With Halloween just around the corner I decided to release my original piece, Dia de los Muertos. It's a Nuevo Flamenco style piece in D minor with a slightly eerie quality. I thought it was a perfect fit for the Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead (The popular celebration of the Catholic All Soul's Day dedicated to praying for the deceased) Like the song, it's a little "creepy," but hopefully beautiful.
I wrote and recorded the song in about four hours. I was feeling sick that day, and didn't feel like doing any "real work." First I put down the drum track. This was followed with the synth parts and bass line. Next I layer down the electric guitar parts. There are two electric parts, both with distortion, one which occurs every bridge (aka chorus), and one which only comes in the final time, with giant distorted power chords! After that I recorded the rhythm guitar track on my classical guitar. The whole backing track was now complete, but I still didn't have a melody!
Every song I write comes together a little differently. Sometimes a melody comes first, sometimes chords, or a little background lick. With Dia de los Muertos, the melody grew out of many improvisations against the completed backing track. The final melody and lead part were about the fifth take I did. And it's pretty much recorded straight through (Meaning that I didn't do a lot of editing). I was particularly happy with the way the solo builds and the energy of the piece increases towards the end. Hope you like it, and Happy Halloween!
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