Italiano
Alex Ruiz
Vocals
RICK DEL CASTILLO
Guitars and Bass
Where to find
You can listen and buy tracks and the full album literally where you prefer, just go ahead!
Everywhere else…
Road to the album
“Infierno Y Paradiso” was recorded between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2017 in Kyle, Texas at the Smilin ‘Castle Studios – the studio of Rick del Castillo, who made all the arrangements. In addition to Alex Ruiz and Rick del Castillo, many artists took part in the recording: Mike Zeoli and Phil Bass (drums), Mark del Castillo (guitar), Robert Rodriguez (guitar), Patricia Vonne (vocals), Phoebe Hunt (violin), Michael Ramos (accordion), Sara Nelson (cello), Tracy Seeger, (violin) Caleb Polashek (violin), Alejandro Duque (viola).
The master was fulfilled in Italy by Fabrizio Simoncioni at the Dpot Studio. Fabrizio Simoncioni was the keyboardist, chorister and sound engineer for Ligabue from 1998 to 2005. He currently records and mixes the new album of Litfiba, with which he also works as a keyboard player. Working also in Mexico – as a producer and sound engineer of internationally renowned Mexican artists – and having received several awards for his work, he enhanced the fusion of the different souls and sounds of the album.
The selection of the pieces was made by Paolo Pagetti together with Rick del Castillo. The synergy between Rick and Paolo was then reflected in the band’s name: Costello refers to Italy and to what is Italian in America, while Roquero refers to the Tex-Mex world of which Alex and Rick, Americans of Mexican origin, are established interpreters.
The Guys
Alex Ruiz
Alex Ruiz was born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, and moved to Austin in 1996. He started writing and acting with Del Castillo in 2000. Together with the band he recorded 9 albums and toured extensively in the United States and in Europe. Alex is also the leading voice of Chingon, the famous band of Robert Rodriguez.
Alex’s passion does not stop with music. He has worked as a musician and as an actor in many films like Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City, Kill Bill 2 and Machete. He collaborates periodically with the director, producer and musician Robert Rodriguez.
Alex Ruiz is currently working with Rick Del Castillo in an exclusive Italian project called Costello Roquero.
Rick del Castillo
Rick del Castillo is a professional musician/producer/engineer & composer that has been writing, recording, teaching and performing both nationally & internationally for the past 35 years. His highlights include 8 studio albums with the award winning band, Del Castillo, numerous awards including Producer of the Year (2x) at the coveted Austin South By Southwest Music Conference & Festival. He wrote the award winning (Gold Medal, Park City Film Music Festival 2006, 2018 Barcelona Planet Film Festival) score for the short film Killing Snakes. He has scored and/or performed music for numerous feature films including Kill Bill Vol. II, Spy Kids 3D, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Shorts, Planet Terror, Sin City 1 & 2, Machete & Machete Kills. He has also appeared & performed on national television for both The George Lopez Show & Killer Women. Rick also fulfilled a lifelong dream of performing the Killing Snakes Score live at the Long Center in Austin, Tx with the Austin Civic Orchestra and St. Edwards Choir. Rick reunited with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez to help launch the cable television channel, El Rey Network. He performed music and appeared in the networks T.V. Series From Dusk Til Dawn, seasons 1 & 2. He is also a member of Rodriguez’s side band CHINGON. Rick has also produced & recorded many regional, national & international acts at his home studio Smilin’ Castle Studio while continuing to work with his band Del Castillo.
Robert Rodriguez
Paolo Pagetti’s first contact with Rodriguez as a musician was during the movie Kill Bill vol.2. In the soundtrack of the film, he listened to a version of Malaguena Salerosa that particularly struck him. In the credits, he discovered that the soundtrack had been interpreted, among others, by Chingon, that is, the band Del Castillo with Rodriguez on the electric guitar. This happened in 2004. Ten years later, Pagetti opened his label and for the first project he made use of the collaboration of Patricia Vonne, sister of Robert Rodriguez, as singer and actress. In the following projects, he started the collaboration with the musicians of Rodriguez, first of all Rick del Castillo and Alex Ruiz, which was then strengthened by mutual esteem born during the work.
Since then the collaborations have been numerous on different projects until, inspired by the version of Alex and Rick di Parla più piano heard by chance, the Costello Roquero project was born. When it was time to shoot the video, thanks to the great friendliness of Patricia Vonne, the director’s sister, Pagetti managed to fulfill the dream of making a video with the collaboration of the great director.
Where it all began – The story
Costello Roquero’s project was born during a break from the filming of a video that the producer of Rivertale Productions was shooting in Texas. Alex Ruiz sings “Parla più piano” – from the soundtrack of the film Il padrino di Coppola – accompanied by the guitar of Rick del Castillo. At that moment, Paolo Pagetti had a vision of a series of Italian songs reinterpreted by the couple and when he discovers that “Parla più piano” has already been proposed and appreciated during the acoustic concerts, he decides that idea must become reality.
In the course of other ideas, other projects, new meetings, the idea slowly and inexorably takes shape. Paolo proposes a range of ’60s and’ 70s italian songs to Rick del Castillo who appreciates them and is passionate about them. Together they select the most suitable ones, Rick works there, rearranges them and Alex practices italian. Infierno Y Paradiso is therefore born as the selection of eleven italian classics known and recognizable, but renewed with great respect.
