Character name: Angel Rojas.
Age: 45.
Gender identification: Cis Male.
Preferred pronouns: He/Him.
Residential area: The Drive.
Occupation: Retired rock star / songwriter.
Length of time in Vancouver: 25 years on and off.
tws for biography: drug use, alcoholism
BIOGRAPHY.
Born in Austin, Texas to immigrant parents, Angel was a baby of many names for the first three weeks of his life. Bastian, Tomás, Matias, his mother cycled through at least twelve different options before she settled on what she saw him as – Angel. Despite his best efforts, he’s often found he’s quite been able to live up to his given name and the more he grew the more heartache he seemed to cause his parents. With little interest in academia or the kind of hardwork that his father found respectable, Angel always gravitated towards the more creative side of things.
The first time he picked up a guitar was age 11 when he was supposed to be helping his father on the gardening job he brought him along with. The house owner hadn’t been angry with him for his snooping, in fact he offered to teach him how to play. Angel took to it faster than anything he had ever tried his hand at, and an interest he always had in music soon turned into something all consuming.
He was in a number of garage bands throughout his teens, until he formed what would go onto be Submergence with his then best friend. It wasn’t until they were 18 did the formation of the band stabilize, but once they found a flow with each other it was clear to everyone that they had something special on their hands. He made the move to L.A. that same year, and they achieved notoriety far quicker than he ever anticipated.
They played a steady number of gigs and were offered a deal with Columbia records to record their first album after the success for their first 2 singles. This opened a number of doors for them, including getting to open for Def Leppard for a few of their Slang World Tour American shows. They went on to record their first album, Flood, which was a commercial success and well received. That success wasn’t enough, and Angel ended up down a rabbit hole trying to replicate and outdo himself on their next album, Tsunami.
It took 2 years to record the album and he knew they had hit the mark with it. However, the cracks that had began to show in the band’s foundation weren’t so easily smoothed over. His creative switches were being perceived less as what was best for the music and more as him taking over and wanting to control it all. It wasn’t far off the mark, and he hadn’t noticed how little he began to value his bandmates input from everything – tour set ups, set lists, it was Angel’s way or nothing.
The tour that followed that album was the longest they had ever been on and it would turn out to be their last. Despite universal acclaim for what they had done with the music itself, the band that had first formed all those years ago didn’t exist anymore, it had devolved into a group of bickering, resentful people who hated being in the same room as each other let alone having to share a stage night after night.
To say he took the break-up of the band hard would be an understatement, and given that he was going through a divorce shortly thereafter, the fact that the former cut him deeper was the hard look he needed to have himself after spinning out of control gradually over the years. He had lost where the line was for him over time – one drink had to be any drink he could get his hands on, a good night was only made great when he was snorting something, the only way he could consider himself happily married was if he had a different person at every stop on tour despite wearing a wedding band.
He tried his hand at going solo for a number of years after Submergence’s final show but he was never able to fully commit to it. For the most part, he lost all the drive he had to write anything new because he knew it would never be as good as what he had done with them. Nowadays, he mostly helps with songwriting for other artists and will play a gig every now and then but only if it’s on his own very fussy terms.
PERSONALITY.
+ realistic, creative, sincere.
- melancholic, moody, fickle.
FUN ADJACENT FACTS.
he’s bisexual.
his place in the drive was the first property he ever bought and it’s the only one he still has. he’s been there on and off for the last 25 years, usually between tours or other engagements but he’s been there full time again for the last year or so.
angel is a sober alcholic and has been taking part in AA regularly for the last 12 years. he’s had a couple of relapses and set backs in that time, but he’s currently on his longest sober streak – 7 years, 10 months as of May 2022.
has turned down offers from netflix, hulu and hbo when they expressed interest in a documentary on the band’s last tour and subsequent split.
despite rock being the genre he’s best known for her, when it comes to songwriting country is the genre he finds himself working with the most.
was offered a vegas residency around tsunami’s 20th anniversary but turned it down after one practice.
has 3 children (that he's certain about). all strained, only has a good relationship with one.
CURRENT CONNECTIONS.
@alicechcung his best friend. sometime’s more. never less.
@kirazsayar one time hook-up, and the rest.
@liladurmaz fellow AA attendee, protective of.
@maya-talwar former fling, on good terms.
@eleanorabernvthy potential future publisher of his biography, current unpaid unqualified therapist to him.
SPECIFIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.
his ex-best friend: the person he started the band with, who was once like a brother to him. whether they’ve reconciled or steeped in resentment over the years is something that can be figured out!
his ex-wife: was also in the band, they were mostly on/off and refused to make anything official until they impulsively got married after a Vegas show during their tsunami tour. it did not last long and their divorce was finalised shortly after the band officially called it quits.
up and comers: any musically inclined muses who are on the up who could benefit from his sage wisdom now that he can technically be considered an old head.
GENERIC WANTED CONNECTIONS.
connections wise he’s pretty much an open book right now, but some baseline ideas that can be springboarded off are:
friendly.
a best friend / ride or dies / someone who keeps him on the straight and narrow / childhood friends from texas / pseudo-family / friends / drunk friends / new friends / fellow AA attendees.
romantic.
flirtationship / friends with benefits / one time hook ups / former hook ups from when he was touring with the band / tinder matches / blind dates / unrequited crush (can be either way) / exes from high school / exes from his twenties / exes from his thirties.
antagonistic.
enemies / former (best) friends / frenemies / rivals / negative influence / former industry rivals people he’s fucked over in the past or has fucked him over.
