Alter Ego (Peruvian band)

Topics: Peruvian musical groups

Alter Ego is the original Peruvian neo-progressive rock band whose style goes from the ever changing Art-rock from the 1990s mixed with new sounds from the 1970s. Their style crosses between symphonic rock, hard rock to power ballads and R&B. The band was founded in 1992 by pianist/composer and lead singer Juan Carlos Oganes in Peru (South America), who assembled five other musicians and developed a sound that was rare for the time in that part of the world. They combined much of the anthem-type compositions of Juan Carlos Oganes with nice and lush vocal harmonies in the style of Queen and Yes. The album was produced by him and recorded at Emporium Digital Studios. Alter Ego paid much attention to theatrics and used the cinematographic expertise of Oganes -to create a sense of audiovisual entertainment. Oganes also directed their videos. They recorded much material since their first years and many of those songs ended in their 1997 debut album called Utopia.

A fansite of Alter Ego exists at ALTER EGO fansite and is being updated by the fan base. A new website ALTER EGO -Pagina Oficial de la banda peruana de rock neo-progresivo has been released and is still under construction to support the new line-up and show the band history to the new fans.

Juan Carlos Oganes, lead singer and pianist, and Antonio Valero, guitarist, were playing in a folk band called Yawar Macta playing mainly cover songs of popular folk groups of South America. Oganes and Valero were classmates and also long-time friends who shared similar musical tastes; Oganes was also a keyboard player in another band during school years which had quite a following but wasn't serious in its intent. Still, he was very eager to share and do his own musical ideas so he quit the band in 1992 to form Alter Ego. At early years many members were tested for musicianship but many weren't up for it. The band had a number of bass players during this period, but it was not until 1994 that the original line-up was set and playing steady.