Three main aspects are being balanced throughout the album, weaving in and out of each metaphor and symbol–
Introspection (my own life) Reflection (historically) Call to action (both)
The car crash (introspection), the dictatorship (introspection, reflection), the Filibusters (reflection), the Republic/Union (introspection, reflection), the Sandinistas, ancestors/destiny (all three), conviction (introspection, call to action), artistic insecurity (introspection), God (all three), earnestness (all three?), Morazan, rebellion, walking (?), The Independence of Central America (all three), the banana dictatorships
Drum beat, maracas, signify the passing of time. Steady beat, steady flow… Shiva, Hinduism…
Historical Events/Groups That Are Metaphors
After all that was said and was done, triunfo la patria–the homeland had won. Parties united, the regions incited–wrested it from the hands of Spain…
After multiple attempts to reconcile, their differences were far too great to overcome and the Union would fall. Let it be known, however, that it did not fail naturally…
For a bit we’re united, in name, we’ll be fighting / Against the Filibusters
Fight for God, Fonseca did it
The bind is strong, yes, it’s stronger than the bond / of the Union, which to our own past belongs
For a bit, we’re united, in name, we’ll be fighting / Against the Filibusters
I tried staying earnest, I had my conviction / But then I quit my job, survived a car wreck / I fought for independence and against a dictatorship / But the victory was temporary
You see the problem was / The Filibusters chose him / He can’t be earnest / He doesn’t come from the heart / and the Filibusters / don’t even let me start
A Faustian bargain made / With our people’s souls we paid
Fruits don’t make much anymore / Remittances are the new import / Exporting people to lower the dole queue / Chiquita doesn’t bring the money it used to
We broke our chains, now we’re re-chateled / We freed ourselves, then we sold ourselves
Things that Literally Happened to Me / Not Metaphors / Themes
Being earnest is hard when you’re filled with anxiety / Irony makes it easy to be the person you wanna be / Being genuine is hard (etc.)
Would they know that I nearly died and laugh at me? / But despite all of that, I have to keep on going
In the midst of everything, remember one thing: fight ‘till you’re done
I tried staying earnest, I had my conviction / But then I quit my job, survived a car wreck
You see the problem was / The Filibusters chose him / He can’t be earnest / he doesn’t come from the heart / and the Filibusters / don’t even let me start
It’s blasphemy, it’s hegemony / So be the person you ought to be
The car, the job, the dictatorship / being earnest and not ironic / with my conviction I’ll stick So, lastly, I ask with full earnest intent / how am I supposed to celebrate with laughter and merriment / When the Independence of Central America is still just an experi
People
This Guanacaste was torn from its roots by greed while Morazan tied himself to the trunk and was killed for it. He was right. He was right.
So, here’s a fun fact for you… Francisco Morazan died the day that independence was declared for Central America… isn’t that just crazy?
You have to stay optimistic / fight for God, Fonseca did it
You just got two people to answer to / God, or anything you moralize, and you You may not know it but now you will / Being yourself is following His will
The Filibusters always invoke God / While they play one like a fraud
Morazan still lives within us / He is not dead, hope is not dead / God is not dead, we are not dead
The knowledge of God’s love for His daughter the most
The Pueblo can only suffer for so long. Our ancestors are watching us, waiting for us to take the right path forward. We will overcome, it must happen! We will overcome!
You might feel lost, and you might feel scared. It’s understandable, there’s a war out there. But just think of them–your ancestors. They’re watching you, they’re watching us, they always have been. In the midst of everything, remember one thing: fight ‘till you’re done.
The album's sound is heavily rooted in 60s/70s Latin American rock as well as protest and progressive folk of the region, with heavy psychedelic overtones that echo the approaches taken by experimental groups of the 60s as well as the updated techniques of 80s bands labelled as post-punk, neo-psychedelic, or jangle pop, and the 2010s internet-based wave of hypnogogic pop. It syncretizes regional Latin compositional techniques and the storied history of oral tradition with ethereal production styles in an attempt to capture an Elysian tone most comparable to magical realist novels from authors such as Garcia Marquez or Borges as well as the picture book The Little Prince. Consequently, it takes on a bit of a twee essence and an energy and purpose also easily likened to egg punk.
The writing is heavily smothered in metaphor, with the album, its lyrics, and its themes all connecting back to three cruxes--the past (intrapersonal or historical reflection on either my own life, looking back at my childhood and the tribulations I've faced in the past year, or of the history of Central America through a roughly chronological order, exploring important political figures of the region and comparing their goals and legacies to outline a cohesive, if not deeply saddening cycle of progress and exploitation as well as using the historical events as a pretext for important events of my life or to breathe vicariously through these political figures, such as in the intro track, "Compay," a song about the war for Independence in Central America in which I compare an event which happened when I was four where I ran away from home because I really wanted a toy at Walmart to the kind of proactive vision required to lead a region towards
an independent future), the present (intrapersonal or historiographic introspection on either who I am in regards to the ego--my gender identity, my religious identity, my ethnic identity--or the socioeconomic conditions of my life, whether that concerns being the child of an immigrant, how I never had any sort of generational wealth to keep me stable while being superficially middle class enough to not qualify for economic aid I could otherwise not afford, how this shaky financial stability has restricted me from receiving potentially greatly beneficial psychiatric treatment for my Autism or from attending college without the fear of being consumed by student loan debt, for example, how these tenuous economic circumstances have led to a great deal of artistic insecurity and dread in my everyday life, or any/all of the above, or the geopolitical tragedy of Central America's current state through mass migration to the US, high crime, and individualist political policies which led to the immense economic stratification of the region in the present and its current effects), and the future (a call to action, both interpersonally and sociologically--whether that be to implore the individual listener to follow my introspective cries for conviction and earnestness in their identity (again, either regarding gender, religious, or ethnic identities) or to the Central American people as a declaration of hope for our future and by looking at our past to know what we ought to do for our future. Both of these are meant to connect back to the title of the album; there is the literal Central America, whose continual war for independence is still ongoing, but there is the metaphorical Central America--me, I am Central America, I am its breath--who needs to "finish" the "experiment" of independence by truly accepting myself for who I am).
The album's lyricism is very efficacious in this approach, as metaphors usually connect to more than one of those core aspects (past, present, future; reflection, introspection, and a call to action). For example, "conviction," a concept consistently brought up through the album, can either refer to the material convictions of those in our past, such as Francisco Morazan's conviction in keeping the Federal Union of Central America together as one sociopolitical entity, the convictions I am trying to come to grips with, referring to my identity, or the convictions we need to have if we want to change Central America for the better, such as a unified regional vision through ethnic unity and regional unity and a rejection of individualist policies for the unified betterment of all. This sort of thing is all over the place, and it is applied to abstract concepts as well as historical political entities or movements, such as the Filibusters or the Sandinistas, which are used as metaphors for people and tribulations I've experienced in my own life over the last year as well alongside being mentioned to discuss our history and their political goals. Every song has a completely different style, and I was heavily inspired by the method of film scoring and cantatas for the structure and overall flow of the album. The album is meant to inspire repeat and critical listening as well as external research into the figures, events, and themes mentioned throughout, and the first listen is supposed to be characterized by a trance-like feeling of euphoria, almost like being on a rollercoaster--pure excitement and sensory overload while having no control over the situation. Something where, by the end, you will immediately want to wait in line to ride it again.
Above all, I wanted to create an album that lives up to the majestic, yet tragic history of the motherland. I hope that I have.
Regarding what I’m looking to accomplish, I want a fully cohesive album–you can kinda hear how there’s little spaces in between the songs currently, just a result of the exporting. I want it to sound better balance-wise, but I don’t want it to necessarily sound professional or like it was recorded in a studio if you know what I mean? Because I think that would totally take away from the emotional impact of the album. I think I’ve built up a pretty interesting and unique sound..
One that’s, for better or for worse, been more than a little hard to put into qualitative terms–i think you would agree–throughout the course of the album, and I think, working together, we can keep it intact while still making it sound better :^) as for when I need it done by–the album is releasing on July 1st. Ideally, I’d like to have it done by late March, but as long as we’re at least three months out before its release (April 1st, three months is generally enough time to submit to publications.. Not sure if any of them will take a look at my work but hey!! I can always dream!!) then I can’t really really complain. And if doing both a Spotify and a normalized, CD master of the album makes that a bit more tight, then please don’t worry and just prioritize the CD one. And if worse comes to worst, then quite honestly I have no issue delaying it (September 15th would be a lovely release date!! Central American day of independence!!) Some of the tracks really don’t need much work, like Mother and The Independence…, there are some things I guess I could ask of you but quite honestly it would just be splitting hairs.
Others, like Compay and By the Bunches, are done recording-wise, so those are pretty much ready for you to do what I would need you to do. The rest require varying levels of recording done. Guillermo just needs a re-recording of the wooden block. Quite honestly, I don’t know what to do with Friends/Enemies. It might be done. But it also might not be. Conviccion needs a new guitar track. Age-Old Story could do with a new bass track and maybe a new organ, and my friend should be coming in to record a proper drum track for it. And 200 Years has like 2-3 minutes of track at varying stages of recording (the tempo changes three times and oh my Godddd FL Studio is so awful about this, i might just have to do them in different songs… maybe you can help me figure out an easier way?) So I don’t know if you want to, like, start on them and slowly update them as I get around to updating those tracks, a kind-of back-and-forth of mixing and mastering and recording, or just start with what’s done and work as they come.
I think understanding the kind of style I am going for on a track-by-track basis beyond
broad-stroke references is going to require me to explain each track narratively. I will try to keep this as concise as possible :--
There are a lot of recurring metaphors, themes, motifs, and so on throughout the album that are kind of important to understanding what exactly it is I’m trying to convey. I won’t go line-by-line, I think that’s a bit excessive, but I do think, as a producer, it might help when you’re listening–mixing, mastering, so on–it might be helpful to identify these things when they come up. Plus, it ties into trying to evoke the mood of each song from a production standpoint when you can understand the tone by reading between the lines. One important thing to note is that each of these falls into one of these categories (or any combination of these!)--introspection (my
own life), reflection (historically), and a call to action (both), as this is an album that uses history as a pretext for my own struggle.
Compay is a song which focuses on the revolutionary, progressive fervor that permeated throughout Latin America in the early 1800s, serving as a vessel for me to empathize with the international hero to all of Central America, Francisco Morazán, through not only his own struggle for liberation 200 years ago, but the proliferation of our people's plight in Central America to this very day. Through half-forgotten childhood anecdotes being used as metaphors that tell an intentionally open-ended narrative, the song is as much an outward call to action for independence and hope in the face of tragedy as it is an introspective connection with my homeland of Honduras and Our history.
Friends/Enemies is interesting, because it kind of switches the narrative balance. This one is a lot more personal, I’m speaking about myself, but it’s also about the
After independence was gained for Central America, they created a strong federal union of multiple states (Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua) with a liberal party and a conservative party. I won’t get too into the politics of it all, cause ultimately it does not mean very much in the context of understanding the album and its intent, but the liberal party, headed by Francisco Morazan, with a large political base of ranchers, was intent on maintaining a strong federal union to secure economic and political security (because of the fear of economic, military, or political exploitation from the US as well as the fact that they felt like without this strong presence they could not build a sustainable economy), while the Conservative party, whose political base was made up of landowners, wanted to have more individual control over their own states. Ultimately, this would lead to the dissolution of the Union. The Conservative Party, funnily enough, would get right to work in the exploitation of their own lands. Corruption in El Salvador, for example, whose first president was one of the most prominent Conservative Party figures of the era, was horrible right out of the gate. Anyway, I digress. After the dissolution, Francisco Morazan would attempt, on multiple occasions, to reunite this federal union because he, against the tide of his own party, continued to believe that it was the only way to ensure security. Now, again, this is all context, because the song itself is about me and my own insecurity, and having to face the fact that sometimes people just flat out will hate you and you can’t do anything to change their minds. Lines like
“It's hard when your friends Instead become your enemies They won't accept your identity They'd rather see the end of me”
Are kind of a bridge between those two meanings. In particular, it’s about the breaking up of this old band I was in, Costco Boyfriend; it was pretty bad. Lots of drama. And they began attacking me, most notably, on my gender identity–I was beginning to come to terms with the fact that I was not cis. So the song is supposed to have this kind of uneasy, pensive structure. Like pacing
back and forth about something that you can’t stop thinking about as it races through your mind. It draws you into kind of a trancelike, psychedelic state until the vocals hit and it explodes.
Song for Guillermo is a tribute to Guillermo Anderson, one of the most influential figures in modern Honduran history. The most famous musician of the country. One of my biggest sources of inspiration
Conviccion is about war, both metaphorically and literally. It's about the imperialist conquest of the American Filibuster Army invading Central America, but it's also about me facing my near death experience (almost died in a car wreck), and the chaos of insecurity (artistic, gender expression) that I've been experiencing. It's supposed to sound instrumentally chaotic, loose, about to fall apart. Dynamic, never know what's about to happen
Mother is a tribute to my mother. I want it to be a nice transition from one abrasive track to the other
By the Bunches is a song about the rise of the banana republics in Central America, but it's also about how they led to the mass migration of my people from our homeland. On that same note, it's also about how financial insecurity can lead to selling out as an artist and how brutal being the son of a migrant living without decades of generational wealth and security to fall back on has been for my mental and physical health; being autistic, I live with my single mother. I've been denied subsidies for resources I could have benefitted from because my mother makes too much money, but we couldn't afford them without these subsidies!
The Age-Old Story is about the Sandinistas, who, in the 70s and 80s, if you don’t know (although I imagine you do) led a syncretic Catholic-Communist revolution against the US-backed Somoza regime. It uses their struggle, however, as a metaphor for the kind of
dissonant, self-doubting imagery that can come with trying to figure out who you are. To put it quite bluntly, I’m religious. I’m Christian. I’ve been raised in this church by my mother since I was born. I’ve had to struggle with my political + gender identity for years, thank goodness my mother has always been very accepting, and the Age-Old Story is a means of me
200 Years (And What Came of Them) is a means of wrapping everything up.