Alok's connection to Brazil and its natural beauty remains strong despite his jet-setting career. That's clear when New Times met him at the 1 Hotel South Beach ahead of November's Latin Grammys. He was up for "Best Latin Electronic Music Performance" at the 2024 award, receiving a double nomination for his track "Drum Machine" and his collaboration with the Guarani Nhandewa people, "Pedju Kunumigwe," losing out to Tiësto's remix of the Bizarrap and Shakira collab, "Bzrp Music Sessions Vol. 53."
"Pedju Kunumigwe" comes from Alok's ambitious 2024 album, The Future Is Ancestral, which saw him collaborate with indigenous tribes in Brazil. The album merges his signature deep house and Brazilian bass sound with the music of indigenous artists, aiming to spotlight their voices and traditions.
" It's just different values and goals; I was making songs to land on the top ten of Beatport. They were doing songs for healing, and I have a connection with nature now that I never had before. I got to know it through them," he tells New Times. "It was a game changer; it made me look at life differently."
Through the project, Alok sought to raise awareness about the indigenous communities that call the Amazon rainforest home. He was driven, in particular, by a desire to counter the stereotype of indigenous people as "savages" devoid of culture. The Future Is Ancestral serves as a platform for these tribes to share their stories, reshape the narrative, and introduce new elements to Brazilian house music.
" A friend of mine showed me a video where they were singing. It had me like, 'Wow, this is amazing. I have to go there.' I just didn't know that I had to get on a road. Then I was in a very small canoe and finally got there," Alok says of the literal journey. "The music was the vehicle that got me interested in going there; it was like an inspiration for me. So maybe that could also be the vehicle for them to be heard. Now, through the music and their presence at the Grammys, they finally have a stage to occupy after 500 years."
To contextualize Brazil's vastness, Alok shows New Times a video comparing the sizes of continental Europe and the South American country, where, besides Portuguese, tribes speak more than 200 distinct indigenous languages.
" If you go to the top hundred on Brazil's Spotify, 93 percent of the songs we listen to are local. Only seven percent are international, and even fewer sometimes. So now you understand how we have this barrier based on our local culture. So what happens in Brazil is that it's exported outside, and what happens in the U.S. doesn't influence Brazil so much in this aspect of music.""Through the music and their presence at the Grammys, they finally have a stage to occupy after 500 years."
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Alok himself is a perfect example of this. Though he's amassed 22 million Instagram followers and 24 million monthly Spotify listeners, most are Brazilians. It's a platform he uses to spread the message of conservation.
"Climate change is a big topic, and even Elon Musk launched the XPrize award, offering $100 million for technology that captures carbon from the atmosphere, but that technology already exists — it's called trees. That's the point. Nature already provides solutions, so protecting what we have is key," he says. "Brazil is a global leader in biodiversity and has the potential to drive us toward a sustainable future. As a Brazilian, I feel responsible for raising awareness about this. Indigenous people are the true guardians of the forest. Though they make up only five percent of Brazil's population, they protect 82 percent of its natural environment. For them, the forest isn't just about economic productivity; it's their culture, spirituality, and way of life. That's why they're the real stewards of the land, and it's vital we recognize their role."
Keeping up that spirit of collaboration, Alok closed out 2024 by teaming up with Brazil's biggest pop star, Anitta, on the Spanglish house track "Looking for Love."
"We were trying to collaborate for a while, and then she sent me the idea," he explains. "I asked, 'Are you open-minded for me to work in something more electronic? Because I cannot do a reggaeton.' Why would my fan base consume something that's not my personality? So she opened her mind, and it sounds very electronic, but it also sounds very pop. I think it's the perfect combination."
When two of Brazil's biggest stars collaborate, you expect them to do so in Portuguese, but that's not what Brazilian fans want, according to Alok. He breaks it down, explaining that if the song was released in Portuguese, it wouldn't receive the same traction and would stay in Brazil, as opposed to music sung in English and Spanish, which has more of a global reach.
" If Anitta and I release a song in full Portuguese, it won't be approved by the Brazilians," he says. "They see us as an opportunity to export Brazil's artists and expand its influence."
