RUN LOLA RUN Tribute

I don’t exactly remember how I came across this movie but I think it happened when I was preparing the Research Project about Donnie Darko while searching for movie references in which the time travel topic would be present. I remember reading discussion forums about the movie where people talked about other films that could have similarities, and there were a lot of interesting films that I discovered thanks to that. The Butterfly Effect and Run Lola Run were the ones, in which the topic appeared, that I decided to include in the movie references section of the project, although both movies are different from Donnie Darko about the way in which the characters can freely travel across the time, getting different chances, while the protagonist of the other one can’t do that since he is being conducted by design.

Aside from the time travel topic and now speaking more concretely about Run Lola Run, there are a lot of factors that give this movie sufficient potential, not only as a cult film but as a movie that can satisfy any kind of audience. First of all, it is entertaining as hell, due to the amazing editing and diverse visual concepts that give the narration agility. The music (both score and soundtrack) fits perfectly in with the frames. Then the script, despite its simplicity, is very original, and the characters and dialogues are very interesting. Finally, the whole idea of what repercussions our actions may have depending on the right or wrong time and space, with all its philosophical and existential messages, turns out to be very effective. It’s nothing exceptionally new but, when told in the right way and with adequate treatment, it never gets old. As I said, I think that it’s a movie that most people can be fond of and there’s no doubt about its deserved cult title consideration. If you like cult movies, you cannot miss this one!

It was pretty clear from the beginning that I would choose the song Faith In Chaos for this video tribute. Both movie and song share the same countdown idea and even the same artwork concept: in the lyric video of the song, there’s a clock whose needles advance rapidly just like it happens with the ones in the clock that appears in the movie's opening. 

In this case, I think that this is one of the most coherent video tributes I’ve made with a song of mine as the musical background. The music and lyrics match pretty well the spirit of the movie.

THESIS

The possibilities of applying a concrete thesis to this movie are multiple, as many as the choices the characters have to face along with the story. I like this idea that comes reinforced at the beginning of the movie by the initial quotation and subsequent voice-over monologue, in which the narrator tells us how a question leads to an answer that will lead to another question and so on, but they’re all the same thing in the end. I think that the thesis has clearly something to do with that. It has to do with fate and coincidence and it could even refer to parallel universes. The clearest thing is that one of the main points is how powerful our choices can be, affecting anything around us and changing everything in time or space. So, as a thesis for this movie, I’m just going to mention the famous butterfly effect quote extracted from the Chaos Theory.

It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.

ALBUM RECOMMENDATION (Belén Arjona - O Te Mueves O Caducas)

In the beginning, the Spanish singer Belén Arjona was unfairly compared to Avril Lavigne because she used to wear similar clothes as Avril’s and make a supposedly reminiscent music style too, so it was said that Belén was like some kind of copycat wannabe. I think that both are great and unique in their own style, though. Belén Arjona released another two great solo albums after that and then took part in different bands as the main vocalist and songwriter as well. I’m not really aware of what she’s doing right now but I think that she’s still involved in music and I hope that she keeps going that way because she’s amazingly talented. However, I still believe that her best works were her first two albums, Infinito, which was the second one that she released, and this other one I’m going to write about. The first Belén Arjona album titled O Te Mueves O Caducas, which could be literally translated as something like “If you don’t move, you’ll expire”, was one of my favorites that I would usually listen to for my teenage years and it is still, in my opinion, one of the best feminine pop-rock albums ever made in Spain. What I really love about this album, aside from the great vocals and rocker guitars, is the messages of the lyrics and the abundance of the social criticism in them. From the introductory track, Sangre En La Nevera (Blood In The Fridge), Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know a la Spanish, passing through the LGBT rights vindictive’s Somos Diferentes (We’re Different), or Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), against domestic violence, until the last song, El Show De Terrorvisión (Horrorvision’s Show), a critique of trash TV. There are also powerful ballads such as La Distancia Siempre Es Una Maldición (Distance Is Always A Curse) or the emblematic Si No Estás (If You’re Not Here), with little gothic touches and beautiful piano. There’s even room for philosophical messages with songs like La Diosa Del Abismo (Goddess Of Abyss) or Solo Sé Que No Sé (I Know That I Know Nothing), referencing the famous Socrates quote. Each and every track is just amazing. To summarize, a must for any feminine pop-rock music lover. 

Favorite songs: Sangre En La Nevera, Somos Diferentes, Si No Estás, Loca, La Diosa Del Abismo and La Distancia Siempre Es Una Maldición.

FAITH IN CHAOS

I emerge from the dark

Like a child into the wild

Taking consciousness inside

Dignity is on demand

When everything seems just a lie

And you get lost into the night

When life becomes an uphill climb

That’s right when you have to try          

                                                                                                                                                                          MIMIC, Faith In Chaos

Songwriting

When I had this blurry idea of making an album all written and performed by myself, I had already written down some of the songs or concepts such as titles, melodies, and lyrics, but it wasn’t until I started to write this song that the whole purpose began to take shape. Everything began with those first two verses, which I randomly decided would be part of a song titled Faith In Chaos, giving the album the main title too. This title, which is a tribute to the movie Pi that was subtitled with the very same words, was the first and clearest thing about this musical project, not only because of the appeal these two opposite concepts provoked in me but because it described almost perfectly the current situation I was facing back then. I was taking consciousness of how important opening my mouth to sing was and how much I wanted to tell the world.

As I went advancing in the concept of the whole album, I thought of this song as a sum of the most important messages that are present in all of the other songs and that’s the direction I followed to develop the structure. There are references in the lyrics to the existentialism of The Quest!on or the self-determination of The Wall, for example. The rapid tempo of the melody almost obligated the lyrics to make a reference to what I first described as “the speed of life” and ended being “haste of life” in one of the lines, and that’s one of the main points of the song: this one-way ticket we take in life as a countdown, without any possibility of turning back.

I’d say, though, that the most important message of this song has something to do with the duality between heart and mind that every human being in this world has to deal with. I’ve always thought that love is overrated and we have the easy proof of that checking the type of songs that do well in the charts, rather romantic than vindictive. That’s why I wanted this album to be the opposite thing to that. However, what I really want to express with this song is kinda contrary to my beliefs. I think that love may not be the most important thing in life or, at least, not the only important thing, but it is still very necessary nowadays. We listen to those songs and brag about how beautiful love and relationships are but we don’t follow our hearts in real life. We just make-believe we do when we are actually analyzing anyone around us all the time, guided by selfishness not to get supposedly hurt. We are afraid of true love and that’s what I wanted to report with this song. I think we should feel more and think less in order to fight the chaos and contradictions we are facing in this mad world.

Production

This is the last song that has been recorded for this album and is the last one on the tracklist as well. I’m very proud of the song as a songwriter and I love the instrumental very much, but I do have to admit that I’m not so proud of the voice here. We recorded the song twice and the final result is better than the first one but I still think that it could have been much better. However, I believe that part of the enchants of music and life lies behind imperfection sometimes and I also get more satisfaction in learning and improving little by little than getting everything perfectly done immediately.   

AMERICAN BEAUTY Tribute

I remember that when American Beauty came out in the theaters, there were a lot of people who talked about it in a good way, though I did not have the pleasure to watch it and discover why until a few years later since I was more interested in horror movies and that was the genre I would usually choose when going to the theatre back then. I don’t exactly remember when I first watched the film but  I guess it was when I was 16 or 17 more or less. What I do remember is that the teacher I was working with on my Research Project, which I did about the movie Donnie Darko, told me to watch it as a reference because he found some resemblances in both movies.

American Beauty is a critique of the so-called American Dream and the cracks behind this idealized concept but is certainly much more than that. It contains a lot of philosophical and universal messages thanks to an excellent script, which I consider one of the best ever written in cinema history. The character’s backstory and development, as well as the dialogues and the situations that take place along the story, are perfectly located in order to lead us to the climax. Everything in the script is perfect and it helps to improve the directing and performances, which are also excellent, not to mention the beautiful and delicate score that gives each scene the right emotion. The greatest thing about the movie is that you always learn something new no matter how many times you watch it and that only happens with really good movies. 

For the video tribute to this movie, I used the song The Difference. It seemed pretty adequate to me to use a song about repression and hypocrisy to accompany the images of this story. Although the film has certain mysticism that the song lacks, I still like how the lyrics fit in with the characters and some situations.

THESIS

There is a lot of thesis in this movie. We could talk about repression, hypocrisy, madness, fate, beauty, life… As I said, it’s a marvelous script in which lots of themes are mixed together. But the main point of the movie is, in my opinion, this idea that there is life beyond the material and a benevolent force that makes life beautiful even with the sordid things. This comes reinforced by the character of the young teenage boy and the famous “bag scene”. In the end, it’s like an ode to our existence and a metaphor for fate and the impossibility to predict the future.

The decisions we make in the present implicate ironic consequences in the future.

ALBUM RECOMMENDATION (Alanis Morissette - Under Rug Swept)

The first Alanis Morissette album I ever bought was So-Called Chaos and I liked it pretty much but it took me a little effort to get introduced to her musical universe at the beginning. It wasn’t until I bought this one, Under Rug Swept, that she caught my attention as a reference so that I could realize what an amazing songwriter and talented singer she is. I love her melodies and her voice very much but what I admire the most about her is her capacity to create easy-to-relate lyrics without needing to use typical metaphors or poetic words. There’s some science in her lyrics and I really like that. I like how words such as consciousness, orgasm, or democracy can fit in her structures and sound beautiful still. Another important factor that makes her songwriting so special is that she is very honest and sensitive and you can feel the strong emotions behind her songs in her voice and lyrics. At the same time, she is very self-deprecating and down to earth so everything in her works ends up being very coherent as a whole. Most people say that Jagged Little Pill is her best album and I can understand why. That album was like a fresh explosion of rage and it had a great impact in the 90s but with all due respect, I prefer her most pop-rocker side with albums like Flavors Of Entanglement or this one, which I’d claim is my favorite of her. From the introductory song, 21 things I want in a lover, a list of preferences about relationships with a very explosive rocker and catchy melody, until the last one, Utopia, a ballad in which her voice sounds beautiful and sweet. If you like elegant feminine pop-rock music with strong and deep messages in the lyrics, you will absolutely love this album!

Favorite songs: 21 things I want in a lover, Hands Clean, Unsexy, A man, You owe me nothing in return, and Utopia.

THE DIFFERENCE

SONGWRITING

When I started to make music and produce my songs, I just had this feeling that people were lying to me because I uploaded a lot of demos on Facebook and Youtube but nobody liked or commented on them and when I asked some of those people personally about the songs, it was like something uncomfortable that they didn’t want to deal with. I always thought it was because the voice sounded out of tune or maybe because they simply did not like it but there was still something weird about the whole situation. Sometimes it even seemed as if they were afraid. Even if they didn’t like the music, the voice, or whatever, I could not understand why they were not sincere about it and express their opinion, since they knew I would not have gotten offended if things were said in a respectful way. That’s how I started to develop the idea behind this song: The Difference.

The song was originally written with the intention of expressing this demand for honesty, screaming out loud to the world that I was not willing to stand for any of those people wanting to shut my mouth and that I was not going to keep any kind of envy or selfishness from fighting for my dreams. But the real meaning of the song goes further…

The Difference is about this lack of coherence we are all inevitably going to experience in life. The impossibility of wearing someone else’s shoes, the unbreakable duality of existence. We decode the mystery of the universe, the meaning of it doesn’t make sense anymore. We prove the existence of God, God stops existing. The more we know the truth, the more it turns against us. A song against labeling people being a label in itself.

I started writing the bridge and both lyrics and melody came at the same time. Then I added the verse, which was a little different lyrically in the beginning, and finally, I added the chorus, which melody came from a song I wrote when I was 15. I’d say that it’s not one of my best compositions but I like the fact that it ends up being pretty effective with all its simplicity. Less is more, as they say.

PRODUCTION

Once again, I recorded the song twice. The lyrics are a little dark but the melody of the song is very happy and catchy, so we raised the tone of the song so that the voice would sound brighter. I really like the final result and I would say that it’s one of my favorite songs vocally speaking.

FIGHT CLUB Tribute

Fight Club is not only another very well-shot movie with excellent cinematography or script from the great David Fincher, it is much more than that… It’s a movie that, aside from being all metaphoric but very explicit at the same time, causes the spectator multiple feelings and emotions. You can love it or hate it but it doesn’t cause you any type of indifference. 

As I said, there’s no doubt about the talent that David Fincher has to manage to create perfect shots beautifully colored and coherent with the content, just like it usually happens in most of his movies, but the greatest thing about this movie is its capacity of transcending and being universal without needing extraordinary characters or sceneries, meaning that they’re all common and decadent but that’s what makes them special. With all their gloom and pathos, they are superheroes in the end.

There are tones of black humor and the dialogues are so peculiar that you never know what to expect. The whole story in itself is very extravagant and unbelievable and, although you may not understand what’s going on most of the time, you can follow it easily because the narrative is fluent and catches your attention. Obviously, a second watch is necessary to understand the movie better but this is one of those films that captivate you enough from the very first time to keep on watching without understanding exactly what is all about. I think it can be considered a masterpiece and, of course, it is one the clearest examples of what a cult movie is.

THESIS

I think this movie is a critique of violence and how competitive and cruel society has ended up turning to be nowadays. There are a lot of references to consumerism and shallow advertisements and the “fight club” concept in itself, as well as the great ending of the movie, can be a metaphor for how the destruction of standards and labels is sometimes necessary to build a better world. 

The consumerist society we are living in and its standards of perfection are nothing more than an illusion we have created so that we don’t need to face the real truth about what really matters in life.

ALBUM RECOMMENDATION (PJ Harvey - Stories from the city, stories from the sea)

I remember buying this album in Carrer Tallers after having just moved to Barcelona when I was 18 and it was one of the greatest surprises of my life. I had only listened to White Chalk before, which was a very different album, kinda slow, so I didn’t expect something so rocker when I started listening to Stories from the city, stories from the sea. I was really impressed by the energy of the album from the very beginning and I also remember feeling very thrilled after having listened to the first song of the album, Big Exit, with those rocker guitars and that final line in which her voice turns extremely powerful. 

I think it is one of the best works ever made in music history and each and every song on the album is amazing, they all could have been a great choice as singles. I still listen to the album today and feel amazed by its perfection. The videos are great too, especially Good Fortune and This Is Love, in which she looks very sexy. 

A masterpiece of female rock music!

Favorite songs: Big Exit, Good Fortune, A Place Called Home, The Whore’s Hustle And The Hustle’s Whore, This Mess We’re In, and This Is Love.

THE WALL

Songwriting

The idea behind this song came after listening to the great song of the 80s Tainted Love by Soft Cell. That catchy and epic melody really inspired me and I wanted to do something similar, so I started to write the lyrics of the verses and later I added the chorus, which was originally the bridge of another song of mine. Writing the songs for this album has been like putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle because I had lots of ideas that I had been accumulating over the years and now they have finally taken shape. For me, singing and writing songs was some kind of repressed desire because I was being bullied in high school and people made me feel like I wasn’t worthy, so I used to spend hours locked in the bathroom listening to my favorite albums and singing along to get rid of my demons but it was something I would always do like secretly and this song is about not willing to repress my instincts anymore. It has a lot to do with this awakening I’ve been experiencing for the past few years in which I’ve started to produce songs and I’ve realized that this is what makes me happy no matter what other people say. I may not be the best singer but I do not give up on trying to improve day by day. Singing is not just a craving for me, it is an essential need like breathing or drinking water and I’ve always had the theory that if you feel it inside and you need to do it, you are a real singer, no matter what other people think. It’s like what Whoopi Goldberg says to one of her pupils in Sister Act 2, quoting a famous writer: “If when you wake up in the morning, you can’t think of nothing but writing, then you’re a writer”. So, with this song, I’d like to give a similar message to those people who feel the same way about singing and encourage them to never give up on what they like doing only because some other people criticize it, because criticizing is an easy thing but being brave enough to follow your dreams is what makes the difference.

Production

This song was recorded two times, just like some others on the album, and I like the final result rather than the first one recorded but I have to admit that the voice could sound better, though. It’s a difficult song to sing because the notes of the chorus are pretty high and long but I’m proud, anyway, of the composition in itself and I’m learning little by little to love my voice and its tone. 

500 DAYS OF SUMMER TRIBUTE

I got to know about this movie when I was in Barcelona coursing the third and last year of my cinema degree. The person I was in love with was a big fan of the movie so I wrongly thought it would be a good idea to watch it, not for being a bad movie, but because of the pain this fact implicated. I was being rejected by someone I was desperately in love with, so I guess that somehow I could relate my experience to the main character’s. This made me feel sad and I guess that’s one of the reasons why I couldn't really appreciate the movie and I haven’t watched it since then. Anyway, I have to admit that it’s a great movie and it contains diverse elements that make it very original and different from other romance movies. It clearly wants to destroy the conventional schemes of the typical romantic comedy, being one of them in itself at the same time. I think that it can be considered a cult movie too: the dance scene, the mix between real image and cartoon, temporal jumps in the structure of the script, memorable dialogues and characters, attractive typography… they all combine fluently. I think that it is also a very personal movie, which is very important when you want to make a difference in art because this gives it a unique personality.

For this tribute video, I used the song Numbness, which is about the depression you can get to feel when you are rejected by someone you love. The lyrics mention a bench, just like in the scene in which the main character sits and reencounters the girl, the melancholic music combined with strong scene shots of the movie and, obviously, the fact that this song is about that guy I was in love with and who likes this movie, made the decision of using this song and movie together for the video pretty evident.

THESIS

In this case, the thesis is very clear, though it has a double meaning or interpretation. It is determined at the ending of the movie, as usual, when the main character decides to give love another chance. On one hand, this could be interpreted as self-denial, since the search for the perfect love has always been an idealized concept by most people. On the other hand and with a rather positive lecture, it could mean that love is something we build on little by little and work at constantly and we should never give up on fighting for it. I’d rather believe the second lecture is the right one.

Thesis: Love and relationships will always be a worthwhile experience, no matter how much pain they implicate.

ALBUM RECOMMENDATION (Anouk - Sad Singalong Songs)

I really admire Anouk and I love each and every album she has released, but I think she made a real difference with this one, not only about her own music but about the way it was released and the audiovisual content that accompanied the album. Speaking concretely about the music, this album is 100% conceptual: each song is linked to one another with ambient sounds and all of the songs are sad and melancholic, even mysterious some of them. She is telling us a story about the search for light and happiness, so the tracks go from dark to brighter as they advance until we get to the final song and its epic ending. Everything is very connected, both music and lyrics, and Anouk’s voice sounds amazingly beautiful and full of emotion in every note. She’s proved that she’s great at singing ballads, aside from the rock and roll that she gets us used to. As I said at the beginning, the videos are amazing too and they deserve a special mention. It’s four music videos all connected in between by stories, characters, symbols… the same actors playing different roles, similarly to the American Horror Story Tv show. For me, everything related to this album can be considered a MASTERPIECE. Best Anouk album ever (and it’s hard to choose) and one of the most original and conceptual ideas ever made in the past years.

Favorite songs: All of them!