HERE AND NOW

Songwriting

I wrote this song in September of 2013 as an exercise that my producer told me to do. We had just met for a short time until then, but he had already noticed that my songwriting methods were particularly unusual since I would start writing the lyrics first and add the chords later, so he proposed to try it the other way around, that is to say, starting to play the guitar chords and adding the lyrics later or simultaneously. 

Invaded by that enthusiastic spirit that I was feeling back at that time, thanks to the idea that making music for real was becoming true, I did what he told me to, and Here and Now was created in less than an hour, melody and lyrics as well. I remember that the first stimulation to start writing the song was a purple sky I could see from the window of the flat I was living in back then… so placing an E minor chord with my fingers on the guitar strings, I started to sing: “Purple lights in the sky, butterflies in disguise…”  and developed the rest of the song very rapidly. 

Developing this song was quite easy because it is structurally and melodically simple; actually, it is a very simple song in general terms of songwriting, although this does not necessarily mean that it is a superficial song. In fact, I would say that, despite the simplicity of the structure, the song is very effective the way it is and it feels to me as if the final result could not have been any other way. You may like it or hate it, but this song was born to be this only way. I personally like the lyrics very much, with all the abstraction and mystical concepts, I think it is still easy for anyone to understand the message. A clear example of how applying the “less is more” rule can sometimes improve a song rather than spending hours searching for complicated melodies or lyrics.

By the way, I would like to mention that the final rap of the song was an idea of the producer. I wasn’t very sure in the beginning but I really like it now. The time is now to make this kind of experimentation, after all.

Production

The demo of the song was always pretty clear. Still, I wanted the song to have a distinguishable touch and that’s how the idea of the pizzicatos came to me. The producer did a great job creating the intro and the guitars, although I didn’t want the song to be so rocker at first. But in the end, the guitars were essential to turn the song into a more powerful one. Vocally, it is one of the best songs that I have ever recorded, in my opinion. I’m starting to like the tone of my voice a little more as time goes by, so I guess that this has to be noticed when I’m singing, that I do it more fluently, or, at least, that’s what I’d like to believe.