The Songsmith Project: Down This Rain

This was one of the first song written for this project, and here it is! again, just me and my guitar in a big live take!

Music and lyrics by Iros Rodriguez

Molten drops cast out from rivers
Eyes upon this rain
Cleaning with a cloth my fears
Down this rain

I must close the space down here
Eyes upon the rain
I just have to open my ears
Down this rain

Wish I could be there tonight
Hearing from the drops behind
Grey and blue defines the trail

Covered in a dark blue light
We got our eyelids down and drown
Centered in a cold grey blight
We fall into our arms and try
to touch our souls and be just one


Down This Rain por Iros Rodriguez se distribuye bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivar 4.0 Internacional.
Basada en una obra en http://irosmultiverse.blogspot.com/.

The Songsmith Project: Unsung Hero

A couple of songs were recorded including this one, Unsung Hero, and yeah after a couple of takes, voice screw ups (yeah I hate my voice), gayish hype shouts lol it is done I think, just guitar and voice in one big take, no fancy editing nor any more instruments! I hope you enjoy it!

Music and lyrics by Iros Rodriguez

I try in the light of the moon
I fight indoors
And cry with my soul
And die with the sun

Unsung hero
I fight indoors
I beg for my soul
Unsung hero
I praise in the sun
and cry with the moon

I try in the light of the moon
I fight indoors
And die with the sun
And cry with my soul

Unsung hero
I fight indoors
And cry with the sun
Unsung hero
Just you and me
Sun and glory

I try, I fight, I cry
I fight, I try
I fight, unsung hero
I try, unsung hero
I cry, unsung hero
There's no fame, unsung hero
There's no pain, unsung hero
There's no gain, unsung hero

I fight, unsung hero
I cry, unsung hero
I fight, unsung hero


Unsung Hero por Iros Rodriguez se distribuye bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivar 4.0 Internacional.
Basada en una obra en http://irosmultiverse.blogspot.com/.

The Songsmith Project: Angel White Wings

I recorded this one out of the "Songsmith Project" sorry for the background noise I'm trying to get rid of it! Maybe I will try to record some others! We will see!

Music and lyrics by Iros Rodriguez

I've never tried to forgive now
of what I can see
I've never tried to be gone now
I want to break free
I see angel white wings

I've never tried to get close now
of what I must see
I've never thought on this for now
of art and beauty
I see angel white wings

Flying withdrew higher
Run to be true
It flies, black and white
Just to try

Wandering through
Clean and refresh to my eyes
Feel like a fool
Art-form required to move

Angel white wings
Clean and refresh to my eyes
Angel white wings
Art-form required to break free



Angel White Wings por Iros Rodriguez se distribuye bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Basada en una obra en https://soundcloud.com/irosrod/iros-rodriguez-angel-white-wings.

The Songsmith Songwriter Challenge!

Hi all!

As some of you may know, I was immersed into this crazy thing, which is write 7 songs in 7 days, each day!, I know is a crazy thing to do, but it was a real challenge and pushed me in every way. No matter the consequences, the work, the stress, the routine of everyday, I was able to pull everything just in time! It was hard, yes, but, life is hard isn't it?

I have every song recorded in my smartphone, for demo and lyrics purposes, I'm planning now to record them live in a video form with a friend in my home studio, just guitar and voice, a couple of GoPros and that's it! Here is the list of the final take of the 7 songs!

1- Angel White Wings
2- Here Is You
3- I Can Be Inspired
4- Unsung Hero
5- Down This Rain
6- Eccentric Poet
7- Pieces in Seven and Seven Other Pieces

I have to polish a few lyrics on some of the songs though, but the hard work is finished! They are short songs as you can see, and it is just guitar/voice thing in a songwriter inspired way. Hope you like the songs! I'll keep you posted!

IRR

Your ear is everything

In music your ear is the most important thing, I have a lot of friends that ask me for tips or tricks in music for them to write better music or better solos, I just tell them one thing, TRAIN YOUR EAR.

For me, is your business card presentation as a musician, not only how well you play your instrument. Developing your ear will make you a better musician in no time, you will be able to hear things in your head, translate them to your instrument or writing, you will transcribe more easily, you will appreciate production more, you will be able to recognize things in music that you can grab.

However, How do you develop your ear? In my case I took solfege classes with a personal instructor, that helped me a lot, plus the years and years I have been involved in music, hearing it, embracing it, and playing it, years and years pass and I understand music more and more everyday.

So, in what stage are you? Ask yourself, do you recognize a riff in a song and translate it to your instruments?, Can you define notes? Can you hear the chords in one song and name them? Can you translate a choir of 4 voices listening to it like 3 or 4 times?  try to focus on this, this will be my most humblest and recommended musical advise that I can give!

Att:

Iros RR

A Time For Everything Demo Montage

This is the song I'm working on right now, it is called "A Time For Everything" based on the book of Ecclesiastes, seeing it just a book and the theme it portraits about a time for everything in life and all that was inspiring. Is a work in progress I just want to get my ideas sounding, that's it!

This album is coming pretty varied in terms of music styles, I don't know I'm just writing music, what comes out comes out!

and we keep it going...lot of work ahead...*sigh




A Time For Everything Demo por Iros Rodriguez Rodriguez se distribuye bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional.
Basada en una obra en http://irosmultiverse.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-time-for-everything-demo-montage.html.

Pseudo Production

This is the thing that I'm embracing the most these days, something I call "Pseudo Production", it is my way of thinking I'm a real producer in a real studio and learn in the process, (where I'm actually a bedroom producer in fact), I'm in the process of writing an entire album for this year, I don't really know where I can go with it but I'm trying to do something with the things I have, no more no less.

So let me explain what I'm doing, simply I am writing and demoing music in a real DAW with my Computer in my bedroom and I always learn and try new things, for example, as overdubbing myself everything, What is the best thing to do? Record everything?, in what order? what methods? Recording drums and bass first? or not? how to record a complex bass riff with a midi keyboard? recording with a click or not? and tons and tons of other questions... I'm demoing some tunes and creating an arrangement as I write and record, is a total pain, lot of edits, programing, recording takes, recording on time, doubling guitar riffs with the midi keyboard, and believe me my music is not conventional, is not 4/4 the whole time, is complex stuff and this really compensates in the production.

My goal is not to record an award winning sounding record, but to demo the songs, create the vibe for them and the arrangement, luckily... I'm all alone in this process so it can be very time consuming and stressful, in fact I think that today I have to re-record almost everything in a song that I wrote and record the finals overdubs, something yet is not right to me, and yes, you have to be perfectionist in all of this, something that is not my forte so to speak.

I'm trying to complete a progress sheet, as I write/record the demo for each individual song. I use my smartphone to capture lots of ideas also, but the sheet is based on the whole process of writing and demoing, just marking X's where some process is complete for each song, it can be the writing itself or some recordings, for example: electric guitars, drums, bass, vocals, overdubs, etc. It keep things organize and tidy, I never use it myself and it is a very common practice for real record producers nowadays, is fun and you can see the whole progress going, I will later post a picture of it!

I'm not a very psychorigid person, not a very organized one either, but this like this helps me a lot in complete the workflow, I'm using tools like "Trello" which is a app for the Google Chrome browser to keep track of everything as a whole: Writing, Demoing, Recording, Mixing, Mastering etc. I will release the whole thing in demo version, pass it down to musicians and be able to recorded well in a proper conditioned studio. I hope I don't break the bank with this last one!