San José, Costa Rica.
February 2005.
Hello and thanks for visiting my website. For you first-time visitors, my name is Federico Miranda, and I'm a guitar player and composer from Costa Rica. I'm a member of the band Gandhi, with who we have recently released our fourth album 'Ciclos'. I'm also working on my first solo recording.
Now I'd like to tell you a bit about what's new for 2005 and what has happened recently.
The solo album:
Ok I've been working on my solo album since last year, and we are like in the middle stage with drums, bass, pianos and rhythm guitars mostly recorded and finished. It's been difficult to work only on this since Gandhi was very active last year playing live and promoting our new CD. Now I have more time and we're working on it, and the goal is to have it ready for release near April this year. The musicians on the recording are the same ones who had been playing with me on the Jazz Cafe live dates: Walter Flores (piano and record co-producer, 3 time Grammy winner with Ruben Blades), Mario Alvarez (out of this world bass), and Gilberto Jarquin (drums, sticks, and weird polyrhythmic stuff).
The album will most likely be called 'Federico Miranda & Baula Project', it will include 10 or 11 tracks some of whose names are: 'Sobre el agua' (over water), 'Noreste' (Northeast), 'Regresión' (Regression), and 'el Nomada' (the nomad). It will also include an electric guitar version of the 'Concierto de Aranjuez' by spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo.
Baula Music:
The album will be released under the label 'Baula Music', which is a label we are starting for the release of this material. Even though it was born as the way to release my music, we will most likely be producing and releasing other artists in the jazz/rock/electronic/classical/fusion/weird combinations styles and genres, and mostly by musicians and artists from Costa Rica and Central America. Besides producing great music, we will try to transmit a message to help preserve the Leatherback turtle, known in Spanish as the 'baula'.
Gandhi:
Mexico, december 2004.. we went to Guatemala and Mexico City and did many interviews and press for radio and TV. We went to Telehit music channel and other important media in the city, promoting the concert on the Hard Rock Live, a 'Pink Floyd as played by Veltons, Atto, Dildo, and Gandhi'. A strange concept, a strange combination, but a cool feeling with cool music. Pink Floyd is our religion and biggest influence, and we enjoyed playing their music maybe even more than we do our own. It was cool to share the stage with our friend and producer Sabo Romo from the Veltons, and with other great musicians as are Atto, Leon Chiprout (from Aleks Syntek y la Gente Normal), Dildo, and all the other musicians. The whole journey was a great experience, we did many new friends and played a very loud and cool mexican audience. We can't wait to go back and play a full Gandhi show.. hope to do that soon.
Gandhi, Ciclos, and the Record Labels...2005: After a brief relationship with BMG (now Sony/BMG), and even though we had been signed to both BMG and Sony in different times in the past, we were recently released by the label, and are now independent and negotiating both licenses and distribution deals with a few independent american and mexican labels. For the first time, we feel this is the way, and we were wrong all along while we were happily signed to 'majors'. The thing is: in a time of music crisis as this is, a small niche-focused marketing strategy and music contect is definitely the way to go, instead of trying to 'catch-all' and sell high volumes to the masses as the majors try and.. fail to, achieve. In the end, we hope, actually we know, it will be for the best.
Our new and third single from the album 'Ciclos' will be 'Sr. Caballero' (Mr. Gentleman)... it's a song whose lyrics and strong music point on the sexist men who attack and take advantage of their women at home. This 'domestic violence' is a huge problem in the Central American society and in the world in general. 'Sr. Caballero' will be part of a huge campaign against violence and illegal weapon possession, and the band Gandhi will be it's messengers to all Central Americans young students and people. The 'weapons, no thanks' ad campaign, begins early this year and lasts until 2006.
Gandhi to the U.S. : we have some possible concert dates in Atlanta in May this year, hope everything goes ok and luck is on our side, if true we'll be playing a few clubs and venues and possibly a rock festival there.
NAMM Show
The NAMM is an annual trade show in Anaheim, California, where musical instruments manufacurers show their new products and buyers look and select new products for their stores. Artists of every area go and do product demonstrations and concerts to show the products and gather the people's attention.. it is a very cool happening since you get to meet many important artists.
It was my first time at NAMM, and besides checking new equipment and meeting some new people, I wanted to personally meet the guys at DiMarzio pickups, especially Steve Blucher, as they endorse me and I'm very grateful to them for their support and I want to give as much back as I possibly can. They had a very cool booth with all their products and new pickups, and big photographs or their most famous endorsers: Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, and Joe Satriani. They were all around and I god to meet some of them. My name even appears on the new catalog. They DO make the BEST pickups, and people who know, know that pickups are a big part of a big sound. I've been using the FRED pickups since about 10 years ago, and now I'm using several cool others as the Air Norton 7, the Pro-track, and the VirtuAL 2. They are all amazing.
I was hanging out at the Ernie Ball/Music Man booth, which had one of the coolest designs, and got to see and meet Albert Lee, Tony Levin, Steve Lukather, and John Petrucci. Tony Levin is the bass player with Peter Gabriel, and to, he is really the best bass player in the world. He was also part of King Crimson and the Liquid Tension Experiment. He's proved to be a great person, very humble. I told him a bit about Costa Rica, who knows, every year more good artists are visiting here either for shows or for vacation. Either way, we would be glad to have him here. Steve Morse came the day after, and I wanted to see him again, as we had met him when my band Gandhi opened for Deep Purple in the Costa Rica show in 1998. He was touring with the Dixie Dregs and the Steve Morse Band, and he's great and cool as always. A great person and always easy to talk to. I couldn't make to the show, but I will do soon, as I love his music. They even got to jam for a few minutes, all of them: Steve Morse, Albert Lee, Steve Lukather, John Petrucci, and Sterling Ball on bass.. or was it a baritone guitar or something.
On january 20th (my birthday by the way), I went to an Eric Johnson concert at the Grove in Anaheim. It was awesome, and he is one of the best players and composers. It was excellent, and the opening act was this guy Willy Porter, who I didn't know, but was amazing. A solo acoustic guitar player and singer, he makes the best music and really connects with his audience. With influences by Michael Hedges.. he is really one of the most interesting artists to 'see' perform. Got to meet him after the show, and he told me he had visited Costa Rica a few years ago on his honeymoon. We hope to have him come to Costa Rica, this time to play his music.
I also got to meet Carina Alfie, an argentinian female guitar player who I had talked to by mail. She's a very fun person and well, it was cool to see some Latin Americans too.. She was playing at the Emerald Acoustic Guitars booth, as they endorse her. She invited me to play for a while and we hung out and met some people. Guillermo Vadala, bass player with Fito Paez, and Andres Gimenez, singer of the metal band A.N.I.M.A.L., were some of her friends at the show. We also met Mike Keneally (guitar player with Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, and Beer for Dolphins), Alex Lagos (UVA instruments), and many others. A few Costa Ricans were there as well, drummer Kin Rivera Jr. and Mario Maisonnave who now lives and performs in Los Angeles. Together we went to the Guitar World Magazine 25 anniversary party at the House of Blues in Anaheim. Zakk Wylde and the Black Label Society performed and blew everyone away.
NAMM was a great experience and well, many new friends and good motivation to keep music in people's lives as much as possible.
Alan Parsons Live Project
Now we (Gandhi) went to see the new Alan Parsons group live, we are all fans of his music and the show was great. The performers were awesome and the sound superb. The sound engineer was Alan Parsons' son, Jeremy Parsons. Drummer/singer Steve Murphy was really outstanding, as he is perfect both as lead singer and as drummer. An honor to have them play here, and it was great to meet all of them after the show. We hope they had a good time in Costa Rica and tell their friends about our country, as we love their music, and we are very grateful when they visit, being it for business or for pleasure. So if they want to come back, and bring David Gilmour and Paul McCartney with them, the people here will treat them the best they can. I must say the new Alan Parsons album is awesome, including the contributions by Gilmour and Crystal Method.
Well, that's it for now, thank you for reading and for writing, drop me a line at fm@federicomiranda.com, and I invite you to check the website, music, and pictures.
Thanks and keep in touch,
Federico Miranda