A couple of months ago I started working with Solangi and Edison from Kronicas. They came to me looking to improve their sound and to record the material they have been working on with previous bands members for quite some time.

They really wanted to keep a classic rock style without sounding outdated, so after listening to all of their songs I suggested we star with the power ballad called “Princess of Darkness”. I felt this kind of song will be flexible enough to experiment with sounds and different colors to achieve the right style for them.

The basic structure, guitars and production are done already! we just finished tracking real drums (performed at the Music Lab studio by Drummer Juan Felipe Mayorga) to replace the programming used for pre production, and now we’re up to vocals with Sol.

Keep tuned! there will be a release soon..

This is one of those rare opportunities when you get to work for a client that does the same thing you do!

Renato Milone is an Italian born Drummer / Producer and a Berklee College graduate, that was looking to develop his first website.

He contacted me when checking out my work here on my site.

After a very nice meeting in midtown Manhattan, where we talked about new ideas for his website, music and some international affairs, we both started brainstorming the project.

Renato wanted a clean looking site that loads fast, and that represents his persona and his work. He also wanted a not too serious look, to make it friendly to people interested in his work and music. The other request was to try to separate his work and services as a Drummer and a Music Producer, so that people interested in each service could easily get to the right content.

Take a moment to learn about Renato and his work, and if you need drums for your project just visit the site, fill out a from, upload your track and he will record some real drum tracks for you!

www.renatomilone.com

La Kueva is now 13 years old! and to celebrate, the old time house band “Discipulos de Jesus” performed for the most loyal crowd the venue has.

Discipulos was the initiative of owner Jesus Giraldo, who about 13 years ago started selecting musicians out of the bands that performed at his club, to create a house band for his venue.

I was lucky enough to get one of those phone calls, with a unique offer to have a steady gig, a place to rehearse, and the opportunity to play great tunes (covering everything from Metallica to Caifanes), to a hungry crowd of Latino Rockers that finally had a place to go to!

Jesus’s idea turned out to be a very good one for the place, and for all of us that had the chance to be part of “Discipulos” for over 10 years. Just to name a few, the band had members like: singer “Miguel La Rota” (Luz Perpetua), Drummer “Joao Sanchez” (El leon), Bassist “Ze Grey” (Forro in the Dark), Drummer “Ron Thaler” and Drummer “Jorge Patiño” (Naranja).

The current line up is: singer “Zack Valladares”, bassist “Fabian Solorzano”, drummer “Mark Flynn”, and me, guitarist “Inti Maldonado”.

It’s been a great “Rock Journey”, and this past show was an excuse to see many of our old friends from the beginnings.

That night, great singer Javier Castro joined us on stage, and he shared with us the fact that, one of the things that motivated him to pursue his singing carrier was “Discipulos” many years ago, when he used to attend our shows. This kind of things make me believe that we have accomplished a mission!

This past weekend I performed a very special show at “La Kueva del Rock” here in queens NYC.

Singer/keyboard player Hoffman Laverde from the band N7, came up with this idea of uniting 10 of the best Latin rock singers from the local scene to perform their favorite songs as a display of united talent in a single show.

The group of singers was selected from bands like : 3nigma, Luis Terreros, Teoría Quintuple, Orbita, Jheison Lopez, Kronicas, Stereo Re-Make, N7, Damian Abad among others.

My job was to Direct the band and the rehearsals in order to achieve this idea, and after a  4 hour long sessions we pretty much had the show down. We had Ramon (Colombia) playing drums, Fabian Solorzano (Ecuador) on Bass, Hoffman Laverde (Ecuador) on Keys, and me (Venezuela) on Guitar.

The repertoire was very exiting! since every single artist choose their songs we end up with a very diverse set list that included bands like : Aerosmith, Muse, Los Bunkers, Mano Negra, The Cure, Despache Mode, Caifanes and much more.

I personally hope that this kind of efforts could make the scene grow, and that all of this talent find a effective platform to showcase ! Hopefully we will do it again

Last night was the beginning of the “Desde Arriba Hacia Abajo Tour” with Luis Terreros.

This time around we are just trying to enjoy performing the two albums we had the chance to record in the last three years or so. The tour so far is in local venues around the tri-state area here in NY and even some places in NJ.

The plan is to finally showcase the material and define a music market for It.

Along the shows Luis is also doing interviews for Radio Stations, TV programs and even some Spanish news papers like “El Diario La Prensa”.

Since the release of the two productions we are very pleased to learn that the albums have had underground popularity in places like Los Angeles, CA and even some areas of Mexico to name a few.

For this tour we have the pleasure to have Juan Felipe Mayorga performing drums, and Singer Charlene Melendez who recorded in “Como el Sol” from the second album doing Backup Vocals.

For more information about Luis and his music, please visit his facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/LuisTerrerosOfficialPage

Today we finished recording all guitars for Bullet Society’s first full album!

After working for quite some time on the guitar tracks for the 11 songs that include this  production, we feel very optimistic with the results.

This album comes with a wide variety of styles, without loosing the identity of the band. Some songs are heavy and aggressive like “Spin” and “Bloody Rivers”, and others are soft and even a bit jazzy like “Sol de Noche” and “All new ways”. So we had the difficult task of find the right parts for all of these styles.

I also had the opportunity to record extra guitar parts as a guest musician / producer. I always love when i get a chance to participating sneaking guitar parts here and there..

We spent a lot of hours at my studio getting the right takes, one by one till each song made it to the “It fucking rocks” state. When we we’re done we took about 30 GB worth of tracks to the Music Lab Studio for some pretty cool “Lab Work”. At the Lab we invested 3 days of re-amping thru a line of amazing guitar amps like: Egnators, Marshalls, Vox AC-30, Randalls with modules of Rectifier and others I can’t remember now.

This is going to be an album full of heavy and warmth amp distortion…

Next step… Electronics and Vocals

“Radio Tranquila” is the name of the new single from the Band New Madrid. And for the last few months we have been working on the production of this new track .

After a few months of rehearsals we were ready to go to the recording studio (The Music Lab), to track drums, re-amp guitars and to listen to some strange Spanish phrases by Lou Gimenez (owner – engineer).

The first thing we did was tracking the drums. Axel (lead singer and drummer) have a very unique drum set: no hi-hat, no toms… and of course no throne! just Kick, two snares (one piccolo) a Big and Deep Floor tom, and two crash Cymbals . Producing his parts was very interesting since he also performs the drums in a very “vocal” oriented way.

I particularly like this approach to their music, and I think we got an excellent performance printed that night.

Also the same day, we tracked Anthony on bass. I wanted to get the natural feel they already had by recording both at the same time.

Anthony had very good bass lines in general, and I didn’t think it was necessary to change most of what he had worked on.

After spending some time listening to all the takes and choosing the right parts we were ready for Guitars!
Erick (Axel’s brother) was ready for this moment. We did a couple of sessions trying out different ideas. At the end we got a bunch of thick guitars parts and an very spontaneous guitar solo that brought climax to the song.

Check out these guys here on their faceBook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002317065237

Next step, vocals… coming soon!

Once again had the opportunity to play with Douglas Bastidas here in the states!

This time it was for a packed house at the stage of the Copacabana Club in NYC and the very next day  in Washington DC at the Salsa Room.

As always is a pleasure to perform such popular songs for the young Ecuadorian crowd. It always surprises me, the reaction of the audience when we start playing songs like Mori, Dime si Recuerdas or Dile.

My good friend Mauro Satallino from Argentina was playing the drums. We have been the backing band for Douglas for a bit over two years now, and hopefully we’ll go to the west coast at the beginning of next year for a small tour!

These excellent pictures were captured by Cesar Calderon, a great photographer from the NYC area that covers all of the major shows here in the city. Check his work at http://www.digitalivesolutions.com or just click on any of the pictures!   

Yes Trivialidades my second album for Ecuadorian singer song writer Luis Terreros won the SlamFest 2011 CD on the year.

The SlamFest is a festival created to recognized the local Latin Rock talent in New York. The event took place at the Higline Ballroom Theater in Manhattan.

This great news came just weeks after we had the opportunity to perform the album live for the first time at the Cameo Gallery stage in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (pictures shown here). 

It was a great trip to perform all of those songs after months of working on the album. We also had the chance to have Charlene Melendez as a guest singer that night. She was the featured female singer on the album for the song “Come el sol”.

Now Luis is about to release his first Video clip of the first single from the album called “Dame Tu Mano”.

Hopefully many more great things will come to us soon!

This month I finally started working with the guys from New Madrid!

This is a excellent project with a lot of energy and originality. They are a very fulfilling power trio where the “stand up” drummer plays the double role of lead singer and front man really well.

They come with a new bilingual proposition to the scene that I personally find very special.

This is a very “organic” band that likes to play with the dynamics of their songs during live performances, encouraging the crowed to actually perceive and experience their material.

My biggest challenge is to try to keep that part intact for the production of the single, but at the same time expanding their ability to reach their listeners, and to interpret their ideas into more effective music forms.

We are now into the 3rd session and will be ready to hit the Recording Studio to track drums really soon!