When Gabriel arrived in the U.S. six years ago from his native Brazil — artist visa and his sweet pup Bartot in tow — he quickly hit the road, singing and playing guitar with his band, @nametheband and taking in the vastness of his new home.

Since Covid erupted, all of that has changed. Along with so many aspects of life, the tours and shows and crowds that characterized his former existence ground to a halt.

But for the breezy, spirited Gabriel, it wasn't all bad. The downtime allowed him to focus more on creation — including a new solo passion project blending Brazilian influences (Samba, Bossa Nova, Rock) into one incorporated sound — and spend time in his Los Angeles base, a place that nourished a different side of him than that of his childhood, growing up on a farm in Brazil's rural south, where music and art were viewed more as hobbies than serious career paths.

"LA embraced me as a person," he said. "It fed the missing parts, even the shallow parts. I got to fully work on my artistic endeavors."

I met him one morning at the grounds of the Occidental College in Eagle Rock — a northeast LA neighborhood abutting the San Rafael Hills — where he often comes to walk Bartot and take in what are normally sweeping views of the LA skyline, but this day were obscured by the smoke and haze from smoldering September fires across California.