Juan Alderete

Alderete (left) with Paul Gilbert in 1986

**Juan Alderete**, also known as John Alderete, is an American bassist and founding member of Racer X. Alderete is known primarily for his advanced and technical style of bass playing. Though the band Racer X is based in Los Angeles, Alderete is the only member who is actually from the L.A. area and even the state of California. Gilbert, Bouillet, and Travis are from either the Midwest or the Southeast, while Jeff Martin is from Phoenix.

## Early life

Alderete was born in Los Angeles and is of Mexican heritage. He has two brothers and two sisters. The eclectic mix of music in his household exposed him to jazz and progressive rock at an early age, and at 16 he began playing the bass guitar. After graduating high school and attending college for a brief time, he enrolled at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood and began studying under the Bass Institute of Technology.

Alderete met Paul Gilbert at the school in 1985, and Gilbert expressed interest in starting a heavy metal band which utilized neoclassical motifs and high speed tempos. As such, Alderete and Gilbert are the two founding members of Racer X, and they began their search for a drummer and vocalist shortly after. Alderete reflects that he was not interested in heavy metal at the time, but he was the only person available who could play speed metal passages on bass. He reflects that Paul would help him if he was struggling to play a passage, suggesting alternate ways to play certain licks.

The duo eventually recruited drum student Harry Gschoesser for the band, which they named Racer X, and the group would rehearse in MI's "P-1" rehearsal room from 6 A.M. to 9 A.M., often attracting an audience.

## Racer X

After locating vocalist Jeff Martin, Alderete and Gilbert finally had a full band and were gearing up to record their first album, *Street Lethal*. Though Gilbert had written the bulk of the material already, Alderete added a number of highly technical bass fills throughout the songs. The album was well-received, and Alderete's unusually advanced bass technique was well-noted.

In addition to being the bassist, Alderete also acted as the de-facto manager of Racer X since they did not have a full-time manager.

   Alderete continued to perform with Racer X, and was involved in the writing process for *Second Heat*. His bass fills and solos continued to be a fixture of both recorded works and live sets, often incorporated into the middle sections of "Rock It" and "Scit Scat Wah". On the *Extreme Volume Live* album, he has his own solo spot along with the other instrumental members of the band.

In 1988, Alderete recorded an instructional video for Backstage Pass entitled "Progressive Hard Rock Bass Skill Development". The tape opens with Alderete, Bouillet, Travis, and temporary Racer X guitarist Chris Arvan performing an instrumental version of "She Wants Control".

After *Second Heat*, the band's popularity started to flatline, and the members sought to find other projects. After the band's final show at the Omni in Oakland, Alderete moved on to hard rock band The Scream with drummer Scott Travis and guitarist Bruce Bouillet.

## After Racer X

After Racer X disbanded, Alderete attended college and completed a degree in English Literature.

 Alderete re-joined Racer X for their follow-up albums *Technical Difficulties, Superheroes,* and *Getting Heavier*. In 2003, Alderete successfully auditioned to become the new bassist in The Mars Volta.

## Style

Alderete is most notable for his ability to keep up with the lightning-fast playing of Gilbert and Bouillet. He has several fast fills in songs like "Scarified" and "Y.R.O." and is a fingerstyle player. In several shows, he is seen playing a white Squier Jazz Bass.

## Trivia

* Alderete and Gilbert were the ones who named Racer X, as they were both fans of the cartoon *Speed Racer*.
* An audio tape from one of Paul's open counseling sessions in 1988 shows a student complaining about Alderete being rude to him after a show. Paul replies that, since Alderete handled most of the band's managerial duties, he was often exhausted and stressed out after performances, and sometimes wouldn't be as friendly towards fans. Commenting on the matter, Paul says, "He had to always deal with the money garbage and deal with getting people backstage and all that. So he probably had, like, ten billion things going on. And so, he was always pretty irritable during that time of the night."

## Discography

### With Racer X

* *Street Lethal* (1986)
* *Second Heat* (1987)
* *Extreme Volume Live* (1988)
* *Extreme Volume II Live* (1992)
* *Technical Difficulties* (1999)
* *Superheroes* (2000)
* *Live at the Whisky: Snowball of Doom* (2002)
* *Getting Heavier* (2002)
* *Official Bootleg: Snowball of Doom 2* (2002)

### With The Scream

* *Let It Scream* (1991)
* *Takin' It To The Next Level* (unreleased)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Juan Alderete Talks About His Music Career", *Speedgig* (Harry Gschoesser) (2014) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz8xP\_1\_Nl4>
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Juan Alderete Interview by Sweetwater Sound (2015) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBWLCxl0thU>
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Paul Gilbert Clinic at MI, 12/06/1988 [NOTE: Alderete comment occurs on side 2 at 19:00]