Album Notes

Recorded at Little Pioneer Cider House in Brooklyn, NY. Recorded & written during the year of 2008. Produced by M. & Little Pioneer. Mixed, engineered & mastered by Little Pioneer. All songs written & performed by M. & Little Pioneer. Released via Bigger Wave Records.

I do listen to a variety of music and needless to say, it was only a matter of time before I ended up recording an all Spanish language record.
With this record, you could say I went back to my roots only because I wrote my first ever song lyrics in Spanish many years ago.
Anyways, the recording process for this record will not be soon forgotten by me. The reason for that is because for the first time, I approached the music in a more straight-forward manner. Never before did I feel the need to tone down a bit the bizarre and out-there ideas that are ever so present in my past music records.

I dedicate this record to my parents who are both a huge inspiration for me in regards to hard work and perseverance.

I hereby present to you my Spanish language record simply titled Pequeno Pionero. Believe me when I say that plenty of hard work and sacrifice was put into this music project.

M.


Additional info:

Indeed, Pequeno Pionero will be my last record project.

When I first started recording it last year around this time, I had the instinctual knowledge of being at the end of my creative rope.

Ironically, I started writing lyrics in Spanish when I was finishing high school in the country where I was born. And now I find myself taking a bow many years later with a Spanish language record.

How it all has come full circle!

I'm happy to say that I stand behind this record 110%. And I owe that to my music producer Little Pioneer. It's really because of him that Pequeno Pionero actually exists, hence the title.

I'd like to express my thoughts about the songs on this record.

The title track that opens the record was one of those simple but yet hypnotic songs that you find yourself immersed with. Lyrically, I was standing up for those who prefer nothing more than a simple life in this crazy chaotic world of power struggle.

Bendito is my naughty Latin track that was musically inspired by the early Latin Soul sound of Ray Barretto. That is all I can say.

I have always wanted to record a song with a more Latin funk vibe to it and Hipocresia gave me that chance. Lyrically, I was inspired more by the gangsta vibe of Willie Colon in his Malo recording days. Also watching many of those Italian mafia films from the 60's and 70's gave me some inspiration for the words on this track.

Creo En El Amor appears to be a contradicting song upon first listen. But it's really not. It's one of my personal favorites and it's for those fools out there who don't have it easy when it comes to giving true intimacy.

I am a fan of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Santa Sangre is one of my favorite films from him. So it seemed obvious for me to try to find some inspiration from that film for my song naturally titled Santa Sangre. The first verse in the song talks about the boy's inital experience in the film but the remaining words refers more to the spiritual enigma that exists in Latin culture. And I am a big fan of Latin African percussion so needless to say this song had to be in that style.

I read a great book called American Visa written by Juan de Recacoechea. I was so truly touched by the life of the main character that I found it easy to write this next song I called Plata Quemada. I wanted to write a song about how obsessed we are about money and how it truly governs our lives. I found true inspiration from reading that brilliant book!

Mi Sacrificio was the song that was least worked on. It was the last song that was recorded for this album. I felt I needed a track with very simple percussions and some free singing if that makes any sense.

La Lupe is one of my all time favorite singers! I wanted so badly to record a song about her life but couldn't come up with anything. Afterall, the woman has lived a very complicated life and 'till this day, no film director has been able to successfully project her life unto the screen. I believe one day it'll happen though. So my little dilemma was resolved when I took out all my Lupe CDs and figured out that most of the song titles already told her story. I ended up putting the song titles in a particular order to make a somewhat cohesive story about La Lupe's very interesting life. It was like a puzzle. In the end, the song Lupe Lupe Lupe is more like a jam with a poetic vocal performance.


El Tirano is one of those Latin Funeral songs that sounds sad I guess but lively if you approach it from a certain perspective. I actually find this track very theatrical and even somewhat amusing.

I needed to have at least one crazy song on this record. I have to admit that this is quite an ambitious track. Initially I was inspired more by the Latin Psychedelic music of the 60's but ended up giving it a little more of that modern experimental touch. Lyrically the song talks about living in a apocalyptic environment and how we lost everything because we became abusive. Kind of like that movie I Am Legend.
And I also love the last phrase in the song where I sing "en fin este mundo no nos debe nada" which translates to "in the end, this world doesn't owe us anything."

A perfect ending, no?

M.