In a city as diverse as Los Angeles, it should come as no surprise that someone as talented Nicaraguan-born musician Leo Machado would create the sound that reflect that many faces that the City of Angels has to offer. With a website that is in English and Spanish, Machado has the flash on glamour that goes along being bilingual. This crossover appeal and flair is what makes the artist such a wonderful talent and whose music has the potential to be a must listen on any indie rock or Spanish radio station. Bestnewbands.com caught up with Machado to talk about his influences, his writing process and what are his goals for 2011.

DK: What inspired you to become a musician? Were there any albums or sounds that sent you along this path?

LM: Becoming a musician came to me -literally- as a gift and a curse. As a kid, I remember clearly the “Another One Bites the Dust” video by Queen and a television performance of “Samba pa’ ti” by Carlos Santana. These guys were hypnotizing! After that, it wasn’t a surprise to see me grabbing a broom not to sweep the dust off my house but to pretend I was the awesome guitar player I would never be!

Yet, my father taught me how to play a few chords in the guitar and that became enough to attempt songwriting at the short age of 12. Little did I know that to write a decent song you had to live life and experience strong emotions.

In time, my heroes come from different parts of the Americas. El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico (salsa); The Commodores; Marco Antonio Solis (the main long hair guy from Los Bukis); John Travolta (and his dancing in Saturday Night Fever) and most recently, Robi Draco Rosa (who’s internationally unknown for writing “Livin’ La Vida Loca”)

As well as Draco, I want to continue writing songs, but like him, I want to be FREE to be able to express my emotions without boundaries. This is the part where “the curse” plays a role, since being free in this world, is very, very difficult.

DK: What would you describe your sound to be like?

LM: Finding the sound for my first album, Solo Quedan Palabras was a challenge. On one hand, you get the intention to be passionate with a soft tone kind of voice while providing these sweet & sour melodies of mine. On other hand, the desire for wanting to be effusive through great rock and roll in the tradition of Led Zeppelin and Audioslave.

To listen to Leo Machado’s live performance in 2006 was a bit odd, even more than now. This…had to change!

My friend Giovanny Blanco reminded me that my melodies -even though I never planned it like that- had that strong musical influence of romantics groups such as