Thoughts on the release of our new album, Before It's Gone
Before It's Gone, our second studio album, is a conceptual album about time and modern day anxieties
Read on for deeper thoughts, if you just want the promo stuff: Before It’s Gone is OUT - Listen/Stream or buy a copy on vinyl. We are playing release shows in Seattle (may 6) and New York (may 25) & supporting shows in SF & LA
themes & search for connection
Before It’s Gone is out. The album is yours. It is my profound belief that art takes on meaning when it interacts with other humans. Before It’s Gone being released is very special because this is when the music goes on to live not just on my brain, hard drives and test pressings, but amongst us all, in a collective world. It’s yours to listen, dance, cry, sleep or wake to!
Before It’s Gone is a conceptual album about time and how it relates to our bodily existence in world that is both beautiful and in danger. This album is as much for you as it was for us to process the anxieties that come with the “modern world”. The KEXP review of the album put it beautifully “the juxtapositions of their upbeat compositions with often heavy lyrical content allow the listener to dance through processing challenges of the modern world”
Certain themes felt pressing. Such as the fear of a warming planet and a corporate society that doesn’t seem to be shifting fast enough, hyperconnectivity and screen addiction, social media and beauty standards, the numbing of our brain, trust and complacency.
But we discovered during this process that being Latino means you turn to joy for resistance - as dark as the themes get, the music still feels optimistic and joyous. People have asked - why is the album fully in English? How are you embracing your identity?
It just happened to come out in English. Humanity transcends language and this piece of work explores our humanity on the zoomed out lens of a post pandemic world where I stopped purely seeing myself as a Latinx in the U.S. and began seeing my identity as a human on planet earth. Protect Her, the last song on the album, represents this idea for me:
“would you believe, if your body hand wings, in the beauty of this earth we have inherited that we most definitely don’t deserve?”
(I know, it’s a run-on sentence)
The album questions our search for human connection and connection with nature. The reason I started this substack is to further find that connection, not only in music and lyrics but in thoughts and ideas. I struggle with social media posting and “promo” (I genuinely think the algorhythm hates me, my release post was shown to 500 of my 14k followers) I don’t want to “make reels” - the thought of it makes me cry.
Funny enough, I don’t think I’m the only artist who struggles with socials and ironically, searching for connection in the real world is certainly not behavior the dopamine dealing tech apps will reward. (which is what the album urges us all to do)
As part of my resistance, I will continue writing about this album and it’s themes. Alongside endless distraction also comes the notion that relevance only exists in the news cycle - an album that came out two weeks ago is old news. It’s not, let is grow.
Don’t let dopamine culture and endless distraction take the best of your time. Time is precious, think of all the things you could be doing - reading a book, getting some sun, falling in love, breathing fresh air. This IS IT, this is your life. You gotta live Before It’s Gone.
tracklisting
Before It’s Gone
Complacent
Terminal Woes
Strong Emotions
Off The Walls
I Can Trust
Wait In Line
cellphone
Thinking (‘bout you, ‘bout me)
Empty Machine
Protect Her
upcoming shows
Seattle / May 6th / Madame Lou’s
New York (Brooklyn) / May 25th / Public Records
All the album is magical from beginning to end . Congratulations and keep on creating music for ever and ever ❤️