Mano-Destra

Probably about 16 I started getting into DJing and stuff. I started doing a lot of parties and all kinds of events and what not, but I got burned out pretty quick on it. I just, I mean I really fell in love with the fact that so many people were into the music and I started seeing a whole different world that exists, but I just needed more so I started getting into writing music, started saving up my money, and researching out there what was the best avenue to start with so, I started getting into keyboards and what not and before you knew it I really started focusing on putting together an album. I just finished that at the beginning of this year and so, really if you look at it, it's been probably about eight years I've been seeking this through.

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Well, the album is part of the...it's really theme based music is what I like to call it. Like I am really trying to do more filmesque, sound score, kinda' type of music, but mixed with a lot of electronic sounds and kinda' the dance edge that I grew to fall in love with when I was younger. It really is based off of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy and I am going to put together a three album series that I am launching and this first one is to represent the purgatory so, it kinda' has a range of what's going on in daily life. Kinda' the ups and downs more than anything so, I called it Ignoring Eleven Steps. You know, it stands at there is a 12-step program and the first step is knowing that you have an issue. I just kinda' represented as a society that we've all kinda' ignored the rest so, the intro to the album has...you hear sounds of a pill bottle opening. The whole pharmacutical thing...And that was kinda' my drive because it really, it was more just how I was finding music and all of me developing into a really kinda' interesting state in my life when I was in my early 20s so, I finished this album and it was more personal than theme-driven as I liked so, That's where it kinda' started. There's a song on it called the, Throwing Bricks Hate Anthem, which is an ex-girlfriend that kinda' represents, you know exploits a grim break up that I had where she threw bricks through a recent girlfriend's windows in her car so, that's where the name came from and that was kinda' showing the darker side of the whole purgatory thing so, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to put that song on the album, but I made the decision and based off the fact that I felt like it was a really good representation of the ups and downs of life.

THROWING BRICKS HATE ANTHEM

Well, what I am currently kinda' become real...I'd call myself a music serial killer. I don't know how else to explain it, other than the fact that I am kinda' stocking my sounds and stuff and I am really trying to make this really visual, theme-based, music and my next album is going to be a lot more theme-driven and it's going to represent the second part which is the inferno and I am going to map out the seven deadly sins and so what I am trying to do basically is use as many of my sounds as possible to really create a very visual experience and because of that I haven't really gotten out much. Here and there I go to the record stores and pick up a few of the flyers and find out who's playing and I'll go to a couple of events. I started to find myself more attracted to the local DJs and a lot of the guys that really have the true passion and aren't continuing to just capitalize on a name. I've done two Nine Inch Nails remixes. I did my first one was Closer. I just kinda' did it myself thinking, I've always had this romance with Nine Inch Nails so, I did this track just more to apease myself and it started getting some club play and some radio play because it was a really banging track and I used to do, you know, it used to be my closing number at live PAs because it was just such an intense song. And then a few years later they just released all these sound files off of the Nine Inch Nails album for a song, Only, and I took all the files and I did a remix of it and it turned out really good. I was really proud because I think it truly represented what I think what Nine Inch Nails failed to do in that song which was make it a Nine Inch Nails song. It sounded more like a pop track. It got out there. There's a few radio stations south of here that are playing it like Albuquerque and Tucson and what not. I've gotten a lot of good feedback from it. I just wish I had more opportunities to do work on remixes, but I spent so much on my own stuff because that's my main focus.

CLOSER/ONLY REMIX

Growing up and being so into this music and having so many people telling me that it wasn't music. It was computers. I was very sensitive because...In this day and age if you hear a band play you can pick out the instraments. Anybody can. Even people that don't know anything about music can say, "oh, those are drums, and that's a bass, and that's a guitar"...and the lead singer, and maybe a keyboard in there, but when you listen to like true electronic music that is sculpted in a very deep compositional scale it mind boggles people because they don't understand where it comes from, what kind of machines make it, and all the time and knowledge one has to have in each of these machines to program this. And in the end you still have to know music theory to get them all to work together. You essentially are your bass player, your drummer, and your guitar player, and singer and keyboard guy all wrapped up in one. So, I've got some songs that are 32 to 38 tracks that are rolling all at the same time and that's how many sounds are going and it wasn't like the computer told me to put them there. I had to go to my equipment and make them myself so, I am a little distraught over the fact that it's getting to the point where somebody can buy an iMac, they've got the program, they can download files and they can become a musician because it kinda'...I feel it starts to discredit what I do, but in the end I've come to the point where I realize I have to let go of that and just continue to do what I do and focus on writing good music rather than trying to write technical stuff to break away. So, it's been a journey.

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Everything on...this is one of my biggest things that I tell people but nobody really cares is that everthing that you hear on Ignorning Eleven Steps I made. There's a few samples here and there, and vocals that were taken from all different sources and what not, but everything that has to do with the music; I play piano, my keyboards and all my sequencers, equipment and what not so, I am very sensitive about that because I use this software that's so old it fits on a floppy, it doesn't have any loop-based functions, and because of that it's forced me to learn how to break away from all the temptations. There's programs where you can flip a couple of switches and the next thing you know you got yourself a full song so, I am trying to stick as close to that as I possibley can, even though, I am starting to kinda' toy around with the new Macs. My first song that I ever wrote I was 19 and I started out with this software for that reason. It was the fact that it was the first one that was thrown in my lap. I just thought that was the only thing available and by the time I had learned it it was too late for me to take the time to go somewhere else so I just stuck with it, but the first song that I did was...it took me three months, but it was like 10 minutes long and because I had to learn how to seperate all of these sounds, but after that I started to realize that if I had a huge boost of inspiration I could finish a smash song, a really good song, in probably two days, but that's probably 10 to 12 hours each day intensely working on it with just loads of inspiration. So, that's when things are good.

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