The end of a decade. This decade leaves with a bang, a crash, a snowfall and an eclipse. Darn right!
Yushimi is safe, though. Safe and warm. Enjoying the cool Pacific breeze, the caress of her native country's breath and support. In Spanish, we use the same word for breath and support: aliento. This 'aliento' is what is keeping me so busy and positive (hence me staying out of the comfort of this laptop for so long!).
New exciting things are still to come: Yushimi is preparing an album.
I've been recording this year with my Handy recorder at home in London; sometimes in the living room, sometimes in my bedroom. I did a recording once in the bathroom but the acoustics were so bad... This domestic process gives me the freedom of having an idea and materialising it in no time.
I start with a keyboard or maybe a guitar, sometimes is the bass. After that I add a vocal melody. Violins, violas and mandolins come later... Sometimes they come first, though.... Okay, I don't have a system, it's just whatever I feel like recording.
I've got so many songs dancing in my hard drive, in my mobile, in my head, it will be a hard task to decide what songs will be part of this debut and what will be kept on the side for a future project. Every single song I write has a story behind it, how can you get rid of stories just like that?
I need 'aliento', support and breath. And although I don't mind the lonely process of recording a bit, I prefer to share the decision making with someone else.
My collaborator in this project, Diego Martinez, will be flying soon into Lima to work with me an ease the painful decision process. And this post is about him, really.
Diego appeared as if by magic. Magically entering my creative life and adding to it touches of beauty, I could only be thankful to whatever made his wires cross with mine. The use of the word wire here is very relevant because it's only through internet wires that we have met.
He lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And when I was in London, he sometimes talked to me about 'tomorrow' not realising that I was already in 'tomorrow' with the time difference.
He is the friend of a friend of a friend of a friend and now he is also my friend. He happened to be a producer and the reason we started talking (yes, I don't normally do random chats with strangers online... ) was because we had collaborated on a side project I have with uber-cool band Hacia Dos Veranos.
A week after that first virtual encounter, I was trusting all my recordings to this virtual stranger. I am glad I trusted my gut instincts (and the stars, of course). After three weeks, my song 'Marbles' was transformed from a dissected puzzle into a lovely picture to put on a frame. I don't know how he managed to make all the instruments ring so magically. It just felt so alive!
After that first experience, we decided to work (in distance) on two more songs. His 'aliento', incredible predisposition and undoubted talent, was enough inspiration for me to keep writing songs: I've now got seventy two and still counting.
We still have not met yet, but I know a couple of things about him: I know his star sign (obviously I had to check that beforehand!), I know he was born between mountains and lakes in the Sierra of Argentina, I know that he likes sounds of streets and trains and takes pictures of random people in public transport, I know he always wanted to go to Peru, but most importantly, I know he is a magician, although I'm not sure he wears a top hat and a cape.... But he's a magician.
