Eric Gorza is Still Collaborating with the Bands Pura Vida and Rosa Chá

Brazilian musician and music producer Eric Gorza says he’s now living and working in Los Angeles but is still remotely collaborating with his long-time bands Pura Vida and Pelados, which changed the band’s name to Rosa Chá. The band just started a partnership with a major radio station from Brazil, Jovem Pan, and the band is working on a brand-new album that will be produced by Rodolfo Simor, Latin Grammy winner producer.

Eric moved to Los Angeles a few years ago to focus his career in music producing and recording/mixing engineering. He has been working non-stop for Thyphoon Music Group (LA/California), Gabriel Franzese’s (D'addario/Music Man endorsed artist), upcoming EP and Zé Maholics’ (brazilian group from Vitória) Quarantine Sessions.

Gorza started his relationship with music at a young age by listening to his father’s LP records and started his musical journey studying popular guitar at the age of 12 when he had his very first lessons with Fernando Vieira, a well-known jazz guitarist from his hometown – Vitória. Quickly, Eric turned into one of Fernando’s best students, his understanding of rhythm, harmony and melodies were above the average level and in a few years Eric was helping Fernando on his educational concerts where Eric had a chance to play with a band for the first time.

Few years later, Eric formed his first original band, Silken Feast. With that band, Eric had the opportunity to play in a lot of small pubs/venues around his city. The band’s best achievement was to play in the biggest venue from Vitoria - ES, called Spirito Jazz, that was a stage for renewed national and international artists. Approximately one year later, Eric decided to quit the group and form another band, called Pelados. With them, he started playing not only in venues but also in festivals. With Pelados, Eric recorded a live videoclip of their first single “Ela é Sexo” which was his very first experience in a professional recording studio. This episode gave him a new overview on the process of creating, producing, recording and sharing music with people.

Eric got really into music prod so he started taking music production classes with Sergio Benevenuto – a latin grammy nominee producer, graduated in the Berklee School of Music (Boston, MA). This experience was important in teaching him better how to apply music theory in a functional and practical way. The classes gave Eric enough knowledge to produce his first Album “Saco Cheio - Pelados”.

At the time, Eric also started to study vocal, having weekly lessons with Alza Alves – a singer from Rio de Janeiro who worked for major artists like Tim Maia, Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque and Beth Carvalho. This experience too gave him a wider view and contributed to his understanding of the musical universe.

Even living in a small capital that does not care about artistic expression in general - with few opportunities and incentive, Eric put all his effort to be an outstanding musician and, one day, he was invited to enter the surf music group Pura Vida Original. The invitation came along with a call for an emergency rehearsal for a tour in Rio de Janeiro, which was about to start four days after the call. The tour was a success, Eric’s first experience with Pura Vida Original was to play for a huge audience, out of his hometown. According to Eric, that experience was mind blowing.

Since then, Eric has been active as a permanent member of Pura Vida. They made a lot of concerts in Vitória and Rio de Janeiro, playing together with important groups from Brazil (Falamansa - SP, Ponto de Equilíbrio - RJ, Maneva - SP, Armandinho - RS). Pura Vida released one EP (2016), one studio album (2019), 05 videoclips, 05 singles and 01 live concert recorded at the University of Espirito Santo’s Theatre (2019). His work with Pura Vida had definitely opened a lot of doors for him. The opportunity to produce an album with a Latin Grammy winner - Rodolfo Simor opened his mind even more about the music production industry. Beyond all the concerts, tours and productions, the most memorable achievements with Pura Vida were:

- Partnership with Radio Cidade, one of the biggests radio stations in Vitoria - ES;

- Rio Scenarium concert (one of the most traditional venues in Brazil);

- WSL (World Surf League) concert in Saquarema - RJ as the headline band;

- Partnership with Festival Casa Corais one of the biggest festivals in Vitoria - ES;

- Sharing the stage with major artists (Armandinho, Falamansa, Maneva, Ponto de Equilibrio);

- Single “A vida é uma só” featured in “Em Movimento” (Globo’s music television show).

Although happy with the progress of Pura Vida and Pelados (that made one original song get into Spotify official playlist “Indie Brasil”), Eric still wanted to take his career to the next level so he moved to Los Angeles to study guitar/audio engineering at Musicians Institute - Hollywood.

In his first year in Los Angeles, he focused on studying electric guitar. At the end of the first year he realized that his focus should change to sound engineering and musical production because of his passion and also the wider working possibilities in the music industry.

Throughout his two years at this Musicians Institute, Eric got the chance to expand and apply his knowledge as a guitar player - playing in renowned venues like The Hotel Cafe - Hollywood, The Lexicon - Downtown LA; working as a session guitarist for Minna Amanda; musical producer – producing Gabriel Franzese, Steep Gradient and Karlee Shannon; and sound engineering – organizing recording sessions, mixing and mastering songs. He also got a degree in audio engineering from Musicians Institute - Hollywood.