Riff Raff

This was one of the first songs I recorded — a simple rock & roll track with an AC/DC-style intro. It was also one of my first real experiments with the Boss Loop Station (RC-2) and the Line 6 BackTrack working together, layering guitars while the drum beat and second guitar kept repeating.

The bass lines and synthesizer were recorded with the microKorg in-line, and the lead guitar was recorded from air into a Tascam DP-004.

Dreamer

I created this song right after getting my Strat in 2009. Those clean single-coil pickups practically forced these chords out of me. The progression has a floating, wave-like feel, with a soft melody that comes and goes.

The inspiration was Tommy Bolin's "Dreamer" — and the funny part is we both played the exact same guitar.

Simon

This one started as a joke. I bought a Strat for my son and, while testing it, came up with these riffs as a simple baseline to practice. I ended up using it so often as a warm-up that I decided it deserved a full song.

This could easily be a Satriani-style backing track. And yes, the harmonizer is absolutely being abused here, but that's half the fun.

Hello

I borrowed the base arpeggios from a YouTube guitar version of Evanescence's "Hello," then modified the chords enough that it became my own version.

Hello ended up with around 12 tracks, which means I had to bounce tracks repeatedly on the tiny DP-004. That was around the time I realized I needed a real bass and more recording space.

Piccadilly is a Circus

The voice at the beginning is my 5-year-old, and for some reason I decided that was the right moment to add lyrics and sing a few lines. I started working on this after coming back from London, where I had a chance to see my great old friend Jorge "George" C. — an incredible guitarist from our Buenos Aires rock-band days in the 90s.

This song is dedicated to him. I believe it was one of the last songs where I used the RC-2, with two different loops switching back and forth.

Bigg's Song

This was a hard one. I wrote it in memory of troubled teens, using lyrics adapted from the blog posts of a South Florida teenager who died from a drug overdose in front of a live webcam audience.

I cut and reshaped some phrases to make them fit the music, but the point was the same: grief, regret, and the weight people carry when no one sees it.

Buenos Aires

After coming back from Buenos Aires in April 2010, I started working on this song. By this point the bass was a real Fender Precision, and the drums were programmed on the Alesis. I used a lot of harmonizer and layered guitars across this 8+ minute piece.

I was trying to capture a gray city — all concrete and buildings, streets going dim after 5 p.m. — but still with the charm that makes Buenos Aires feel like its own kind of European city.

Amanda

"Amanda" is Boston's song from Third Stage (1986), but this is my own version. I used a 6-string acoustic with flanger and chorus to compensate for not owning Tom Scholz's kind of 12-string texture.

My original version used the Digitech Vocalist 2 to create the chorus. But when I recorded the voice, it sounded awful. My friend Jorge told me to kill the effect and just overdub the vocals properly — so I did.

Bio

I grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to the US in 1999. I played piano since I was 6 and guitar in my early teens. Never took a single class of either instrument. At 15 I started singing classical as a baritone, studying opera at the Teatro Colón. At 22 I quit opera but was already singing in R&B bands. Then came Rock & Roll bands until 25.

College and work got in the way, and I stopped playing for many years. Eventually I came back and transformed my home office into a studio. I played all the instruments and recorded everything on Tascam porta studios.

Gear: Fender Strat, 6-string acoustic, Epiphone Les Paul, Yamaha RBX170 bass, Boss pedals (MT-2, CH-1, BF-3, PS-5, DD-6, RC-2), Dunlop Hendrix wah, Tascam DP-004 & DP-008, Yamaha YDP, microKorg, Fender Twin 65, Peavey 112 Bass, Alesis SR-16, EV Cobalt mic, Digitech Vocalist 2, Line 6 BackTrack.