Passion and perserverance

On October 2, 2020, Dialogia will release their first (and supposedly last) album entitled "Nostrum." This is the result of one of the purest pursuits of creative perseverance I've witnessed.

I first met Alejandro Nogales, the primary force behind Dialogia, online in 1997, and a few years later in 2000 when he traveled from out of state to meet my band Daylight Dies. He was one of our earliest fans, grabbing our demo cassette when we were personally mailing it to anyone who sent us a couple bucks. He believed in our musical vision from the beginning, and has remained by our side every since. We both had an intense love of much of the same music, and became close friends and travel buddies.

More than a decade ago, Alejandro mentioned the ambitious dream of writing, performing and recording an album of his own. Alejandro is a deeply artistic person, but not someone who at the time I'd refer to as a serious musician. He had more of a keen appreciation as an observer rather than a maker. I love to see the fire of ambition in people and always tried to encourage him along the journey. As the years passed, Alejandro would give me short status updates as he slowly but steadily kindled this fire within, honed his playing, recruited other collaborators, and foraged the possibilities in his inner musical wilderness as things started to coalesce. He expressed big challenges and disappointments through the years, but he never gave up.

Before I heard a single note I was impressed. For someone to sustain a belief for over a decade that they can accomplish something so ambitious and complex and is rare to witness. It's seriously remarkable. And as it eventually became evident, the quantity of incredible collaborators he enlisted is impressive.

Dialogia (left to right: Alejandro Nogales, Bobby Tufino, Jasper Barendregt)

Around December 2019, Alejandro shared that he was almost finished, and let me listen to a couple of tracks. The tables had turned. The fan was now the creator, sharing the fruits of his passion and perseverance with me. What I heard floored me—fantastic production, playing and songwriting. It was really, really good. I'm sure I grinned the entire time I heard that first track, thinking "he did it."

"Nostrum" is available for pre-order, and you can listen to the track "Metalurgia" below.