On November 6th, “TIEMPO”, A new Album for Joaquin Berrios was released on our Youtube channel and finally on the 15th to all streaming services.
We did chat with the Composer and here is our conversation…it’s worth your TIME to read.

Hey congratulations on your new work! it certainly has been a very prolific year!

JB:Yes! Indeed it has! This is the Third Album that I published in 2024…”The One” My “Musical Documentary” about Trump’s first Term in office…an Album with Twenty five songs!…worth about three LPs with my regular standards (laughs); Then came “War”, some sort of epilogue to “The One”, this time directed to the Biden-Harris administration…and now, TIEMPO…a letter to Life, The acknowledging of Time, and our brief stay on Earth.

I see that you had a departure from the political writing that characterized the las two albums.

JB:Well…It’s true that this time I went back to the introspective trips that characterized most of my music, though, in reality, I think, we humans, are political animals…whether you are inside or outside of society you are part of it.
there’s this infallible connection with our fellow human beings, and as so, it translate into different views or approaches to the “common good”…Politics.
What I’m trying to say, is that there’s always an inherent personal perspective of this “common Good”. Even in this introspective album, as you probably already heard, there are this passages where I refer to the “Cerdos/ Puercos”…those are a direct reference to the Pigs described in George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm”. You know…even the best intentions get lost in Greed’s Web, and right now, we do have a rampant inequality running around in our civilization.

A big departure from your last works is that this time you chose to sing in Spanish!

JB:Yeah! It was a conscious decision. After many years writing in English…I wanted to go back to my mother language…I wasn’t easy.
Singing in Spanish, probably because is my mother tongue, has something that feels in your face…very textual. At least for me, in English, there’s always this kind of ambiguity, like words are a little farther from your…face(Laughs)
Before I started writing the lyrics of Tiempo, in a sort of unconscious way, while driving in the city, I started looking for inspiration. I reached out to childhood memories and re-visited Chilean Folk Singer Violeta Parra. and from the other side of The Andes, Charly Garcia…very different approaches to songwriting, but non the less , two great referents of Latin American writers, that I could relate to.
Do not know if this Car sessions made a difference in my own writing, but was a great feeling going back in time and listen to the classics from my youth.
On the more Musical side, it’s worth mentioning, that also from the other side of The Andes, Argentina, I did re-discovered Master Astor Piazzolla. He did fusion popular Music (Tango) with the traditional classical school…This has been a dream of mine since I have memory… to create Rock music within a classical framework. Expand Rock harmonies and rhythms with an Impressionistic/modern taste…inspired with my Idols Ravel, Stravinsky…write music for a basic 4-5 Piece Rock Ensemble…of course, there are many musicians already doing this, and the whole progressive rock movement form the 70’s also attempted to fusion this styles to some degree…tough I think they were more inspired in the Classical masters like Bach, Mozart…etc. I’m coming from a different angle. I believe that “classical” music kind of lost it’s way prioritizing cerebral conjectures over rough instincts. Well…Rock is fundamentally based on this rough instincts…I want the full range of harmonies and metrics to come from our gut. Like Elvis shakes his pelvis to Rock’n Roll…we should shake ours to a cluster of notes over a 11/8 meter…or some like that.

Are you satisfied with this project…do you think you achieved or got closer to the aforementioned goals?

JB:yeah. I’m pretty happy with the results. I actually played the Piano free of preconceptions and did respect the initial spontaneous music choices I made, all the way to Mixing time. It was s hard sometimes to stick to the program… but I’m super Happy that I did. I think that there are in there some really fresh sonic passages.

On that note…a couple of things that call my attention…first, that there’s no Guitar!? and second, the participation of Roma, your youngest daughter in the Album!

JB:Well, with respect to the first part of the question, Yes, I did indeed ban the Guitar this Time. It was tuff to leave my trusty Black Beauty (Gibson Les Paul) out of the picture. She’s been present in all of my albums, save the “Big Bang Boom”, a recording from 1991, where, by the way, you may find many of the elements present in this last work…full cycle.

The decision to leave my guitar out, was primarily due to the gentle guidance of my Mother. For this Album, she was my producer…never imposing ideas but lovingly steering my search. She really wanted me to showcase the Piano in this work. Guitars usually take a big chunk of the Midrange in a Mix…I’m grateful that took my Mother’s advice and gave ample space for the Piano, Drums and Bass.

I must say the leaving guitars out, was also a measure of efficacy, for I had the self-imposed deadline of having the Album out by my Birthday…November the 6th. The Guitar parts would had taken me many days of writing, practice and recording.
I really wanted a fresh sound, and changing just this sonic element, I believe, gave me just that.

And about Roma?

JB:Roma is an extremely talented little girl. she’s a great writer in her own right…I’m sure that soon enough you’ll be able to hear her own compositions….
I’m always after contrast in my Music…being the dynamics or sound textures…what can be more dramatic that the juxtaposition of her angelical voice against my screams! (Laughs).
Also, her range allowed me to incorporate melodies that otherwise would had been impossible for me to reach. I’m really grateful for her help and unique voice in the creation of this piece.

The album talks about Life and Death. Beginnings and Ends…the tired man after a life of experiences and the new human at the start of the journey, Not long ago my Father passed. It is a sobering experience to confront Death up close. You gain perspective and the certainty of a limited Life. I miss him very much but we are all in the same unrelating road…TIEMPO.

Sorry to hear about your Dad. I’m sure he was a great Man.

JB:Yes he was. We, as a family and friends were very lucky to have him. He and Mother gave us Life and showed us the way…this Music is very much inspired in his departure.
The Music video shared in youtube, features many Clocks that my Dad had or gave to us. My brother Pablo, filmed them in our native Chile.

Back to the Music realm…How are you handling your multi-Instrumentalist role in this year’s creations? I mean, you did play all the parts in this Ensemble no!?

JB:Yes I did indeed. It’s been a pleasure and a challenge, specially in this last album, with so many intricate loud and soft passages.
I did composed the music with the “Piano Forte”, and as it’s name clearly state… the range of dynamics and attitude in it’s Sound is huge! This range I had to support and reflect on every Instrument I played.
After the Piano was lay down to track, I decided to record the Drums…being also a percussion instrument and also capable of many dynamics levels made sense to blend the two of them in a unified entity. I really did dig the process…following the phrases and trying to complement the Piano as best as I could…
There were also passages where I allowed my imagination to run free and while performing the Drums, I imagined a solid Bass coming in and I left the piano as just an Aura on top…

What do you mean?

JB:I mean, that I gave free rain to the Drums…created a solid base for the eventual Bass to Jam to!

So after Drums, I imagine next came the Bass?

JB:Yes, the Bass. It would’ve been great to have a professional bassist but like a friend use to say: “if you got the cash you’ve got the Bass” Jajaja (Laughs).
In reality…I did not had the cash…definitely not for such a big enterprise. I had to write the Bass part note by note making sure that I respected the Harmony in the Piano…this led to some very intricate parts…I’d have to pay a professional musician able to read, practice and perform the music to my liking…tat would have been very expensive I think.
Any way, I did write the parts and practice them a lot. Since I’m also the recording engineer…I could play passages that were specially difficult individually as may times as It was necessary.

Yeah, you do were many hats in your productions…impressive to say the least!

JB:Yes, many hats…it’s a good thing because I’m in charge of every detail, and being the obsessive person that I’m, I do not make anybody else crazy…I stress out all by myself (Laughs).
By the same token, It’s also bad, because I sometimes spend long hours in little details, that maybe no one else will notice…but well…what can I do…I do notice them.
The other aspect of been a self sufficient lone wolf, is that it’s fiscally demanding…mostly recording drums!
I came up with this system, where I added 30-40 sec in front of the session, so that I’d have time to engage Protools recording and run to the Drum set…wait for the click and go. Sometimes due to computer crashes, the recording fail many times in one song and I had to run back and forward every time to get it done…takes lots of stamina! (Laugh) Also if you listen carefully, in some quiet passages you can hear the click track leaking from my Headphones…When I got to the mixing stage…it was too late…drum mics were long gone.

What about the Vocals?

JB:Well, again, like I did with the bass, I followed that Harmony and melodies inside the Piano part…some weird stuff in there (Laughs).
Once I figured the notes I searched for their meaning and form the melodies you can hear now. After that I wrote the Lyrics

Anything you want to mention about the Mixing process?

JB:There wasn’t much to do this time. I treated the ensemble like a live organism and respected the natural relationship created with the honest performances. Did use very little compression in general, tough automation is my friend when it comes to melodic instruments. I think this album sounds great! if I may say so. I’m proud with the sonic results.

Thank you so much for your Time…no pun intended…Any final words?

JB:You know…the older you get…the more valuable Time seems to be…it happens to everything the less there is of it…the pricey it becomes.
We really should try to live the present to the fullest. Everything disappears in time. The clock never stops…until it does.