. I need to to say what I need to say as an artist. It's my time to say this.

And having my daughter being born kind of gives me that input is like you either do it or you don't like you, you need to go for it. Yeah. So I so I started writing.

I started writing or finished writing songs that I wrote a while back. And and I wrote a couple of them with Sophia. We co-wrote it, Break My Chains.

Like she came up with the chorus. So it's a you know, it was kind of like for some of the songs was a family project. And yeah, together we we created the songs.

So now I was at the point where I had the songs. I had twenty five around twenty five songs that I liked. Now I needed a I needed a budget.

What happened right after the International Blues Challenge? I get a phone call from a producer from Nashville. His name is Tress Sasser, who happens to now be my producer.

He's also a Texan. He was born in Texas, but now he lives in Nashville. So he called me.

He's like, hey, man, I'd love to produce your album. I'm like, great. I'd love to work with you.

He's like, do you have any songs? I'm like, it's funny you ask. I've just finished writing all this music.

It's like, OK, send send me all the songs. Even if they're not finished, just send them over. So I sent him twenty five, twenty, twenty five songs.

And he listens and he comes back with a very positive attitude. Because when you hear the album, which is coming out on May 15, a lot of the songs are different flavors. You got a couple of blues songs, but then we go somewhere completely different.

But then we come back. But then we go, you know, it's it's a little bit of a like going back to classical, classically trained. I took some of that.

Another artist that inspired me a lot is Sting. What I loved about Sting album.

[The Trout]

I can see that.

[Alex Kilroy]

I can see that. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

A lot of the time you go somewhere else and comes back and he explored. I think it's a music and it's an exploration. So so I sent him all this eclectic kind of music and he's like, well, this is all great.

I love it. Let's start working. So I'm like, OK, now I need a I have a producer.

Now I need a budget to do. He told me exactly how much it's going to cost me, which I love because he gave me a direction and a goal. I work very good when there's a goal.

I know how to go about it.

[The Trout]

I like to know what I'm doing. Yeah, exactly. I got to have this much this.

Yeah, it's yeah.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah. By this time, deadlines are they're not fun, but they're good for you. Yes, true.

So so as I was, you know, trying to find an investor, raise money through I did a campaign on GoFundMe and stuff like that. We put together a some family friends organized a backyard party where some people helped, you know, start helping towards the album. So I'm like, OK, we're making some progress.

I know where I'm going. I have a goal and a dream and I'm going to get it. So I was playing a gig by myself at All Red here in Orlando.

That's Blake Shelton's country honky tonk. And a gentleman approached me with a card. His name is Clyde Harris.

So he's like, hey, are you signed? So I'm not. So here's my card.

Give me a call. And I got to be honest, I got so many cards like that in Nashville that I called and it led to nowhere. So I literally threw it on the island at home and I'm like, yeah, whatever.

So I was cooking one night and I, you know, I just happened to see the card and I'm like, I just wish, you know, I'm wishing for this album to be a reality. What if this guy is the answer? So I called I called Clyde and he's like, hey, I was just watching your YouTube videos.

Is he just making it up because I called? I don't know. But he was for real.

And he's like my associate. And I were very interested in you. And I'm like, who's your associate?

Pat Armstrong. It didn't really ring a bell, but then I checked him out. And Pat Armstrong was the guy who signed Lynyrd Skynyrd.

And he was the manager for Molly Hatchett.

[The Trout]

So he's been around a while. He knows talent. He's been around for a while.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yes. So we had a meeting. He invited me to his house and I went and I saw the all the gold and platinum records hanging on the wall.

They're like, well, this looks promising. So then we started talking and they said, what do you want to do? I said, look, I'm this is my plan.

I want to do an album. I want to do this and that. OK, so you have direction.

That's good. Let's let's listen to the songs. We did a listening meeting.

We listened to all the demos and they loved them. So two weeks later, we got Trace flew down from from Nashville to Orlando and we spent a week in the studio at Studio Live USA. It's a we wanted to do it here because I want to be around my family.

[The Trout]

Sure. We found a child.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah, yeah. And and the band was great. The band is the band is called On One Band.

They're backing me and they're incredible musicians. So we did it in about a week. And then with some other overdubs, maybe what?

Let's say 10, 12 days. We had an album done and then we sent it to mixing in Nashville at the Joe Costa mixed mixed it and he did an incredible, incredible job. And then we said it to Ted Jensen from Sterling Sound.

[The Trout]

Yeah, Sterling's been around a long time. Sterling's been a long time. Yeah.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah. And a lot of great, great records that did. And and there was there was incredible.

And another great thing on the album that I'm very like, it's kind of a surreal thing that happened. I got I got the legendary Vince Gill to play a guitar solo on one of the songs I wrote. And that was just.

[The Trout]

So did you did you run into I actually have friends of mine that actually know him pretty well, but I never met him.

[Alex Kilroy]

Yeah.

[The Trout]

It was he in the studio or did somebody know?

[Alex Kilroy]

So so I met him three years ago, maybe four now. While I was in Nashville, when I was in Nashville, I ran. I was doing a I was doing a rehearsal at a place called Soundcheck, where a lot of the country, major country acts rehearse.

And the drummer came in, you know, and he's like, hey, man, Vince Gill is in the parking lot just hanging out. I'm like Vince Gill as in Vince Gill. Yeah, I dropped everything and I ran outside and it was so crazy because I was just running because I mean, I grew up.

My father loved Vince Gill and I saw the videos of Crossroads and I learned, you know, how to play like Vince Gill CD, you know, like I'm like, wow, he's really in the parking lot. So I just went to him. I got in front of him and I'm like, wow, I didn't really rehearse anything I'm going to say.

So I was just like, honestly, I said, hey, I'm Alex from Transylvania. I got to tell you, man, I love your music and you inspired me. And he was so sweet.

He's like, hey, nice to meet you. Let me introduce my wife, Amy Grant. And I'm like, what?

Yeah, that's his wife.

[The Trout]

Yes.

[Alex Kilroy]

And he's such a humble, incredible, down to earth human being. He's incredible. So the next day he invited me.

He's like, what are you doing tomorrow? I'm like, nothing special. He's like, you want to come to our Christmas rehearsal?

So I went the next day back to soundcheck and I spent the whole day with them. And I saw the whole show. And we either like we had lunch together.

It was surreal.

[The Trout]

It was pretty surrealistic, wasn't it? The whole time. Yes.

You're sitting there and you're thinking, this is good.

[Alex Kilroy]

And I didn't want to. Yeah. We're talking about gear and we're talking about my telling you my story with Transylvania, with Berklee, with all that.

And he's actually listening and asking questions. I'm like, what a nice guy. And I never, you know, I didn't want to at the end be like, hey, can we take a picture?

Can I get your phone number? I know you don't know. No, can't do that.

I said, that's not that's not it. You know, I like him and I want to, you know, I want to create a relationship with him in time, know him and maybe one day play with him. So what happened?

That was our only interaction at that point. And then my vocal coach in Nashville, her name is Tabitha Fair. And Tabitha is an incredible singer.

And she just happened to know everybody in the industry because she's such a good singer. She was the background vocalist for Kennedy Center Honors for about 16 years. Oh, wow.

She toured with Sting. She toured with everybody. What's your name?

Tabitha Fair. But yes, she she she was my vocal coach. She's also the one that made she introduced me to my fiance.

She's an incredible artist and an incredible person. And I called her and I said, look, I have a crazy idea. I want to put together a show at Third and Leslie in Nashville because I just saw Vince Gill playing there.

And I already talked about it all, like an original showcase. And I'd love Vince Gill to come play a song with me. It's crazy, but I'd like to get in touch with him.

She asked me, does he know you? I'm like, we met and I told the whole story. It's like, OK, let me give him a call.

Oh, yeah, we're close.

[The Trout]

We had lunch together.

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