By Mannie Miguel
Multi-talented artist Nico Curiel, better known as Profesor Galactico, is on a mission to make a name for himself.
At the age of 14, Curiel got his first drum set and has not looked back on his music career.
He attended East Los Angeles College in Winter 2008 and stopped coming since Fall 2009. He had to put his education on hold due to financial reasons, but plans to come back because education is very important to him.
He started playing with his brother’s cover band, Nube Blanka in the late 90s. In 2003, he was asked to join Ronocovacoco and played with them until December 2012, during which he helped compose their debut album, “Presenta,” which released on iTunes on February 14, 2011.
Recently, he has been playing with Ekolokua as their drummer, The Paranoias as their rhythm guitarist and backup vocalist and his solo project Professor Galactico.
Curiel plays drums, percussion, guitar, bass, piano, and beatbox.
He has one full length album, Sonic Waves from Beyond, which he released in 2011, for his solo project. Curiel also worked on a split EP between the Paranoias and Professor Galactico named “LA Collective Mixes,” in 2011. He helped write and compose tracks with Roncovacoco “Presenta,” also in 2011, was featured in Dale La Bota in 2013, a Hellcat & Smelvis Records Compilation and has a cover song compilation available via Spotify Avalancha de Exitos in 2012.
His biggest struggles have been making a name for himself as a solo artist by finding the resources needed to be able to produce and record the music to the caliber and quality he wants it to be by networking with other musicians to make music.
Curiel aspires to be signed to any record label, hopefully a major one, as long as they give him the freedom to do music the way he wants to.
His biggest influence is his brother who was a drummer inspiring him to play the drums.
Some of his musical inspirations included Travis Barker, Blink 182, Julieta venegas, Shakira, Alex Gonzalez from Mana, Reel Big Fish, Sektacore and The Strokes.
Curiel started his solo career with him recording songs just for fun with friend Sal “El Ingeniero” Hernandez, who is the engineer for LA Collective. He then showed this music to friends and family that loved it and decided to perfect them as best that he could with what he had available and share them with the world.
LA Collective is composed of various friends from various bands like La Resistencia, The Paranoias and himself. They also help him develop new music and play with him at his shows.
Curiel describes himself as a positive person and tries to instill that into his music.
“It’s rare to see me mad or upset at things as I always try to see the best in things,” said Curiel. He describes Sonic Waves from Beyond as a progression of different chapter in his life. “It’s an album that depicts my own self-discovery as a person,” said Curiel.
He is currently working on his second EP, “Pit Stop At The Moon”, which will be followed by a full length LP, “Cosmic Racer”. He is also working with Ekolekua on their debut album, which will be coming out late this year.
Curiel would want to someday collaborate with Julieta Venegas. “I admire her musical talent, lyrics and approach to music and feel she’s a great artist with many great ideas.”
Curiel played his first show as a solo artist in January 2012. Since then, his name has been seen all over the place. Curiel aspires to make a name for himself and this are his first into accomplishing that. This is by far the not the last time we will hear about Profesor Galactico.