Alas De Polvo - Original Song - Steemit Pre-release! - Story behind the song - How I funded an album with the help of STEEM.
Hello Steemit!
So.. today is a special one for me as around 2 - 3 am my phone rang ( and as I would normally be really pissed ) it was because the masters of this particular song arrived, a song that just happens to be my first single of my first album!, I had received some masters earlier yesterday but as always .. I had corrections to do .. hahaha.. I'm sooo picky when it comes to production!
I thought about waiting a bit and collecting more material to present and such but I am quite excited to share it now and plus... even though I have been in a production and creative team to make quite a few albums for others, including art and such... I just happen not to have any material of my own... I never requested or created visual art for myself.. so .. there was not much to ''add'' to the song presentation.. so.. oh well.. why not just do a little informal release? For the friends and people I like and would love to share this song with , just imagine you came to my house for coffee and I showed you the song while I told you the story behind it ... ready?
- The story behind the song and the album:
So , this whole song writing period for me was kicked by my move to Uruguay and sudden ''collapse'' of everything I had , one of those cases of ''I lost it all'' and ''it's time to start from scratch'', I moved to Buenos Aires and took quite a break from music as I needed to rethink about my life a little , I got a regular job and I was just letting time do it's thing and move on. I also slowly started writing along this period , just writing , having joy and release in putting my thoughts into paper and let them be, I started writing my thoughts , little poems, stories, anything ... and these things eventually evolved into small songs, as if the musician also wanted to take part in this, I also had many things to say at this point .. so the writing kept constant.. I still have many of those papers with me .. It's an interesting way to know what was going through my mind and heart at that particular time. I also started taking arrangement lessons at that time and my teacher Daniel Camelo started to slowly encourage me to pursue my music as we would usually practice arrangement techniques over my compositions.
This was all before I joined Steemit, I joined on October 2017 ( yup .. I'm close to one year ) and all of this writing happened from January - September of that same year. Also I reluctantly joined Steemit after @meno insisting for maybe a month or two, he ended up buying my account and told me ''you owe me the money I paid for your account.. so start posting!'' ... So yes... those are my beginnings on Steemit ..hahahaha... crazy I'm still around :P .
So , after going through the question ''what should I write about?'' , since I didn't want to share too much of my personal side I just went with music and production related tutorials and stuck with those for a while , then I was pushed again to participate in @openmic and I submitted my first entry at week 56 with a song I had written alongside @vera.carla without expecting much:
I remember waking up to a @curie ( without even know what a Curie was ) and an almost $100 payout! Also .. @luzcypher showed up with nice comments and welcomed me to the community .. So that finally kicked off the adventure.. I was going to do an album... somehow. I had no way to pay for it but at least I could start working on the music and details.
- How I paid for the recording:
If you ever see my activity in transfers.. I have barely cashed out and the times I cashed out were 90% of the time used to put some money on the piggy bank for the recording , I was lucky to cash out a bit when the STEEM price was high and also the devaluation of the currency here in Argentina , though it sucks.. made it possible for me to raise enough to pay for the whole thing. After a year of posting , and yes.. only posting and networking .. I never ''put in money'' since I don't have any extra to spare :P but if I could , trust me .. I would be investing. So all I had was work to put in and since I'm stubborn and determined like crazy over the course of almost a year of posting and sharing and creating .. I finally raised enough money to enter the studio. I did some things on the side , I would lie if I said I ONLY used STEEM but .. at least 70% of the recording was funded by merely Steemit work, crazy huh? at other times I would have thought that to be impossible but hey! It happened to me! So , yes .. work paid off :) . I'm proud of this achievement.
Musicians and producers know how expensive it can be to record an album , studio time , musicians , logistics , equipment , mixing , mastering , art .. etc etc etc.. It takes a team to put a production together and well.. each process has it's financial cost. Luckily many of my friends helped me and I also paid some of these things with work .. so I'm doing recordings and editing and such to ''pay back'' the making of this album . It's all hard work and I sometimes go a little insane handling this.. but it's worth it.
We did this recording at a beautiful studio called ''Nak Estudios'' by the hand of Ninja engineer Tomás Vigo, the whole day I was quite nervous and anxious but as the day went by I could direct and handle the whole thing.. luckily I have some experience directing recording sessions.. but the fact that this was my album added some pressure on me.
After we recorded the whole album in a day now it was my turn to put each one of the songs together.. and well .. "Alas de Polvo'' made sense to me as a first one .. as it basically talks about this ''starting over'' that kicked off the whole adventure.. so .. It had to be the first one.
So , then is where I go insane since I don't have a team to work with and have to carry the whole workload myself.. the art of turning this :
into THIS:
![Screen Shot 2018-10-11 at 11.38.27 AM.png](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmXTDTabR2dKiQmn7z4oKwDkQ9a6j6Zp1iLXWjvnab64oK/Screen%20Shot%202018-10-11%20at%2011.38.27%20AM.png)
After going insane recording and editing and cleaning each and every track it was finally good to go and send for mixing! Sergio Vivar once again handled this one as with every production I do back at the studio in Ecuador.
After many back and forths and mixing corrections and masterings and all those not so fun things.. I finally received the final version.. making this one special day for me!
So, here it is! , a special release for the STEEM family, my first single from my first album ever :
Alas de Polvo - Pechiche Mena.
(P.Mena)
Una palabra
se ha transformado
en calor , en tiempo de dolor
abandonado
Una mañana
se ha desvelado
me ha dejado penas
del viento que te ha llevado
Despegaste en alas nuevas
de Polvo
Una mirada
te ha desnudado
ha quebrado el barro
que tu cuerpo ha secado
Una ventana
te ha invitado
a elevarte en nubes de color
en nuevos lados
Despegaste en alas nuevas
de polvo
Here's a translation:
Dust Wings
(P.Mena)
One word
has transformed
in heat , in times of pain
that were once abandoned
One morning
Has not slept
It has left me sorrows
of the wind that took you away
You took off in new wings
wings of dust
One look
has unclouded you
It has broken the clay
that your body had dried up
One window
has invited you
to elevate in clouds of color
somewhere else
You took off on your new wings
wings of dust
The team:
Julian Piterman - Drums
Damian Carballal- Bass and Percussion.
Mattias Fumagalli - Keyboards.
Pechiche Mena - Guitars, Vocals, synth programming.
Drums and bass recorded by Tomas Vigo at ''Estudios Nak'' - Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Guitars, vocals and percussion recorded at my personal studio.
Mixed and Mastered by Sergio Vivar at ''La Real Sociedad'' - Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Composed, Arranged, Edited and Produced by Pechiche Mena.
This song also comes days away from me completing one year on the platform, the two-year anniversary of the Open Mic contest which I had the honor to win on such a special date and also me stepping into my 30s in just a few weeks.. It all seems to close in a beautiful way and kicking off a new chapter. But hey , this is just the start of the album .. 7 more songs to go now ;)!
''You took off on your new wings
wings of dust''
Thanks for reading and listening!
Much Love
Pechi
This is very professional... but obviously it sounds so amazing because you did the screenshot with the hedascripts hahaha
That synth with delay fx or something... it is cool but at the end... I am with the same face as at the end of your openmic video of this song hehe. Maybe it is too long. or does it have a meaning? Sorry I had to say it hehe.. but really this production is so good !!!!!! I have listened to it both with the phone and on the studio monitors and it sounds great in both. And it is very nice to see the process and how differently you work. Amazing and congratulations!
When you say "I ONLY used STEEM" does it mean they accepted STEEM directly? Or you had to convert STEEM to fiat to pay them ?
I am triggered hahahahah.. no just kidding.. now I need to go see the face I made in the video :P .. Well it kinda makes sense ( I hope ) in the album as this song should kind of meld to the next one , I hope I can pull that off .. if not... a quicker fade out and BOOM! :D
I'm glad it has the ''Hedac Seal of Approval'' ! See why I did not want to mix this myself?? leave the mixing to the pros :D !
And when I say i did not only use STEEM it meant that some of the money used to pay for this did not come from the blockchain itself .. more around 70-80% , the rest I covered by doing some extra work here and there . Oh .. I WISH the studio accepted the STEEM directly but no.. Steem to Fiat then pay :P .. we'll see if we get there at some point !
Un abrazo!
Disfruté enteramente toda esta publicación Pechi, muchas gracias por mandármela de verdad. Toda la historia que hay detrás de este primer sencillo extraoficial hace que tenga un significado mucho más especial para todos nosotros los que te apoyamos y te queremos.
Musicalmente hablando, el arreglo me ha encantado, sobre todo el piano. Todos los adornos, las escalas, los pequeños motivos que repite y dan mucho color al tema. También me gustó mucho el arreglo vocal en esos sitios específicos que aumentan intensidad de todo sin saturar ni salirse de la estética de un tema que siento que da la bienvenida a un maravilloso viaje musical. Lo único que tal vez sentí que estuvo un poco desencajado, fue en sintetizador al final, tal vez un poquito largo para mi gusto, pero leí por ahí que ese toque conectará con el segundo track del tema, si es así pues no se diga más!
Un aplauso de pie hermanazo y de nuevo gracias por darnos este adelanto. Sé lo que significa para un músico esa clase de gesto.
Muchas gracias querido Miguel y perdoname por demorarme en responder.. te agradezco mucho el haberte detenido a escuchar los detalles del tema y me hayas dado esa descripcion , realmente significa para mi mucho !
Si , lo del synth parece que a uno que otro lo desencajo :D .. en cualquier caso es algo editable muy sencillo jajaja vamos a ver si conecta bien el otro tema o hay q darle un tijeretazo !
Gracias por las palabras de aliento! Te mando un gran abrazo!
Obviously it's not a bad thing to be picky, but this song to me sounds 100% professional, it does not need a damn thing.
Amazing work, amazing song... I'm very proud of you..
Agreed, not even my harmonies, @pechichemena sounds perfect
We are proud of you too
Thank you Irmao , means a lot to me :) <3
<3 I have a ninja plan for Pris harmonies .. I never forgot about you ;) .. mwahahahaha . Much loveeee! @yidneth
A new journey just beginning. Your own new wings are soaring in the right direction. So happy for you, Pechi. It's so cool to see the entire process here, the evolution of a song and a new dream. You know already that I love the song. ♥ Congratulations! I know it will be a huge hit!
Thank you Serena , I know I tortured you over discord with all the corrections and versions hahahaha but thank you for your patience in that :D !
I feel happy to see something new ''being born'' and well.. it's just the start of a new journey :) .. the fact that I could make it happen up until this point makes it a hit for me already!
Thank you for the love! Much Cookies!
Pechi
Muchas gracias querido @kantos por tus lindas palabras! me alegro que te haya gustado y agradezco la atención a los detalles que pusiste :) . Como músico me pone contento que otro músico pueda apreciarlos! un gran abrazo!
¡Felicidades Pechi querido! Sounds beautiful. Your chord choice mixed with your sweet vocal tone make for some super refreshing sounding music. Sprinkle over that your dexterity as a gutarist and it all just shines as a master work. Congratulations and all the best moving forward manito!
Chris hermano! long time no see! thank you for the visit and listen my friend :D !! I'm glad you are still around the Steemit family <3 . Are you on the train of ''Momentos'' ;) ? No pressure though I'd love to share some music with you! That might be the next release ! Te mando un abrazo enorme !!
Always! Let's go!
Maravilloso trabajo, desde ahora tienes una seguidora màs
muchisimas gracias! :D me alegro que te haya gustado ! un abrazo!
Big ups nice studio
Thank you very much :) . It is indeed a nice one.. i wish it was mine :P
This is a lovely song. It is so soft. You have a softness and calmness in your voice. I would hate to see you get upset! Don't ever stop playing. You have so much talent, such a great gift. xx
hahaha .. thank you Foxy <3 ! Well.. it is very hard to upset me.. but I can be scary when I am upset... maybe good time to record metal riffs? hahahaha ! Thank you for listening Foxy! Much Hugs!!!
oooo upset metal riffs? Interesting :D I'm for that ;) Lots of hugs to you as well <3
La canción es hermosa, la producción excelente y me encantó eso de ver el proceso desde el openmic hasta la versión final. Todo con un acabado totalmente profesional.
¡Felicitaciones!
Muchas gracias querido @ylich por el comentario :) ! me alegro mucho que te haya gustado ! ciertamente me ha tomado tiempo que esté terminada :) ! Trabajando en el resto del disco!
Un gran abrazo!!
Pues espero tener la oportunidad de escuchar el disco completo, pues me gusta mucho el trabajo que haces.
Un abrazo para ti.