III.
Night
This was our very comfortable and inspiring home turned into a studio. Food to your left; in the middle the mojo; and to your right, Diego. The guy that’s always smiling. The couch was strategically positioned so we could all chill and work in the same area.
Efficiency was key!
First, we set up. Well, not really. First we untangle the cables…
Ideas were presented by everyone and explored by the rest. We all had different strengths that allowed this project to flow with ease. Fabian and his Apollo interface, was ready to capture and enhance every good motif we thought of. From this point we just kept adding layers and building texture, only looking back when it was absolutely necessary.
Our warmest company in the ‘studio’ were Grumpy Cat and a portrait of Michael being a young stud. In moments of despair, a quick glance at Michael’s portrait was enough to get you back on track. That really is a solid pose.
Diego and Michael brought a lot to the table with their greater knowledge of theory and progressions. They sat together on the couch, with a piano in one hand and a guitar in the other. Through trial and error they tried out different chords in different styles, analyzing the feel we were trying to achieve and how the vision could be executed. This created lush progressions in the final song and incredible transitions in all the rest.
Sounds spawned from all places. If you haven’t noticed already, one of them was the sink. We recorded the sound of running water for white noise and ended up side-chaining it to the bass for effect in the background of one of our tracks.
"THE COCKROACH BAR"
After long periods of work, we’d reward ourselves with a night out.
On an occasion we visited the towns notorious dive bar, “Bar Cucaracha” or
When our sobriety slipped from our hands, we’d roam the streets with silly new eyes,
joining the narrow reality of the streets of San Miguel.
A theme we continued to gravitate towards was water. The slightest coincidences gave subtle hints that water was indeed going to be a reoccurring theme. For instance, in Fabian and Michael’s socks. Just check out those waves!
We recorded the sound of rain dropping on this lamp. We ended up using it as a snare for one of our songs. The background noise served as a beautiful splashy wash for the song.
Going out again to get some creative juices flowing... Also party the heck out of the town!!
This is Michael. Our dearest host and chef of the week. Michael's home in San Miguel de Allende was the safe haven for this isolation. His main instrument is the guitar. A Mexican/American amongst the other Mexicans of the project. Amongst the melding of minds in the project, Michael's interest lied in songwriting. He provided lyrics, arrangement ideas, lead vocals and catchy guitar riffs.
This is Diego. His principal instrument is piano. Because of this he contributed many of the keyboard, synth parts, and backing vocals. He has a particular interest for composition. He proposed many chord progressions with particular voicings and suggested using irregular time signatures which provided an interesting effect.
This is Fabian. Official beat maker and producer of Dusk Stays. His strength lies in production. He enjoys experimenting with production, which allowed for very crisp and profound textures. During the early morning sessions, Fabian collected samples from nature and used synth chops to add his aesthetic to the project. Many memories were shared over the music coming from Fabian's old school cassette player.
The notorious Che; our companion and musical instrument. One of the kick drums of our tracks is a sample of us tapping his tummy.
Disclaimer: No animals were hurt or injured during the recording of this EP.
